DALLAS — For Ken Hitchcock the Dallas Stars lost the game with 3:26 remaining in regulation.
After the Stars had taken a 3-2 lead on a goal by Alexander Radulov, a momentum-swinging goal that pumped life into the building, the Stars fell asleep on the ensuing shift and the Washington Capitals tied the game 41 seconds later.
Hitchcock wasn’t interested in fielding any questions after the game. He interrupted the first question attempt, spoke for 19 seconds, and walked off.
“The third goal shouldn’t have gone in,” Hitchcock said. “We got beat on the boards three times. Puck was in the net because of it. We didn’t have awareness away from the puck. We had earned the right to finish the game off strong. We got beat off the boards twice and he made a play. Game over.”
The Stars players were more talkative than their coach, but they were still downtrodden by the response after seemingly taking control of the game.
“It was really deflating. We were obviously quite pumped up after (Radulov) scored to go ahead that late in the game,” Dan Hamhuis said. “That’s where you really want to close those games out, ensure that you get the two points. It was a big blow for sure.”
“The last two goals could have been avoided for sure,” Tyler Seguin said. “I thought (Radulov) had a great goal there. Couple of us lose our guy on the boards. I got walked off the boards there and Burakovsky buries it right after we get that big goal. Try to move on quick.”
Since it was such a hot topic after the game, let’s take a look at that third goal and what went wrong.
A huge goal by Brett Connolly. Ties the game 3-3. pic.twitter.com/4lEzFKhjf7
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) December 20, 2017
The work on the boards, as stated by the players and coach, is the killer. At any point during that 10 second stretch the Stars could have used an individual effort by any of the players on the ice — but Washington simply outworked the Stars.
Making matters worse, the Stars also left Brett Connolly wide open in the slot for a quick shot. While it was a bang-bang play, it was goal that the Stars desperately needed a save on from their goaltender that was brought in for his ability to make timely saves.
For the Capitals, who are a very good hockey team and improved to 8-1 in the month of December, that goal was just an example of what they’ve done all season.
“We had a good response all game,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. “I thought our bench was real calm. Even when Radulov scored there, we had a real good shift. They ended up coming down and scoring. It was a great response.”
And that’s the difference right now between the Stars and the next level teams. When the Stars face adversity there is a 50-50 chance they’ll crumble at this moment and that’s not a good trend as the Stars dropped out of playoff positioning with their loss on Tuesday, and have two big games this week against the Chicago Blackhawks and Nashville Predators before the Christmas break.
“You’re never OK with losing,” Hamhuis said. “You want to find a way to get the two points, especially with a lead with four or five minutes to go in the game. You want to be able to close those ones out.”
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