Stars come up short in special-teams battle, fall 5-2

The Dallas Stars struggles on the road continued in Minnesota on Thursday night. The Stars lost their eighth straight game away from home, falling 5-2 to the Wild at Xcel Energy Center.
The loss was the ninth in the last 10 games overall for the Stars (1-7-2) and pushed them closer to mathematical elimination from the playoff race. They are five points out of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference with four games remaining.
The Stars played well, especially early, but the Wild took advantage of their chances and won the special-teams battle.

WATCH: [All Stars vs. Wild highlights]
"Yeah, it's frustrating," said center Tyler Seguin. "We're frustrated. We've got to find a way to stick with it."
The Stars grabbed an early lead, but the Wild scored shorthanded late in the first to tie the game 1-1, scored on the power play to take a 2-1 lead in the second and then scored again on the power play with 11 seconds left in the second to push their lead to 4-2.
"It's frustrating not to win this game. We know how desperate we had to be," said Stars center Jason Spezza.

"Five-on-five, we did a good job. We controlled the play 5-on-5. We gave up too much on the special-teams end, and it's hard to win on the road that way."
Jamie Benn and Devin Shore scored for the Stars (39-31-8), and Kari Lehtonen stopped 17 of 21 shots.
Matt Dumba had one goal and three assists, and Devan Dubnyk stopped 29 shots for the Wild, who pushed their point streak to seven games (4-0-3) and improved to 42-24-10 on the season.
"I thought we played a solid game," said Wild forward Zach Parise, who scored two goals. "They have some good weapons up front, and we did pretty well."
The Stars struck early to take a 1-0 lead 2:51 into the game. After Wild defenseman Nate Prosser turned over the puck behind his net, Tyler Seguin set up Benn, who scored from the slot.
The Stars came close to extending the lead a short time later, but Dubnyk made a nice poke check to deny a Spezza chance, and then Wild defenseman Gustav Olofsson blocked shot by Star forward Gemel Smith at an open net.

The Stars were 0-3 on the power play in the first, including a four-minute opportunity late in the period when Minnesota defenseman Ryan Murphy caught Stars forward Antoine Roussel with a high stick. But 13 seconds into the first minor on Murphy, Mikael Granlund scored on a 2-on-1 shorthanded rush to tie the game 1-1 at 16:02 of the first.
"That gets the crowd into it and gives us some life going into the second period," said Parise. "That was a potentially game-changing play."
The Wild scored two goals in 59 seconds in the second period to take a 3-1 lead. The first one came on the Wild's first power play. Dumba scored off a blast from the left circle at the 7:19 mark to make it a 2-1 game. Parise extended the lead to 3-1, taking a nifty backhand pass from Granlund on the rush and scoring from close range at the 8:18 mark.
The Stars cut the lead to 3-2 just 1:24 later when Shore redirected a Dan Hamhuis shot from the point past Dubnyk.
But the Wild cashed in on another power play chance late in the second to push the lead to 4-2. After Dubnyk made a save on a Seguin shorthanded chance off the rush, the Wild headed the other way and Jason Zucker tallied with 10.1 seconds remaining in the period.
The Stars had a 13-4 shots advantage in the third but couldn't get another puck past Dubnyk, and Parise sealed the win with a late empty-net goal.

Johns leaves with possible concussion

Stars defenseman Stephen Johns left the game late in the first period and did not return. Stars coach Ken Hitchcock provided an update on Johns after the game.
"He has a concussion possibly, and we'll know more tomorrow," Hitchcock said. "We'll see where he is at."

Notes

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What's Next

The Stars and Wild meet again -- for the fourth and final time this season -- Saturday in Dallas to conclude the home-and-home series. It will be the final home game of the season for Dallas.

Stars Lineup

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

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
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 him on Twitter @StarsInsideEdge.