Tough loss just one more step in Stars' quest to make postseason

There are times when the NHL season simply trudges forward.
Thursday was one of those nights for the Stars.
Dallas did a lot of good things -- outshooting Colorado 45-32, and setting a season-best mark for high-danger scoring chances at 25, according to naturalstattrick.com. But it lost a 3-1 game, thanks to a bad line change and a questionable goal against.
The result was the Avalanche received a huge victory and bolstered their playoff chances, 33-29-12 (78 points), while the Stars, 38-30-6 (82 points) slipped four points behind St. Louis in the battle for third place in the Central Division.

You could panic and tear into the team for the shortcomings, but Ben Bishop is a Vezina Trophy candidate this year and is certainly due one goal here and there. You could rip the Stars for not being able to convert their scoring chances and still sitting 29th in the NHL in scoring. But Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, Alexander Radulov and John Klingberg have led the Stars on a 7-3-1 run that have put them on solid footing in the playoff race.
You could simply punch the wall because that was a frustrating game to watch.

But, really the best option is probably to acknowledge the performance -- the hunger of the Avalanche and the desperation of goalie Philipp Grubauer -- and get ready for Saturday's game against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
That's sort of how things go for this team this season. They play close, low-scoring games, and they tend to win more than they lose. So it's difficult to really overanalyze the defeat.
On the bad side, Bishop was beat by an Erik Johnson shot from distance he probably could have stopped at 17:20 of the second period.
"He just got all of it," Bishop said. "I was ready for it too, but it just got on me quick. That's maybe one I'd like to have back, but it was a pretty good shot."
Then, at 5:19 of the third, Dallas chipped the puck into the neutral zone and tried to make a line change. Colorado, possessed the puck, caught the Stars in transition, and Tyson Barrie fired a shot off the stick of Benn and past Bishop for the eventual game-winner.
"It's an unfortunate feeling, because we felt like we controlled a lot of the game," said center Jason Dickinson, who played 16:41, had four shots on goal and four hits.

"It was unfortunate that second goal they got. It was from a mental error on our side -- just a questionable change letting them come back and attack us quickly like that."
Both plays are correctable. The Stars know that. The NHL is a game of mistakes, and the Stars made a couple too many there.
But Dallas also was all over Grubauer for much of the night, and could only get a Seguin deflection past him with 5:01 remaining. There was a great push at the end, and while the Starts came close, they simply couldn't score.
"We played some good hockey, but you know, we just couldn't score," said defenseman Roman Polak, who played 19:07 and had four hits. "It's been our problem the whole season: We don't score as much as we would like to, but as a team, we did a great job. We created a lot of scoring chances and put a lot of pressure on their defense and I think we played a fast game.
"We didn't get the results we want, but I think if we keep playing like that for the rest of the season, we can get more wins."
The Stars in their past 11 games have outshot the opposition 372-333 -- a marked improvement from earlier in the season. They have outscored opponents 9-3 in third periods in that span -- a marked improvement from earlier in the season.

They've still had some slow starts, but this really is a team that's improving and playing better hockey.
"We are a more consistent and fundamentally sound team with and without the puck. That's why you're seeing us have more success on a more consistent level," Stars coach Jim Montgomery said.
"Also, our players are a lot more comfortable within the game, how we're playing whether we're ahead or behind. We're playing a good brand of hockey and we're going to end up on the right side of the score sheet most of the time if we keep playing this way."
The Stars would have liked that win to keep pace with the Blues and build their lead on ninth place in the West. The Avalanche desperately needed the two points to keep alive their hope of even making the playoffs.
"They were desperate for their lives," Bishop said. "They had some shifts there were they caught us, and we did a good job of weathering the storm. We had some opportunities, but sometimes you run into a hot goalie."
Stars opponents have said that a lot this season, so you just have to trudge forward and get ready for the next one.
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.