Stars take half-full view after Buffalo loss
The Stars might not have gotten their first win in the second game of a back-to-back on Friday night in Buffalo, falling 3-2 to the Sabres in a shootout. But getting three out of a possible four points in a quick, two-game road trip against the Blue Jackets and Sabres isn't bad, not bad at all.
"We played a good game," Dallas Coach Glen Gulutzan said. "We didn't give them much, didn't give them much in the third. They had to pull their goalie. They got a couple off the rush. I thought we did a good job of managing our game until last minute they got a bounce."
Dallas led 1-0 at the first intermission thanks to Michael Ryder's 20th goal of the season and made it 2-0 early in the third when rookie Tomas Vincour netted his first of the year. Vincour has a goal and an assist in his two games with the Stars' top line.
"We're happy with what he's done up there so far," Gulutzan said of Vincour. "He needs to keep working."
The Stars also got a 30-save performance from No. 1 goaltender Kari Lehtonen, who delivered yet another stellar performance, including a huge pad save at the end of overtime to force the shootout.
"He's been a big part of this team all year," Ryder said. "He's a big, very agile goaltender and he's one of the reasons we're in the playoff hunt. We've got to make sure we give him support in front of the net. But overall, he made big saves when we needed them and it was huge."
But in the end, the Stars, who were up 2-1, were just 39 seconds from getting the full two points in Buffalo, until the Sabres' Derek Roy tied it at 2-2 very late.
Instead of seething about the loss, Gulutzan chose to view the trip from a half-full perspective, partly because he's been coaching long enough to know that things like that can happen at any level.
"It came down to the last minute," he said. "Those things happen in the league. That's just the way it does."
Dallas returns to the ice on Sunday at home against Los Angeles.
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