Stars fall short of 'perfect road trip' with OT loss to Islanders

NEW YORK --On one hand, the Stars are pretty pleased with taking five out of six points on a tough three-game road trip through New York.
On the other hand, there was some real concern with blowing a late lead and losing on overtime to the New York Islanders Tuesday night.

WATCH: [All highlights from Stars' overtime loss to Islanders]
Dallas allowed a tying power-play goal with 3:59 remaining in the third period and then gave up a transition goal in overtime to drop a 4-3 contest at Barclays Center. It was a feeling of both certain relief and definite disappointment.
"You're going to sit here and say that five out of six is great, but you just don't like giving up that last point, I'll tell you that," said Stars interim coach Rick Bowness.

The Stars took five penalties, and made several mistakes. While it would be easy to attribute that to weary legs or a tired mind, Bowness said the team knew ahead of the game that being smart was going to be a key. Dallas played at the Devils on Saturday and at the Rangers on Monday. The Islanders were sitting on two days of rest and were clearly energized when they got out to a quick start and dominated the shot clock in the first period.
"We expected to have a slow start, it's our third game in four nights, but we played ourselves through that and we were fine after that," Bowness said of being ties 2-2 after two periods.
But the coach added that they should have known they were going to be challenged in the game, and they could have been smarter in how they handled the puck and how they played defense. Roiope Hintz took a holding and interference penalty. Corey Perry and Radek Faksa took tripping penalties. Alexander Radulov had a slash.
The last call on Hintz was a tough one, as he basically made a tackle with five minutes remaining in the third period.

Dallas was hemmed in its own zone for most of the penalty kill and even got help from a video review for goaltender interference. After the Islanders scored to apparently tie the game, the Stars challenged that Anders Lee was interfering with Ben Bishop, and the review negated the goal. But, New York came right back with more desperation on the power play and finally scored to tie things up.
"You can't beat yourself in that third game," Bowness said. "We had the chance to take six out of six and that's disappointing. Bad decisions, five penalties. You're coming in here taking five penalties and you know you're tired, it's disappointing because it was self-inflicted."
Bishop was spectacular early, but he allowed a soft goal and said he was disappointed on the tying marker -- a great play by Mathew Barzal on a hard rebound off the end boards. Still, he was on board with Bowness that the team can't be taking the penalties they did.
"We took five penalties and the last one came back to bite us," Bishop said. "Normally, we don't take five penalties in a game. You can't give those guys that many looks, and that's what it came down to at the end."

The Stars allowed the opposition to score first for the eighth straight game. That's a concern. Still, they have gone 4-3-1 in those games, so they certainly know how to manage their bad stretches.
"They were doing some really good stuff and we had to simplify a little bit," said defenseman John Klingberg, who had a goal and five shots on goal. "But we made some changes and came back in the game. They were coming after us, that's a really good team over there, they're heavy to play against, and to get one point is a pretty good outcome."
Asked how the Stars are overcoming slow starts to get back into games, Klingberg said it's a lot of things.
"It obviously starts with our goalies, they're making some huge stops and saving us from being down a lot of goals," he said. "But I also feel that if they are really coming after us that we can control their momentum shifts. When we feel like they're coming, we're keeping them to the outside and when they get the middle, our goalies are always stepping up. I just feel like we're keeping to our game plan."

And that can be a good thing. The Stars prefer discipline and control and simplicity, but they also are showing they can live in a chaotic world if they have to. They won against the Rangers that way. They almost won against the Islanders that way.
"We were that close to having a perfect road trip, and if you look at it, I don't think we played (our best) either," Klingberg said. "We feel we can get points playing our B-game."
That said, it would be nice to get back to the A-game with contests against Central Division foes Minnesota and St. Louis on Friday and Saturday.
"It was a great road trip. Three games in four nights up here, and we set ourselves up for three wins. To get five out of six, I think everybody is happy with that," Bishop said. "Obviously, we would have liked to get that extra point, but we just want to refocus and get back to Dallas for an important divisional game."
Don't miss your chance to see the Stars take on the Minnesota Wild when they return home to American Airlines Center on Friday at 7:30 p.m. Get your tickets now!
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heikais a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika, and listen to his podcast.