Heika’s Take: Stars secure point in narrow OT loss to Islanders

The old question in the NHL since the advent of the point for an overtime or shootout loss has been, “Good point or bad point?”

Dallas was playing the second night of a back-to-back and had to use goalie Scott Wedgewood on consecutive nights because Jake Oettinger is battling the flu. It also lost forward Craig Smith to an injury in the first period and had to play with a short bench. Despite all of that, they put 43 shots on goal and created 41 scoring chances. That’s the good part. The bad part is they had all of those scoring chances – including three power play goals – and still couldn’t get more than two pucks past Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin. Wedgewood did yeoman work playing on consecutive nights, and the Stars weren’t able to get two points out of that.

“I thought it was a really good effort considering the circumstances,” said Stars coach Pete DeBoer. “Back to back. Otter was supposed to play but he came down with the flu. So Wedgy had to go in at the last minute. We lost Smith in the first period to an injury, so we had a short bench. I thought we played a hell of a road game. Sometimes you hit a hot goalie and that was probably the difference tonight, but I liked our group’s effort.”

It was a scrappy game against an Islanders team that just named Patrick Roy its head coach on Saturday, so that was also a factor.

That said . . . if they just could have gotten another puck past Sorokin.

“On a back-to-back it’s always hard, but there’s no excuse,” said Jason Robertson, who scored his 16th goal of the season. “I thought we played pretty well and Wedgy kept us in there and we just fell a little short.”

The Stars were on fire in this game, outshooting New York early in the first period and then dominating the second period. Still, the Islanders scored first on an Alexander Romanov goal just three minutes into the first period. Dallas came back and finally broke through on Sorokin in the second period. Robertson scored with help from Joe Pavelski on the scrambled lines that resulted from Smith being out. Then, Nils Lundkvist scored his second goal of the season off a nice play from Sam Steel.

Lundkvist has been getting extra minutes due to Miro Heiskanen’s injury, and took advantage Sunday with four shots on goal in 18:09.

“It’s a confidence boost,” said Lundkvist. “Hopefully good things happen, trying to build from that.”

The goal looked like it could be the game winner, as Dallas was dominating and controlling the puck. But the Islanders broke free on a few counterattacks and Hudson Fasching tied it five minutes into the third period on a scramble in front of the net.

The two goalies then took turns making fantastic saves until the game went to overtime.

There, the Stars were foiled on an early scoring chance, and the Islanders broke free in transition. Bo Horvat was left alone with Wedgewood and he cashed in his 19th goal of the season just 41 seconds into the extra frame.

DeBoer said he continues to be impressed by Wedgewood’s toughness.

“It was fantastic,” he said of Wedgewood’s play. “I don’t think people appreciate how hard that is to do when you’re prepared to play. When you get a call at basically 5 o’clock when you’re not prepared to play is even more impressive. Great effort by him.”

Wedgewood moves to 13-4-4 on the year and has been integral in helping the Stars manage a month-long injury to Oettinger.

“What you learn about him is his character,” DeBoer said when asked about Wedgewood’s season. “He’s not looking for excuses, he’s excited every time you call his number, regardless of the circumstance, and he gives you everything he’s got.”

New York moves to 20-15-11 on the season. Dallas falls to 27-13-6.

“I felt like it was a pretty good game,” Lundkvist said. “We played a desperate team with them changing the coach and the second game of a back-to-back. We hoped to get a win, but one point and we’ll keep going.”

That’s the good part of getting a point.

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 Twitter @MikeHeika.