GettyImages-917095448

The Dallas Stars' five-game winning streak came to an end Sunday afternoon, and it ended with a thud. The Stars came out flat against the Vancouver Canucks, never got on track and fell, 6-0, at American Airlines Center.
"We got embarrassed in our building," said Stars captain Jamie Benn. "It's frustrating. It's disappointing."

WATCH: [All Stars vs. Canucks highlights]
The Canucks scored 2:11 into the game, pushed the lead to 3-0 by the first intermission and it was a 5-0 game after two periods. Vancouver tacked on one more goal in the third.
"They jumped on us early, and three goals in the first is hard to come back from," Benn said. "We just didn't have our game tonight."
The six goals against matched a season-high for the Stars, who also gave up six on Nov. 16 in Tampa Bay. They hadn't allowed more than four since Dec. 15, a stretch of 23 games.
"The concern for me is the odd-man rushes," said Stars coach Ken Hitchcock. "We got away with it against Pittsburgh (4-3 shootout win) Friday. We didn't get away with it today."

With St. Louis and Winnipeg both losing Sunday, the Stars had a chance to move into third place in the Central Division and pull to within one point of the second-place Jets with a win. With the loss, the Stars (33-20-4) remained in the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
"It's a game we wanted to win," said Stars center Jason Spezza. "You just learn from it. It is a missed opportunity. There are lots of games to be played. We play St. Louis next head-to-head. You don't get standings watching, you just worry about the game in front of you. By no means did we look past Vancouver at all. We knew what they were going to bring and that they were a hard-working team. We just didn't play the way we wanted to."
Reid Boucher scored two goals, Jake Virtanen tallied one goal and one assist, and Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots as the Canucks (22-28-6) snapped a four-game losing streak overall and a five-game skid on the road.
"Great 60-minute performance from every position," said Markstrom. "We really played a good game and sacrificed ourselves. The power play was good, could have been better, but it was good. The penalty kill was flawless. The guys really battled for sixty minutes. It was a great game."
The Canucks jumped on the Stars early, scoring 2:11 into the game when Boucher stole the puck from Dan Hamhuis behind the Dallas net and scored on a wrap-around to put Vancouver up 1-0.
Bishop and Markstrom traded quality stops later in the period, and a Markstrom stop on a wrap-around by Spezza was reviewed to see if the puck crossed the goal line. The video replays were inconclusive in part because the referee was blocking the overhead camera.

"It went in, they just couldn't see it," Spezza said. "I said it right away to the ref, and he said he didn't see it. He said they'll get it right but he's covering the overhead (camera), unfortunate, but that's the rule."
The Canucks then struck for two quick goals to push the lead to 3-0. After the Stars turned over the puck in the Vancouver zone, Canucks forward Virtanen rushed off on a breakaway and slipped the puck through Bishop's legs to make it 2-0 at the 11:38 mark.
Tomas Vanek made it 3-0 less than two minutes later, getting free on the rush and blasting a puck into the net from the slot at the 13:27 mark.
Vancouver pushed the lead to 4-0 with a power-play goal at 4:41 of the second when Bo Horvat scored from the slot on a broken play. That ended the night for Stars goalie Ben Bishop, who stopped 16 of 20 shots, and was replaced by Kari Lehtonen, who would go on to stop 19 of 21.
Boucher tallied again at 14:35 of the second, deflecting in a Derrick Pouliot shot to extend the Vancouver lead to 5-0. Erik Gudbranson tallied on a shot from the point in the third to round out the scoring at 6-0.
"It was a good run there, five games in a row," said Bishop. "Obviously not our best effort tonight, but one of those things where you've just got to put it in the rear-view mirror and forget about it."

Notes
What's Next

The Stars don't play again until Friday when they host the St. Louis Blues at American Airlines Center. The game will wrap up a three-game homestand for the Stars and a stretch that will have seen them play seven of their last nine games at home.

Stars Lineup

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

This story was not subject to 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 Mark on Twitter @StarsInsideEdge.