Heika’s Take: Stars pick up rare second straight loss Sunday vs. Golden Knights

The problem with going through the grind is sometimes it can take some pretty big chunks out of you.

The Stars on Sunday looked a little tired in a 3-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights at American Airlines Center. Then again, they played Saturday in Minnesota, played Wednesday in Denver and are still in the middle of one of the toughest stretches of the season.

“I look at the whole picture and you go through some tough teams,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “I like the way we have played, but at some point you’re not going to beat those teams every night you play them. This team was very desperate, and that’s what happened.”

Vegas is in the middle of a fierce battle in the Pacific Division and needs the points just to get into the playoffs. Before that, Dallas was battling Minnesota and Colorado for positioning in the Central Division. Before that, it was games against a group of desperate teams in Utah, Detroit, Edmonton and Vegas. Even with back-to-back defeats, the Lads in Victory Green are still 15-2-2 over their past 19 games.

“It’s been a tough stretch, that was a tough road trip, and you got three of the best teams in the NHL,” Stars forward Matt Duchene said of facing the Avalanche, Wild and Golden Knights. “I know Vegas hasn’t had their best maybe this year but any given night that team can beat anybody and they can beat the best teams.”

Vegas moves to 32-25-14, good for 78 points. They are part of a Pacific Division that has been struggling, but they still can turn everything around once the playoffs begin.

“I thought they were the better team for longer,” Gulutzan said. “We had some spurts early in the first, some in the third, but they were better for longer.”

Vegas had a 33-15 advantage in shots on goal and a whopping 72-37 edge in shot attempts (on goal, blocked and missed). The Golden Knights had almost double the scoring chances, and that put a lot of weight on goalie Casey DeSmith, but the backup was fantastic on the second night of a back-to-back and gave Dallas a chance to at least get the game to overtime.

Wyatt Johnston set the franchise record for power play goals in a season at 23 when he scored on the man advantage (his 38th overall goal on the year) in the first period to make the score 1-1. Justin Hryckowian scored his 11th goal about six minutes later to give the Stars a 2-1 lead.

The score stayed that way until Ivan Barbashev tied things up for Vegas midway through the second. Both goalies then came up with huge saves to keep the score tied, and it looked like there might be overtime. Vegas goalie Adin Hill helped stop a double-minor power play midway through the second period. It was the second time in as many games when Dallas couldn’t take advantage of four minutes of power play time.

“We made a mistake there,” Gulutzan said.

“Sometimes, you overstay, and we overstayed there. One of the keys when you get a four-minuter is to make sure guys change in fives. We got caught in between a little bit, and that hurt us.”

In the third period, Mitch Marner helped get the puck to the front of the net and Reilly Smith scored on a rebound with less than four minutes remaining. It was a deflating moment for the Stars, but they remain in good position within the division – five points behind Colorado and five points ahead of Minnesota.

“We will get a good day off tomorrow and regroup and then we have one more at home and a long road trip,” Duchene said. “So we’ll keep our heads down and see if we can keep tracking down Colorado.”

After all, this constant grinding can also smooth out some surfaces, too.

“We have survived this stretch with some guys out [Mikko Rantanen, Roope Hintz and Radek Faksa],” Gulutzan said. “We’ve played really hard and at some point you’re going to have a little bit of a lull or a dip. That’s a natural part of the season. So, you can see the last few games, we just have not generated the same amount as we were for a while, and that’s part of the ebbs and flows.”

That said, Gulutzan added: “We’ve got to find it quickly here.”

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.