Heika's Take: Even formidable fights sting a little

The hockey gods have a terrible sense of humor.
In fact, they're not funny at all.
The Stars suffered one of the hardest defeats in recent history, allowing a tying goal in the final second of regulation and then losing in overtime, 2-1, to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Thursday.

The defeat spoiled a possible shutout for Jake Oettinger and put a damper on a two-game road trip into the Empire State. Yet it seemed a little bit poetic, as Dallas stole a 2-1 shootout win against the Islanders on Tuesday.
"Over a long season, you're going to win some games like that, you're going to lose some games like that," Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. "It was a little bit of the hockey gods evening things out. I thought we played a much better game tonight than we did on the Island. We got two points on the Island, so it was a good road trip."
In the long run, three out of four points against two solid New York teams is an impressive accomplishment, but that didn't mean there wasn't some pain involved. Oettinger has been fantastic in recent games, holding off the Panthers, Islanders and Rangers, so he was pretty hurt by the last-second goal and eventual defeat.
"It sucks," Oettinger said. "And we'll probably be thinking about that for a while."

The collapse was memorable, as it featured some of the team's best players making bad decisions or executing poorly. Miro Heiskanen was on the ice for both the tying goal and the overtime tally. He made a couple of mistakes in the three-on-three portion of the night. Joe Pavelski, Jamie Benn and Jason Robertson were employed by the coaching staff in the final minute of regulation and they either failed to clear pucks or were unable to take shots at the empty net. Tyler Seguin, Luke Glendening and Radek Faksa were out for the final goal against.
It was a hard minute for a team who played a great road game.
The Rangers got a few shots on net that were blocked, and then K'Andre Miller was able to whip a puck through a crowd with 0.9 seconds on the clock. It brought the Garden to life and sent the Stars into overtime in a frazzled state. Once there, the trio of Seguin, Robertson and Heiskanen scrambled in their own end and eventually left Oettinger out of position. Adam Fox scored 1:16 into the extra period, giving the Rangers a memorable victory.
"To come back like that was pretty exciting,″ Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. "K'Andre has been good for us the whole year. That was huge for him and huge for our team."
Truth be told, the Stars still are 6-2-1 in their past nine game and lead the Central Division with a record of 25-11-7. In addition to landing on those statistical pillows, the team can look at this contest as a well-played game until the final minute. And with a huge Saturday matinee game against Calgary at American Airlines Center, they can't really wallow in their disappointment for long.
Mix in the fact that Oettinger made 29 saves and Seguin not only drew a huge penalty but then scored on the ensuing power play, and there is a Victory Green lining to the dark cloud.
"Our execution, our attention to detail was where it needs to be playing against a good team on the road," DeBoer said. "The other night against the Islanders, I didn't think it was for 60 minutes, and Jake had to bail us out. Tonight, I thought we gave Jake a much better chance to win the game because our details and execution were a lot better."

That's important because the team works hard to avoid long losing streaks and to respond well to poor performances. For the most part, it was a great response.
Nonetheless, it will take a few moments to recover.
"I don't know, there's not much really to say," Oettinger said. "Guys played their hearts out, blocking shots. Everyone obviously wanted to win that one as bad as I did. It just sucks when guys play that great in front of you."
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.