Heika’s Take: Key mistakes cost Stars in yet another narrow loss

The Stars did a lot of good things on Saturday.

They did a few too many bad things, too.

While Dallas had a 29-22 advantage in shots on goal and a 67-52 edge in shot attempts, it also had some key mistakes in a 4-3 loss to the Nashville Predators at American Airlines Center.

Nashville’s Gustav Nyquist stole a puck on the forecheck to score the Predators first goal unassisted. Jani Hakanpää had a puck poked around him at the offensive blue line to set up a two-on-one for the Predators’ second goal. Dallas gave up the puck at the defensive blue line to open the door for a nice play by Filip Forsberg for the third goal. And then Forsberg was able to score on a backhand wraparound for the fourth.

In between, the Stars had a Sam Steel goal called back on an offside challenge and also had a penalty shot from Mason Marchment that was stopped by Nashville goalie Kevin Lankinen.

It was just a few too many missed opportunities at one end and a few too many mistakes at the other.

“We’ve been talking about it a little bit lately,” said forward Tyler Seguin. “We’re never worried about scoring goals in here - it’s about how we’re defending. We don’t want to give up four.”

Stars coach Pete DeBoer said he liked a lot of things about the game. The Stars were playing their first game since an injury to defenseman Miro Heiskanen (who is out week to week) and yielded just 22 shots on goal. That should be seen as a good thing, he said.

“We gave up 22 shots,” DeBoer said. “I don’t think we made that many mistakes. That was a fairly clean game. That was one of those games where the mistakes we made ended up in the net. You’re not going to play mistake-free. That’s just the way hockey goes.”

The Stars did fight hard. After getting the Steel goal called off and watching Marchment foiled by Lankinen, Dallas battled back. Nashville was up 2-0 when Seguin broke down the slot and scored off a beautiful pass from Matt Duchene. Ten minutes later, Jamie Benn came up with a power play tip off a nice pass from Thomas Harley, and the score was 2-2 going into the third period.

Forsberg scored on a great manipulation after being left alone to the right of Wedgewood. He then was able to breeze behind the net and score between Wedgewood’s pads on a wraparound goal that didn’t look good a few minutes later.

Jason Robertson cut the deficit to 4-3 with 9:39 left in the third, but the Stars were unable to manufacture another miracle comeback the way they did two weeks ago in Nashville.

“We just have to keep battling,” DeBoer said. “Wedgy is battling for us. He's probably running out of gas – we’ve asked a lot of him. On the other end, we’ve got to find a way. These goaltenders that we’re playing seem to be coming up with some big saves.”

Scott Wedgewood played in his 11th straight game with Jake Oettinger sidelined by a lower body injury. Oettinger is practicing and close to returning, but the schedule has been weighty for the goalie and his teammates. The 31-year-old is 6-3-2 during that stretch, but is 0-2-1 in his past three starts. Mix with that the injury to Heiskanen, and the Stars really do have to find a way to pull together right now.

“We don’t want to be giving up four, and none of that is Wedgy’s fault,” Seguin said. “He’s been phenomenal for us. It’s on our group collectively.”

Harley did his job with Heiskanen sidelined. The 22-year-old played 24:23 and had two assists.

“I thought he did a good job,” DeBoer said. “He’s going to have to eat some minutes with Miro out.”

DeBoer said he liked his team’s battle and said the difference between the win in Nashville and the loss at home was just a few plays.

“They’re a good team,” DeBoer said. “They have a big, heavy defense and veteran guys that make it tough for you to enter the zone. It’s a similar game to the one in Nashville that we found a way to win. There’s not a lot of room out there. There’s not a lot of time. You’ve got to work for your ice. I’m sure with Miro, we do enter a little more cleanly, but we don’t have Miro, so we have to find other ways.”

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.