The Stars have struggled to draw penalties at times this season and, as a result, get on the power play. That was not a problem Tuesday night. The Stars got six power plays in the game, matching their season-high. Unfortunately, they were not able to cash in on any of them.
"Our power play was (crap), and that was the difference," said Stars captain Jamie Benn.
The Stars had 10 shots on goal on the man advantage and some good looks, but give some credit to Vasilevskiy and the Tampa Bay penalty kill.
"I thought we created chances at times. I thought we were too stagnant at times," Montgomery said. "We're not creating enough volume shooting on the power play. We're getting that good first look, but we're not getting to the rebounds and/or pucks that are laying in the slot. We've got to do a better job of converging on the power play.
"I thought we were skating, taking pucks wide and driving to the net. There were some good positives."
The Stars had a four-minute power play midway through the second, but couldn't take advantage. During that opportunity, it appeared they were going to go on a 5-on-3, but Benn took a goalie-interference minor during the delayed penalty on Tampa Bay, negating the two-man advantage.
"Just backed up into the goalie," Benn said. "Probably a bad penalty to take going on a 5-on-3."
Before Benn's minor, the Stars spent a lot of time moving the puck around during the delayed penalty. That raised the question if they should have looked to find a way to stop play to get on the 5-on-3, which would have been around 80 to 90 seconds.
"We want to play 5-on-3 there, but with all the skill we have out there why give the puck away," Klingberg said. "In my opinion, we should have given it away or hit the net with the puck, so we have a good chance playing the 5-on-3."
The Stars have not scored on the power play in their last three games following a stretch of tallying on the power play in six straight contests.
