Heika’s Take: Demko was key cog in Stars’ second regulation loss

A little bit of fatigue and a whole lot of Thatcher Demko proved the undoing of the Stars on Saturday in Vancouver.

Dallas was playing its third road game in four nights, and looked a little tired at times. Demko was spectacular, stopping 27 shots in a 2-0 win for the Canucks. Demko moves to 7-0-0 in his career against the Stars with the win, and has been masterful in games against them. He also moves to 6-2-0 on the season with some of the best numbers in the NHL in goals against average and save percentage.

It was a frustrating game for the Stars, who had some great scoring chances, but also had some uneven moments in the second period. Dallas won games at Calgary on Wednesday and Edmonton on Thursday, and so there was a need for more energy against a greatly improved Canucks team.

The Stars fall to 7-2-1 with the loss, while Vancouver moves to 8-2-1. Both Demko (27 saves) and Stars goalie Jake Oettinger (26 saves) came up big at some huge moments, but Demko might have had the biggest save of the game when he slid over to glove a Wyatt Johnston shot on the power play in the first period.

“That’s the first goal, for sure,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “Usually, that’s in the back of the net. And potentially we grab momentum from there and it’s a different hockey game, but we didn’t.”

Instead, Vancouver dominated the first 15 minutes of the second period and got goals from Pius Suter and Elias Pettersson. Suter scored on a broken play where the puck deflected off a Stars player and landed on his stick right in front of Oettinger. Pettersson converted a beautiful pass from Filip Hronek for the second goal. In the end, the Canucks made more plays and created more opportunities. They finished with a few more scoring chances, and they controlled the puck for longer stretches than the Stars.

They also drew five power plays, although the Stars’ penalty kill and Oettinger helped keep the Vancouver man advantage off the board.

“It was a very competitive game,” said Sam Steel, who finished with four shots on goal. “We got into a little penalty trouble, but it was a tight game and if we clean up a few things, the result might go the other way.”

The Stars have been pushing to get a more complete game, and they actually pulled that off on Saturday despite the loss. Yes, the first 15 minutes of the second period were rough, but they rallied in the third and really looked good despite some challenges. Matt Duchene was hit high and left the game, and Mason Marchment responded by fighting Ian Cole. That took two forwards out of the lineup for a long stretch and created a lot of shuffling. But the Stars pushed through and created some great scoring chances.

“We had our looks here and there,” said Craig Smith, who had three shots on goal. “At times it seemed like we had a little bit of momentum, but maybe we didn’t have everyone around the puck quite a bit as much as we hoped. We had a couple of good looks. If we popped one in, it’s a completely different game there at the end.”

DeBoer said there was good effort.

“It was a good game,” DeBoer said. “I liked our start, I liked our first period. It was two teams that were engaged physically and systems wise. It was a good hockey game.”

Now, the Stars have to try to improve on it. They stayed overnight in Vancouver and will fly back on Sunday. Then, the 9-1-1 Boston Bruins will come to American Airlines Center on Monday for yet another big 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 Twitter @MikeHeika.