Klingberg scores, but Sens rally past Stars for 4-1 win

The first road game of the season for the Dallas Stars turned out to be a rough one.
The Stars got off to a good start and grabbed a 1-0 lead, but the Ottawa Senators stormed back for a 4-1 victory at Canadian Tire Centre on Monday night.
"I really liked our first period, but then I didn't like us after that," said Stars coach Jim Montgomery. "We didn't play with the same purpose."

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John Klingberg's power-play goal late in the first period staked Dallas to a 1-0 lead and the Stars held that lead until late in the second when the Senators scored to tie the game 19.2 seconds before the intermission. Ottawa then took the lead for good at the 1:27 mark of the third period.

"We shouldn't let that goal in with 19 seconds left in the second period," Klingberg said. "And they had a 2-on-1 with a minute left as well. That should never happen. That goal in the third period was pretty tough, too."
Ben Bishop got the start in goal and stopped 20 of 23 shots for the Stars who fell to 3-2-0.
The Senators (3-2-1) won their second straight game behind a 37-save effort from Craig Anderson and goals from four different players.
"We just wanted to be simple, be hard to play against and make sure they had to come through waves," Anderson told TSN. "I thought our guys did a great job tonight by making my job easier by the way we are playing right now."

Bishop came up big with Ottawa on the power play late in the first, stopping a quality bid from Chris Tierney at the 14:33 mark to keep it a 0-0 game. A little more than two minutes later, the Stars scored on their second power play of the period to take a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. Jason Spezza slipped the puck to Klingberg, who scored from the slot at the 16:53 mark.
The Senators had some good pressure early in the second, and Bishop came up big again, stopping two good chances by Ottawa rookie forward Brady Tkachuk. But another Ottawa rookie, defenseman Max Lajoie, struck late in the period to tie the game 1-1, beating Bishop with a shot from the slot on the rush with 19.2 seconds before the intermission.
The Senators took a 2-1 lead 87 seconds into the third period when a centering pass from Dylan DeMelo deflected off Tkachuk and into the net. Ottawa pushed the lead to 3-1 midway through the third. After Jason Dickinson turned the puck over behind the Dallas net, Matt Duchene made a slick pass to Mikkel Boedker who scored from close range at the 10:12 mark.
Montgomery pulled Bishop for an extra attacker with 7:48 remaining and then again with 4:45 left, but the Stars couldn't cut into the lead, and Zach Smith sealed the win with an empty-net goal with 1:37 remaining.

Turning point

With the Stars leading 1-0 late in the second period, Senators rookie defenseman Max Lajoie took a pass in the neutral zone, skated into the Dallas zone, slid into the slot and put a shot on net that deflected off Stars defenseman Julius Honka and past goaltender Ben Bishop to tie the game 1-1 with 19.2 seconds left. That gave the Senators some life going into the third period where they scored at the 1:27 mark to take the lead for good in the game on a goal by Brady Tkachuk.
"Maybe they got a little confidence there," Bishop said of the Lajoie goal. "That's a killer. You can't give up a goal with 20 seconds left in a period. We've got the game kind of in control there."

Players of the game

Craig Anderson, Senators: The Ottawa netminder was solid in stopping 37 shots Tuesday. He's stopped 73 of 75 shots over his past two games, both wins for the Sens.
Brady Tkachuk, Senators:The Senators' rookie forward notched the game-winning goal, had five shots on goal and four hits.
Matt Duchene, Senators: The center tallied two assists, including a beauty on Mikkel Boedker's goal that put Ottawa up 3-1. Duchene was a plus-three and won 11 of 21 faceoffs.

They said it

"I didn't think we managed the game really well for being on the road. That's probably been the biggest surprise for me is our lack of knowledge on how to manage games. We've talked about it as a staff three or four times already at different moments, even when we won." -- Stars coach Jim Montgomery
"I think we came out flying and they changed a little bit how they wanted to play in the second period, and they got some energy from that. I think we kept playing pretty good, but we kept turning the puck over a little too much. And, obviously, we couldn't score more than one goal today."-- Stars defenseman John Klingberg on the game
"We needed to come out of the first period better than we did with the way we played. We didn't cash in on chances and made it a little too easy for him to see pucks. They capitalized on their chances, and we didn't. It wasn't for a lack of looks."-- Stars center Jason Spezza

Notes

Up next

The Stars are back at it Tuesday night, wrapping up their quick two-game road trip at New Jersey. The Devils are off to 3-0-0 start and have outscored their opponents 14-4. Devils forward Kyle Palmieri has scored six goals in three games.

Stars lineup

Jamie Benn - Tyler Seguin - Blake Comeau
Valeri Nichushkin - Jason Spezza - Alexander Radulov
Mattias Janmark - Radek Faksa - Tyler Pitlick
Devin Shore - Jason Dickinson - Brett Ritchie
Esa Lindell - John Klingberg
Marc Methot - Julius Honka
Miro Heiskanen - Connor Carrick
Ben Bishop
Anton Khudobin
Scratched:Roope Hintz, Roman Polak, Gemel Smith
Injured: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.