Heika’s Take: Stars fall flat in middle frame, drop 3-1 loss to Blues on road

Five games into the season, the most consistent thing about the Stars has been their inconsistency.

After battling through some uneven games to start the year an unblemished 3-0-0, Dallas has lost the past two, including a 3-1 defeat at St. Louis on Saturday.

That leaves the lads in Victory Green at 3-2-0 and searching for some answers as they head back for a three-game homestand next week.

“We haven’t had one game where we played the full 60 minutes,” said forward Radek Faksa. “We obviously have to fix that.”

As it was on Thursday against Vancouver, Dallas was very good in the first period in St. Louis. The two teams exchanged chances in a tight game, and the Stars felt they would be fine if they just scored first. But the Blues instead got the first goal on a Jordan Kyrou move through the slot in the second period, and that really seemed to change the tone on the ice.

“It was one of those games where the first goal was going to give a team a lot of momentum,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “They got the first one.”

That came at the 2:27 mark of the second period and St. Louis ended up enjoying a 12-5 advantage in shots on goal for the middle frame. Jimmy Sunggerud pushed that lead to 2-0 a little under 14 minutes into the period on a nice battle to the net, and that put the Blues in a confident place.

Stars goalie Jake Oettinger was solid in the game, but his counterpart for St. Louis, Jordan Binnington, was a save or two better. The end result was Dallas was chasing the game.

It was the second consecutive game where the Stars struggled in the second period. And while they have dealt with the long change many times before, it seems to add to the inconsistency right now.

“There is a snowball effect,” said defenseman Esa Lindell of the fact you can get caught in your own end. “If the other team gets momentum and they get fresh guys, our shifts get longer and then it’s harder to defend. We just need to work on that.”

Dallas had several factors going against it. It had a season-high 20 giveaways and also was just 50 percent on faceoffs, something it had dominated in previous games. The Blues also won the battle of hits 32-24 and had a 48-38 edge in shot attempts.

Bottom line, St. Louis did more of the little things right.

“They got the momentum and that’s when we dipped,” Gulutzan said. “When they got momentum, they seemed to take it over on the draws. That’s when you really got to dig in and stop that momentum.”

Dallas has had moments like that throughout the early season. When the opposition gets rolling, the Stars have trouble resetting. It’s been a subject of conversation in previous practices and will be sure to be top of mind as the Stars play host to Columbus, Los Angeles and Carolina in the week ahead.

“We’re learning some new stuff,” said center Matt Duchene, who returned after missing a game. “There are a few changes we’re still getting used to and we’ll keep working on it.”

The team has a new coaching staff this year, so adjustments are to be expected. Bottom line, the Stars have been one of the better offensive teams in the league and still are trying to find consistency in defending and puck possession.

“There are some good things here tonight,” Gulutzan said. “I thought our battle level was higher, I thought we won more 50-50 pucks, but we certainly have to clean up our puck play.”

The hope is that it comes quickly.

“Every game has shown something different that we can be better at,” said Lindell. “It’s early in the season, so just keep working and improve our game.”

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.