Seguin snaps goal-scoring drought in Stars' loss to Oilers

DALLAS -- Tyler Seguin entered Monday as the Stars' individual point leader with 25 through the first 34 contests. But for 11 straight games, the center had failed to find the back of the net -- one shy of tying his career-long stretch without a goal.
Luckily for Seguin, that changed with his tally late in the third period against the Oilers. Unfortunately for the Stars, it wasn't enough to spark a comeback
On the heels of first-period goals by Zach Kassian and Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton held off a spirited final-minute charge to edge Dallas 2-1 at American Airlines Center, ending their four-game winless skid and snapping the Stars' five-game point streak.

WATCH: [All highlights from Stars vs. Oilers]
"Obviously, (playing) three (games) in four (days) -- there's an excuse in there if you want it, but I still think we had an opportunity to win tonight's game," Seguin said. "It's a team we thought we could have beat, but we had a lot of penalties tonight and maybe a couple of bad bounces.
"We would like to have more shots and contest the goaltender a bit more than we did, but that's hockey sometimes."
The Oilers (19-13-4) got on the board eight minutes, seven seconds in. Connor McDavid caught the Stars puck watching and Ben Bishop leaning the wrong way before sending a superb pass to Kassan, who easily deposited it into the net for a 1-0 advantage.
The Stars had a great opportunity to tie it as they followed the Edmonton goal with a 4-on-1 rush the other way with Seguin, Alexander Radulov, Jamie Benn and Esa Lindell, but failed to get a shot off.

It was just that kind of game for Dallas (19-12-4) as miscues and penalties haunted the Stars throughout the night. They were whistled six times -- five of which were tripping minors -- with the second, a hooking call against Benn, coming back to bite Dallas hard.
The Stars had successfully killed off 41 straight man advantages by opponents at home, but Draisaitl -- the league's second-leading goal scorer behind only McDavid -- put an end to that incredible stretch. After a quick feed from McDavid, former Stars forward Alex Chiasson backhanded a cross-ice pass to Draisaitl, who easily buried it into the open net to double Edmonton's lead.
It wound up being the game-deciding goal.
"We would have liked that one back that we gave up," Stars forward Jason Dickinson said. "We addressed the issue and I think from there, we didn't really give up much on the PK. Obviously, we want to stay out of the box as much as we can against guys like that. ... You don't want to give them too many options. So, I think we handled it pretty well, but we definitely need to stay out of the box."
The Stars scrambled to solve Edmonton's Mikko Koskinen, but by the time Seguin scored on a wrister with 2:37 remaining in the game, it was too little, too late. The Stars fired several attempts in the last minute-plus but never found the equalizer.
"When you don't score goals, you try to make a cute play, and the cute plays don't work -- at least not in this league against anybody," Stars interim coach Rick Bowness said. "Give them credit, they worked very hard without the puck tonight. They were coming back very hard in the D-zone, so give them credit. Give their kid (Koskinen) credit, he made a lot of big saves on us."
That's hockey sometimes.

Fast facts

They said it

"We've struggled in scoring goals since we've been here, there's no secret about that. It's not just the power play as we've been an over-passing team since we got here. It's something we address every day. We can scream all we want, shoot the puck … shoot the puck, but they're going to have to make that decision. The player makes that decision, so we'll just keep harping at them."
-- Bowness on the Stars' power play

"It's getting better and better. It's been pretty good so far. You know, there are little hiccups, as always, but as far as the transition is pretty good."
-- Andrej Sekera on the transition from Bowness to assistant John Stevens overseeing the Stars' defense following last week's firing of coach Jim Montgomery

Up next

The Stars hit the road for a back-to-back against the Lightning on Thursday (6 p.m. CT; TV: FS-SW; Radio: KTCK) and Panthers on Friday before returning home Sunday to face the Flames.
Dallas hasn't defeated Tampa Bay at Amalie Arena since Oct. 2015 and has dropped five straight to the Bolts overall, including a pair of shutout losses last season.
Don't miss your chance to see the Stars take on the Calgary Flames as they return home to American Airlines Center on Sunday, Dec. 22 at 6 p.m. The first 5,000 kids receive a Miro Heiskanen youth jersey presented by AT&T. Get your tickets now!
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Jeff Odom is the manager of DallasStars.com and writes about the Stars/NHL. Follow him on Twitter @jeffodom.