DALLAS _ The needle is actually moving up for the Stars.
Jason Spezza (lower body) returned from a five-game injury absence Tuesday and Cody Eakin (knee) and Patrick Sharp (concussion) could be right behind him.
Dallas is starting a four-game homestand and has 12 of the next 19 at American Airlines Center.
And this hobbled team would be in the playoffs with a 6-6-5 record if postseason started Wednesday.
But, that still doesn't make the overtime losses hurt any less. Dallas crumbled in the extra period again Tuesday, losing to the New Jersey Devils, 2-1. It was the fifth overtime defeat this season and the ninth in a row for the Stars.
And it happened in much the same manner as many previous losses. The Stars top trio of Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and John Klingberg took the first shift, created a couple of scoring chances and then gave up a two-on-one going the other way. Kyle Palmieri fed Adam Henrique for a hard shot into an open net, and the Devils tasted victory just 44 seconds into the extra period.
New Jersey wins its fifth in a row and moves to 9-3-3 (21 points).
It was both a reassuring game and a kick in the shin for the Stars. Dallas was playing its first game after a long road trip _ usually a trap game in the NHL _ also was playing its seventh game in 11 days with travel required for every game. So the fact the Stars held it close, received a strong 31-save performance from Antti Niemi, pushed the game to overtime all fell in the positive column.
But the result was still quite bitter.
Dallas last season started 3-0 in overtime games, with Seguin, Klingberg and Benn doing most of the damage. But then things slowed down as the season wore on. This season, they only seem to be getting worse. The Stars lost 1:20 into OT against Los Angeles, 46 seconds in against Columbus, 4:31 in to Chicago, 1:27 in to Vancouver and now 44 seconds in to the Devils.
Stars coach Lindy Ruff has said on several occasions, the team has to think defense when trying to play three-on-three hockey, but Dallas continues to be enticed by the possibility of scoring. The result is often that a tired group of three is chasing back against an outmanned break in transition.
That's what happened Tuesday.
Until that point, the game was pretty solid. Yes, the Stars were badly outshot in the second period (16-7), but they recovered nicely and Niemi was on top of his game. Dallas allowed the first goal at 7:40 of the first period when Klingberg had a turnover at his own blue line and then struggled to recover on defense.
Defenseman Damon Severson scored in transition, and New Jersey has a 1-0 lead.
But Dallas had its own tricks as Antoine Roussel stole a puck at the defensive blue line and took off on an odd-man rush. Roussel fed Patrick Eaves, and Eaves hammered home his seventh goal of the year to tie things up.
Roussel extended his career-best point streak to seven games, and the Stars looked like they might get another good game out of Ruff's shuffled lines. However, the conservative Devils were able to create a fairly deliberate pace, and the game trudged toward overtime.
Dallas had a chance to gain the win with a late power play in regulation, but New Jersey's Cory Schneider was solid in net. That led what is fast becoming the inevitable when the Stars get past regulation.
"That might have been the best (overtime) possession we've had in a long time, but we made a really bad decision," Ruff said. "We put a puck in the middle, and we should have been changing by that time. It was a bad pass."
