5 things to know: Stars come up short in loss to Golden Knights

Ben Bishop turned in a sparkling performance in net Tuesday night in Las Vegas, but it wasn't enough as the Dallas Stars fell 4-1 to the Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena.
Bishop stopped 44 of 46 shots, but a tough bounce resulted in a Vegas goal late in the third that broke a 1-1 tie and held up as the game-winner. Roope Hintz scored the lone goal for the Stars, who lost another forward when Andrew Cogliano left the game with an upper-body injury.
Here are five things from Tuesday's game.

1. Stars can't weather third-period storm

The Stars were in pretty good shape through 40 minutes Tuesday night. The game was tied 1-1 with both teams having tallied on the power play. Hintz gave the Stars a 1-0 lead in the first when he scored during a scramble in front of the Vegas net 11:13 into the game. Vegas' forward Max Pacioretty tied it at 11:48 of the second beating a screened Bishop with a snap shot from the right circle.
But the ice was tilted in the third period. Vegas dominated the final 20 minutes, outshooting the Stars 21-1 and scoring the only goals. Dallas survived most of it thanks to Bishop, who was outstanding in the game. In the third, he made seven saves as the Stars killed off a 97-second 5-on-3 power play for Vegas.
But the Golden Knights finally broke the 1-1 tie with 5:08 remaining. Pacioretty took the puck away from Bishop behind the Dallas net, and his centering pass bounced in the net off the skate of Stars center Tyler Seguin.
"Some unlucky bounces there," Bishop said. "There's not much you can do about it."
Vegas defensemen Nate Schmidt and Brayden McNabb tacked on empty net goals to make it a 4-1 final.
"We were doing a good job of defending," Stars coach Jim Montgomery said of the third period. "We were not doing a good job of penetrating middle ice and getting into their end and possessing pucks. Then we kill off the 5-on-3, thought we would build momentum off that, and we didn't. Then they get the miscommunication on the breakout and the bounce off a skate."
"It was a tight game, just little things happened out there," said Stars defenseman Roman Polak. "They scored a lucky goal, and that was it."

2. Cogliano leaves game with upper-body injury

Stars forward Andrew Cogliano left the game in the first period after taking a big hit near the benches from Vegas forward Ryan Reaves. Cogliano hit the boards hard and immediately headed to the locker room. He did not return to the game.
"Upper-body injury, day-to-day," Stars coach Jim Montgomery said of Cogliano after the game. "Reassessed tomorrow."
Stars captain Jamie Benn sat out Tuesday's game with an upper-body injury. Benn left Sunday's game in Chicago with the issue, which first popped up in Saturday's game against Carolina. Montgomery said he expects Benn to play Thursday in Los Angeles.
Stars forward Mats Zuccarello underwent surgery Tuesday morning on his broken arm, which he suffered while blocking a shot in Sunday's game.
"Very successful surgery, that part I know," Montgomery said. "But I am going to let the professionals speak about it; I just know that it was successful."

3. The shots against are coming

The Stars allowed 48 shots on goal Tuesday, the second-highest total they've allowed in a game this season. They've allowed 45 or more shots in four of the last five games. They are 2-2-0 in those four games.
"Well, it's two games in a row that we've taken a lot of penalties, and that's where we are giving up most of our shots on the PK," Montgomery said. "But you are never happy with over 40 shots in four of our last five games."
The Stars allowed 40 or more shots in a game only three times in their first 58 games of the season.
"I don't think it's a problem," said Stars defenseman Roman Polak. "I think it's the way we play. We give up the shots, but you've got to look at those shots and if it's a scoring chance off it or is it a shot from the blue line where we are boxing out. It's kind of the way we play right now. We still don't give up that many goals. Two empty-netters tonight."

4. Wild-card race tightens

With Tuesday's loss to Vegas, the Stars (31-27-5, 67points) dropped into the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Minnesota (31-27-6, 68 points) took over the first wild-card spot, rallying for a 3-2 win in Winnipeg Tuesday. The Stars have a one-point lead over Colorado, which is in ninth place in the West and a two-point lead over 10th-place Arizona.
Right now, the top four teams battling for those two wild-card spots are separated by three points.

5. Stars allow season-high in shot attempts

Vegas outshot the Stars 48-24 and had a 95-51 advantage in shot attempts. The 95 shot attempts against were a season-high for the Stars. ... John Klingberg led the Stars with five shots on goal and nine shot attempts. Pacioretty had eight shots on goal and 11 shot attempts. ... There were 86 hits in the game, 40 by the Stars and 46 by Vegas. ... Blake Comeau and Valeri Nichushkin both had five hits for the Stars. Ryan Reaves had eight hits for Vegas. ... The Stars were 1-for-2 on the power play and 2-for-3 on the penalty kill. ... The Stars won 33 of 66 faceoffs (50 percent). Radek Faksa won 12 of 19 faceoffs (63 percent). Tyler Seguin won 9 of 22 (41 percent). ... Klingberg led the Stars with 25:36 of ice time.
Here is the lineup the Stars used to start Tuesday's game along with scratches and injuries.
Roope Hintz - Tyler Seguin - Alexander Radulov
Andrew Cogliano - Radek Faksa - Blake Comeau
Mattias Janmark - Jason Spezza - Denis Gurianov
Valeri Nichushkin - Jason Dickinson - Brett Ritchie
Esa Lindell - John Klingberg
Miro Heiskanen - Roman Polak
Jamie Oleksiak - Ben Lovejoy
Ben Bishop
Anton Khudobin
Scratched:Julius Honka, Taylor Fedun
Injured:Jamie Benn (upper body), Matts Zuccarello (broken arm), Tyler Pitlick (wrist surgery), Martin Hanzal (back), Marc Methot (knee surgery), Stephen Johns (post-traumatic headaches)
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mark Stepneski has covered the Stars for DallasStars.com since 2012. Follow him on Twitter @StarsInsideEdge.