Stars' power play 'discombobulated' in loss to Columbus

The Dallas Stars' power play started the season on fire, but it's gone cold the last four weeks -- and Monday night, it proved costly. The Stars misfired on four power-play opportunities in a 2-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets at American Airlines Center.
"This was not the result we wanted," said Stars forward Alexander Radulov. "We weren't good on the power play, and that basically cost us points."
The Stars had three chances on the power play in the first period with a chance to take the lead in the game, but they managed just one shot on goal. Meanwhile, the Blue Jackets were able to get off three shorthanded shots on the three Dallas power plays and then cashed in on their first power play of the game to take a 1-0 lead early in the second.
The Stars had another power play late in the third with a chance to tie the game, but they were unable to get a shot on goal.

"I guess the word to describe it is discombobulated," Stars coach Jim Montgomery said of his team's power play. "We weren't together on breakouts. We weren't together on entries. Puck movement and body movement were discombobulated."
The Stars, who scored seven goals on the power play in the first five games of the season, have scored just four over the past 13 games and are 4-for-34 (11.8 percent) during that stretch.
Radulov, who made his return from a lower-body injury, scored the lone Dallas goal. Anton Khudobin got the start in net and turned away 26 of 28 shots for the Stars, who fell to 9-7-2 on the season.
Cam Atkinson had one goal and one assist and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 26 shots for the Blue Jackets, who ran their point streak to five games (3-0-2) and improved to 10-6-2 on the season.

"I thought we defended beautifully in the neutral zone and didn't give them much," said Blue Jackets defensemen Seth Jones. "Not many chances in front of our net, not many odd-man rushes against us."
There was no scoring in the first period. The Stars had three power play chances but couldn't generate anything. The highlight of the period was a spirited scrap between Stars captain Jamie Benn and Columbus forward Josh Anderson.
Columbus went on its first power play early in the second period and cashed in to take a 1-0 lead. With Benn in the box for slashing, Atkinson scored from the right circle at the 1:29 mark.
The Stars killed off two more Columbus power plays and tied the game late in the second. Miro Heiskanen drove deep into the Columbus zone and backhanded the puck to Radulov, who scored from the left circle at the 18:40 mark.
Khudobin came up with a spectacular save on a point-blank bid by Blue Jackets forward Pierre-Luc Dubois at the 9:53 mark of the third to keep it a 1-1 game. But just 28 seconds later, Dubois scored from close-range off a feed from Atkinson to put Columbus up 2-1 at 10:21 of the third.
The Stars went on their fourth power play of the night at the 13:16 mark, but they didn't get a shot on goal. They pulled Khudobin late for an extra attacker, but were unable to draw even and fell to 1-1-1 on their current homestand.

Shore leaves with lower-body injury

Just when the Stars started to get healthier with the return of Radulov, Brett Ritchie, and Roman Polak, another player went down Monday.
The Stars lost forward Devin Shore to a lower-body injury in the first period when he went awkwardly into the boards after getting tangled up with Columbus defensemen David Savard.
"He's going to get an MRI tomorrow," Montgomery said. "We don't think it is anything significant. We think we are looking at a week to 10 days."
Montgomery said that defenseman Marc Methot (lower body) is three to five days away from skating. Defenseman Connor Carrick is expected to be a couple more weeks with a hairline fracture in his foot.

Turning point

The turning point in this game was special teams. The Stars were 0-for-4 on the power play and had just one shot on goal during their four opportunities. The Blue Jackets were 1-for-3 on the power play and they had just one shot, but it went in.
"What it came down to was that we lost special teams. Our power play just wasn't good enough," said Stars center Jason Spezza. "If our power play is better, then we probably leave there getting into extra time, and we see where it goes from there. It's frustrating."

Three stars of the game

Cam Atkinson, Columbus: Blue Jackets forward had one goal, one assist and four shots on goal.
Sergei Bobrovsky, Columbus: Blue Jackets goaltender was solid in net, stopping 26 of 27 shots.
Alexander Radulov, Dallas: Stars forward returned from injury and recorded one goal, five shots on goal and eight shot attempts in 24:16 of ice time.

They said it

"We've played a long stretch of hockey here, we went pretty good, and to end it on a loss definitely is frustrating. We have an important three days here coming up to get back to practice and get some touches in and sharpen up our game heading into six [games] in nine nights."-- Stars center Jason Spezza
"I think overall, everywhere. A loss is always a loss. When you are losing, you can lose like 8-7 or whatever, but it still wasn't enough goals or saves or something like that. Today, it was 1-2. It's a loss, and there is still a lot of work in front of us." -- Stars goaltender Anton Khudobin on what the team needs to work on
"I think by both teams, I think it was a real hard game. It's close to what the game should be played like. You had a good fight, a couple high sticks here and there, scrums, just both teams played hard and didn't give each other many scoring opportunities. It was a fun game to be involved in. It's the hardest we've played, and I give them credit, too, because they were hard to play against." -- Columbus coach John Tortorella

Stat pack

What's next

The Stars close out their homestand Friday when they take on the Boston Bruins at 7 p.m. This will be the second and final meeting between the Stars and Bruins this season. The Bruins won, 2-1, in overtime in Boston last Monday.

Stars lineup

Jamie Benn - Tyler Seguin - Alexander Radulov
Devin Shore - Jason Spezza - Valeri Nichushkin
Blake Comeau - Radek Faksa - Tyler Pitlick
Mattias Janmark - Jason Dickinson - Brett Ritchie
Miro Heiskanen - Julius Honka
Esa Lindell - Ben Gleason
Joel Hanley - Roman Polak
Anton Khudobin
Ben Bishop
Scratched: Gemel SmithInjured:John Klingberg (hand), Marc Methot (lower body), Connor Carrick (foot), Stephen Johns (post-traumatic headaches), Martin Hanzal (back)

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mark Stepneski has covered the Stars for DallasStars.com since 2012. Follow him on Twitter @StarsInsideEdge.