DALLAS _ Ken Hitchcock sang the praises of his team's even-strength play Tuesday morning and then watched them live or die on special teams Tuesday night.
Dallas couldn't capitalize on a third-period power play and then lost in the three-on-three overtime 4-3 to the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night.
This hockey thing is a lot more complicated than it looks.
"We've really improved our five-on-five play," Hitchcock said before the game. "We relied on our special teams at the beginning of the year to gather us points, and as a coach, that's a slippery slope. It's one of those things where if one or the other gets cold it's hard to win."
Dallas actually played pretty good in all phases of the game. It dominated even-strength play, scored a power-play goal and held the Capitals off the board on three penalty kills.
But the Capitals simply found a way to hang in. They received strong goaltending from Braden Holtby, who had been terrible in four previous appearances against the Stars, and they looked good on the counter-attack.
The first goal came when Brett Connolly made a perfect cross-ice feed to Andre Burakovsky for the opening goal of the game, and the second came when defenseman Dmitry Orlov made one of the sweetest rushes up ice in the NHL this season. Orlov turned Stars defenseman John Klingberg like a top, scooted around him and then got Ben Bishop to lay out on the ice before lifting the puck over the scrambling goaltender.
That tied the score at 2-2 in the second period, despite the fact Dallas was dominating play. The Stars had a 25-14 advantage in shots on goal after 40 minutes, but it wasn't reflected on the scoreboard.
And that's another part of this puzzle the Stars are trying to solve.
"When we're on top of our game, we don't give you much of a breath. We're getting better and better at hemming teams in," Hitchcock said. "If you look at the analytics right now, we're up significantly in offensive zone time, and that's allowing us to play better defense."
Yet the Stars still can't finish the job on a consistent basis.
They lost in overtime at Philadelphia. They unraveled when they couldn't take advantage of scoring chances in New Jersey. On Tuesday, they were better than the Capitals, and even hung in and didn't panic. With the score tied 2-2, Dallas fought and finally broke through at 15:53 when Alexander Radulov walked up the slot in transition and snapped in what appeared to be the game-winning goal.
It was sweet redemption for the veteran, who was called out for taking two late penalties in the Philadelphia. It was a statement that Dallas could win if it kept the game at even strength.
But less than a minute later, Connolly slipped a puck between the pads of Bishop, and the game went to overtime. There, Burakovsky lifted the game-winner over Bishop to push Washington to 22-12-1 (45 points). The Stars, who are now 10-0-3 in their last 13 games with the Capitals, move to 18-14-3 (39 points) on the season.
And quite frankly, they believe they need more than that.
"We just have to find a way to get it done," said captain Jamie Benn. "It's about wins and losses, and we need to find a way to win."
