Heika’s Take: Stars crumble in the clutch, blow three-goal lead in loss to Canucks

The Stars are making history right now.

Just not the right kind.

Dallas allowed Vancouver to score three goals in the final minute of play to tie Tuesday’s game at American Airlines Center, and then lost in overtime, 6-5. It was the first time in NHL history that a team won a game after erasing a three-goal deficit in the final minute of regulation. Which of course also means that it was the first time a team has allowed that to happen.

“Unacceptable,” said Stars captain Jamie Benn. “The game should’ve been wrapped up. We just have to find a way to get it done there.”

It was the third consecutive game in which this team has blown a third period lead and lost, a rare situation in Dallas history. They were 35-1-1 when leading after two periods this season before this recent collapse.

Stars coach Pete DeBoer said the trend is a bit confounding.

“All totally different situations,” DeBoer said.

All three were different games. Dallas had a 3-2 lead against Pittsburgh and then found a way to lose 5-3 in regulation. It was clinging to a 1-0 lead against Minnesota, got down 2-1, and rallied back to tie before losing in overtime. Against the Canucks, the pain was much more severe at the end. The Stars entered the third period with a 3-0 lead built on power play goals from Mikko Rantanen, Mason Marchment and Matt Duchene. The power play, which had been struggling, looked fantastic, and the Stars as a whole dominated the game.

It was a needed performance as Dallas has a huge game against Winnipeg on Thursday at home, and it wanted to not only make sure the standings were tight but that it was playing good hockey. After 40 minutes, the Stars led in shots on goal (20-17), shot attempts (41-36) and had twice as many high danger scoring chances. Dallas was winning the faceoff battle 21-14 and looked a lot like the Dallas Stars that had built the third-best record in the NHL.

“It's unfortunate, because it's going to cloud some of the really good things we did tonight for big portions of that game,” DeBoer said. “But you've got to play for sixty minutes. We didn't and for whatever reason we didn't execute down the stretch and it's disappointing because we did put in some work tonight in a positive direction I thought.”

But then goalie Casey DeSmith let in a fluky power play goal when he slid too far outside his crease, and Marchment took a double minor for high sticking. Vancouver scored its second power play goal of the period, and the comeback was on.

Vancouver had several strong scoring chances in the next 10 minutes and looked like it might tie things up, but then several Dallas lines came up with strong shifts and Mavrik Bourque gave the Stars the cushion they wanted when he scored his 11th goal of the season at the 17:15 mark. Mikael Granlund added an empty-net goal 34 seconds later, and the home team seemed destined to survive with a 5-2 lead with just over two minutes remaining.

That was until it all went downhill. Vancouver then scored an even strength goal with one minute left. That one was surprising as Wyatt Johnston had his pocket picked while preparing to clear the puck, and Aatu Räty was able to fire a puck from the left circle to make it 5-3.

That opened the door for the Canucks to pull their goalie once again, and it sent the Stars scrambling. While Dallas has been solid in 5-on-6 situations, they couldn’t shut it down. Pius Suter scored in front off a nice pass from Conor Garland to make it 5-4 with 30 seconds left. And then Suter scored again, this time on a nice shot from the slot with 5.3 seconds remaining in regulation to send the game to overtime.

Dallas took a penalty in the 3-on-3, just as it did in Minnesota on Sunday, and while Vancouver didn’t score on the ensuing power play, the game never returned to 3-on-3. The Canucks took advantage of a Stars mishap behind the net at 4-on-4 and Kiefer Sherwood was left wide open in the slot for the game-winner.

It was a severe gut punch to the Stars, who really felt they had repaired a lot of the problems that had led to previous losses.

“It was a crazy last minute,” said Rantanen. “We’ve got to be better in that area.”

Dallas is now 50-22-6 (106 points) and is four points behind Winnipeg for first place in the Central Division. The Stars had a chance to be even with the Jets heading into a Thursday night meeting at AAC that DeBoer called the biggest game of the year. However, in squandering those points in the past three games, they have made things a lot more difficult.

“Thankfully it's not a playoff game. Hopefully we learn from it,” DeBoer said. “It will be unfortunate if it costs us a chance at a conference title, but sometimes you have to learn hard lessons. It’s on us to respond the right way. We’ve got the biggest game of the year on Thursday night. It’s going to be a great test of our character to see how we respond.”

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X @MikeHeika.