DALLAS _ The Stars on Wednesday wrapped their entire season into one night.
They put 42 shots on goal and fumbled several great scoring opportunities, but then came back and scored an opportunistic goal. They tallied a huge power play goal, but then gave up two on the penalty kill. They outplayed the Montreal Canadiens down the stretch and forced overtime, but then lost the game 19 seconds into the extra period.
As it has been so many nights for this team, their 4-3 OT defeat was confounding.
It wasn't a win, but it wasn't a definitive loss. It wasn't a celebration, but there was still something to build on. Not unlike the 5-2-2 run the team put together over an extended homestand, it was noncommittal. You can hardly say this team is ready to contend in the second half of the season, but you also can't say they're out of it, either.
At 16-15-8, the Stars are on the playoff bubble and hoping for better.
Wednesday's game itself had so many reminders of the 38 that came before it. Captain Jamie Benn missed with a lower body injury, and Antoine Roussel returned after missing four games with an upper body injury. That forced some line juggling, but the Stars handled it pretty well, as they have done with most of their injuries this season. After some sloppy early play, Dallas started dominating and seemed to have the Canadiens on the ropes in the middle part of the game.
Montreal played an emotional game in Nashville on Tuesday, while the Stars had been resting since Saturday. The Canadiens were playing back-up goalie Al Montoya, while the Stars had red-hot Kari Lehtonen. Yet Montoya was either good or lucky, or the Stars' shooters were either bad or unlucky, as Dallas rifled 31 shots on goal in the first two periods and had just two goals to show for it.
Montoya had shots from both Jordie Benn and Patrick Sharp come perilously close to crossing the goal line and also had a Tyler Seguin shot hit him that he never saw coming. It was a vexing reminder of just how much the Stars' scoring has dried up this season.
When Dallas did score, it had to be near perfect. Tyler Seguin made a perfect deflection of a Stephen Johns shot for the first goal. John Klingberg showed immense confidence in snapping in a power play shot from the top of the slot for the second. That seemed like it might be enough on this night.
But Curtis McKenzie took a holding penalty and Johns a delay of game early in the third period, and Montreal scored on both power plays. They were mistakes made by young players, and they came at the absolute wrong time.
Dallas battled back, and young defenseman Esa Lindell came through with a game-tying goal at 17:13 of the third period, but it only set up then inevitable OT heartbreak for Stars fans.
Tyler Seguin allowed Max Pacioretty to get wide open for a breakaway in the three-on-three session, and Pacoretty buried a shot under Lehtonen just 19 seconds into the extra period. That makes Dallas 2-8 in overtimes this season, another reason for a record that is just not good enough right now.
The Stars head out on a three-game road trip starting Saturday in St. Louis and will be at the midway point of the season Monday in Los Angeles. They have kept their season from unraveling with the 5-2-2 run, but they have hardly made any statement about getting back to the 50-win form that netted them the Central Division championship last year.
Instead, they simply moved along a season in which they are neither fish nor fowl, not winning nor losing.
