If it’s a tight game, don’t count on the Stars.
The bad news is that there are plenty of close games in a hockey season.
The Stars lost another one-goal game on Saturday night in Columbus, losing 4-3 in overtime, the team’s sixth straight loss in overtime or a shootout. On the season, the Stars have been in 11 one-goal games. They have won two of them.
Columbus’ Zach Werenski scored the game-winning goal with 4.5 seconds left in overtime to deny the Stars a chance at two points in the shootout. Werenski scored after a net-front scramble that forced Jake Oettinger out of the net, leaving Werenski with a clean look to win the game.
The Stars received goals from Andrew Cogliano, Andrej Sekera and Denis Gurianov. It was Gurianov’s first goal since Feb. 2, snapping a 15-game goalless streak. Oettinger made 22 saves on 26 Columbus shots.
“I thought our game was probably as good as you’re probably going to get until a couple execution errors,” Cogliano said. “They find the back of the net and the game changes. You can only take so many moral victories at this point. We need to win games. We need to find ways to win.”
The Stars picked up a point, but fell behind Columbus in the Central Division standings. By points percentage, Dallas (8-9-6) is sixth in the division. The top four teams qualify for the playoffs. Dallas has won just three of its last 16 games despite continuously outshooting and outchancing its opponents.
One-goal games have become the nemesis of the Stars’ season. They have not won a one-goal game since Jan. 26, and are now 2-3-6 in one-goal games. They have no issue winning blowouts — their last five wins are by five, five, three, three and four goals — but lack the fortitude to close out the tight ones.
It used to be a strength of the Stars.
They went 18-9-8 in one-goal games last year, and 17-10-7 the season before. That was the difference between them making the postseason and winning rounds versus currently sitting on the outside with a longshot chance at making the playoffs this season.
“There is no room for error,” Stars coach Rick Bowness said. “When we get those chances like we had in overtime, you would hope they would go in. We had some unreal looks at the end of the third period. It’s unreal the chances we had and we didn’t score. All those come back to bite you in these one-goal losses. Were the opportunities to win that there in regulation? Absolutely, late in the third.”
Part of losing tight games is the natural variance a sport like hockey carries. But another part is the style the Stars play. They rely so much on clamping down on chances (on both ends) that a fluky goal here or a hot goalie there is enough to sink the team. If they played a style that created more chances offensively, there would be more room to overcome slight inconveniences like poor puck luck or bad special teams.
It worked previously. But this year — with the lack of production from Jamie Benn and the injuries to the top end of the forward group — it’s failed.
“The system is working,” Cogliano said. “Guys are working hard. Now, it just comes to mentally pushing ourselves over that edge to get a win and get this rolling in that direction because it’s definitely crunch time.”
