Stars hit bump in road, fall at Devils

The Dallas Stars hit a bump in the road Friday night in New Jersey, falling 5-2 to the Devils to suffer their first loss in three games on their current road trip.
The Stars, who had given up just three goals in their first two games on the trip, gave up five Friday including three on close-range goals off rebounds.

WATCH: [All Stars vs. Devils highlights]
"We weren't as good in our own end as we have been," said Stars coach Ken Hitchcock. "We weren't as determined. It's a second and third effort league, and we didn't have it in our own zone."
Special teams were big in the game as well. Both teams scored once on the power play, but New Jersey scored the game-winner by taking advantage of three straight penalties on the Stars including a double minor for high sticking. The Stars had a chance to tie the game on a 5-on-3 early in the third but couldn't take advantage despite a couple of superb chances for Alexander Radulov.
"Most of it is on us. We had chances to come back, really good chances. Five-on-three for me and five-on-four we get a lot of chances, but we didn't put a puck in the back of the net," Radulov said. "Then we get scored on. Like the coach said, the way we played in our zone today, we can't do that. All of us, it's just not acceptable."
Radulov scored at even strength, and Martin Hanzal scored on the power play for the Stars, who fell to 18-14-1 on the season. Kari Lehtonen got the start in goal and stopped 21 of 25 shots.
Brian Boyle tallied two goals, including the game-winner, and one assist and Cory Schneider stopped 28 shots for the Devils, who ran their points streak to three games (2-0-1) and improved to 18-9-5 on the season.

"We had a challenge in front of us tonight, and there were times it was going well for us, but we found a way to win," said Boyle.
The Stars killed off an early New Jersey power play and then came close to grabbing an early lead, but a Stephen Johns shot from the slot on the rush hit the crossbar. Just 73 seconds later the Devils took a 1-0 lead when Steven Santini scored off a blast from the point at the 4:28 mark.
The Stars drew even by cashing in on their first power play of the night. With Santini in the box for closing his hand on the puck, Tyler Seguin put a shot on net, and Hanzal's shot off the rebound went in the net off Devils defenseman Andy Greene to make it a 1-1 game at the 6:42 mark.
The Stars had a couple of good chances to the take the lead, but Schneider made a big stop on Stars captain Jamie Benn and then denied a rebound attempt by Tyler Pitlick.
The Devils grabbed a 2-1 lead with 53.5 seconds left in the first. Blake Coleman won an offensive zone draw, went to the net and scored on the rebound of a Greene shot from the left point to put the Devils up 2-1.
The Stars dodged a bullet as the first period was ending. After a John Klingberg turnover, New Jersey's Pavel Zacha put the puck in the net but the goal came just after time expired in the first and the Stars escaped the first period down only one goal.
The Stars held the Devils without a shot for the first 12:14 of the second period and tied the game in the process. Radulov drove down the left boards, cut the net while holding off New Jersey defenseman Will Butcher and then beat Schneider with a backhand shot to tie the game 2-2 at the 8:09 mark.

But the Stars got in penalty trouble later in the period and gave the Devils some life, taking three straight penalties including a cross-checking minor by Klingberg and a questionable high-sticking double minor on Johns. The Stars almost got through it, but Boyle scored with nine seconds left on the third penalty to put New Jersey up 3-2.
The goal was followed by a heated exchange between Boyle and Klingberg, whose cross-check on Boyle started the penalty sequence. Stars defenseman Greg Pateryn jumped into the fray, and Boyle and Pateryn both ended up with minor penalties, and Boyle got tagged with an extra 10-minute misconduct.
"I told him he's 100 pounds heavier than me and I thought he fell easy there," Klingberg said of the exchange with Boyle. "I don't think it's a cross-check. And then after that goal, he [celebrated] in my face and I don't think that was respectful, but he said he was sorry, so let's move on."
There was another scrum at the end of the second, and Zacha picked up the only minor in that one, putting the Stars on a power play to open the third. New Jersey took another penalty early in the third, putting the Stars on a five-on-three power play for 53 seconds. The Stars couldn't cash in but had two great point-blank chances by Radulov, who hit the post on one and was denied by Schneider on the other.
"It was a designed play, and we pulled it off twice. He made a save on one, and we hit the goalpost on the other," said Hitchcock.
The Devils extended the lead to 4-2 at 12:57 of the third period, pinning the Stars in their end of the ice and Nick Lappin scoring off a rebound.
The Stars pulled Lehtonen with just under four minutes remaining for an extra attacker and Benn had a great chance to cut the lead to one, but Schneider came up with a great stop to keep it a 4-2 game. Boyle scored into the empty net with 2:00 remaining to make it a 5-2 final.

Notes

What's Next

The Stars wrap up their four-game road trip Saturday against the Philadelphia Flyers. This will be the first meeting of the season between the two teams. The Flyers (13-11-7) have won five straight games.

Stars Lineup

Remi Elie - Tyler Seguin - Devin Shore
Jamie Benn - Radek Faksa - Tyler Pitlick
Mattias Janmark - Jason Spezza - Alexander Radulov
Antoine Roussel - Martin Hanzal - Brett Ritchie
Esa Lindell - John Klingberg
Dan Hamhuis - Greg Pateryn
Stephen Johns - Julius Honka
Kari Lehtonen
Ben Bishop
Scratched:Jamie Oleksiak, Jason Dickinson, Gemel Smith
Injured: Marc Methot (knee)

Mark Stepneski is an independent writer whose posts on DallasStars.com reflect his own opinions and do not represent official statements from the Dallas Stars. You can follow Mark on Twitter at @StarsInsideEdge.