The Carolina Hurricanes fell to the Dallas Stars 4-2 Tuesday night at American Airlines Center.
Despite a 34-23 edge in shots, Carolina gave up just a few too many high-danger chances that Dallas capitalized on.
The Canes weren't the cleanest in the neutral zone and gave up quite a few odd-man situations.
"We gave up a couple of breakaways," said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour when asked about the difference in the game. "A couple of really unfortunate bounces, I thought, in the neutral zone that led to them getting some odd-man rushes and they capitalized. We had some odd-man rushes in the first period and just passed it, passed it, passed it instead of just firing at the net. So that kind of put us behind the 8-ball a little bit, but I thought overall we had a really good game. The bounces just weren't going our way tonight."
The Stars broke the ice midway through the first period as a neutral zone turnover led to a partial breakaway for Roope Hintz.
A little fake slap shot opened up Pyotr Kochetkov enough and a quick wrister flew through his five-hole.
The play all starts from a neutral zone turnover by Brett Pesce, who was playing in his first game since missing the last two due to illness.
The Canes swarmed to the left-side of the ice where the puck was and Hintz, who was Jordan Staal's assignment, drifted to the right and was set up with an outlet pass.
"We made a few mistakes and they made us pay," Staal said. "They did a good job of capitalizing on their opportunities and we were kind of looking for some breaks. Had some opportunities and good looks to tie it up and just came up short. Wasn't a terrible game, but wasn't our best. There were some mistakes out there and we gave them a few. Obviously the first one was a tough one for me too, but it was a good battle and a good game, but we have to find a way to get points."
Carolina found an equalizer quickly into the second period as Seth Jarvis found Staal streaking in on the opening shift and the captain roofed it.
However, Dallas would soon grab the lead back after some soft defending.
Matt Duchene enters the Canes' zone with ease and pulls up, finding himself with time and space as all of Carolina's skaters gave up the ice. He found Nils Lundqvist who went around the back of the net with speed and found Mason Marchment in the circle for a one-timer which blew past Kochetkov.
You would have liked to see Carolina stand up at the blueline better on that play. Pesce allowed Duchene an easy enter, but Martin Necas and Michael Bunting don't do enough to disrupt him either. Brady Skjei was then caught flat-footed as Lundqvist blew by him. and Pesce was caught in no-man's land and couldn't rotate in time to Marchment who had jumped over the boards.
But the Hurricanes battled back and a after a failed power play, the Canes put together a solid bump up shift and a lucky bounce found its way in off of Jesper Fast's skate.
"You usually score goals around the net, so we have to find ways to get there," Fast said. "Lucky today that I had one. Just have to find ways to get pucks and bodies in there. A little good bounce."
The tie wouldn't last too long though as the Stars once again pulled ahead off of a neutral zone misplay in the third period.
The Canes get caught a bit up ice and a quick-up pass by Dallas followed by a one-toucher sent Jason Robertson in on a 2-on-1. Pesce took the pass, allowing Kochetkov the shooter, but the Russian netminder didn't quite have the angle allowed Robertson to snipe it far-post.
Carolina thought they might have had another quick equalizer with Pesce getting a grade-A chance in close, but Dallas netminder Jake Oettinger made a huge stop.
Then as time wound down, Duchene would hit a 175-footer for the empty-netter, but the game wasn't quite over there.
Carolina would cut the deficit to one again with Jack Drury banging home a puck with a little over 90 seconds to go, but a challenge by the Stars would wipe the play off the board due to goaltender interference.
On the play, Drury drives the puck and simultaneously, Oettinger's pad, into the net, leading to the goal getting called back, but Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour wasn't happy with the call.
"It's frustrating because we've had it go the other way earlier in the year with the same kind of thing," Brind'Amour said. "Nobody really knows. That's the problem. We should just admit that we don't know what we're doing on that and we'll live with the calls. I think that I can live with it, it's just that its very inconsistent. That's the problem."
In the end, Carolina really needed more from their top line.
The trio of Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov and Teuvo Teravainen didn't have a single shot on goal despite 17+ minutes of ice time, and finished as a -2.
The line had zone time, outchancing Dallas 17-10, but they just didn't do a lot with it and they were kept mostly on the perimeter.
For the Canes to be successful, they need more from that line.
The Hurricanes will be back in action on Friday against the Arizona Coyotes for the front half of a back-to-back.
"We knew that it was going to be a tough game tonight and when we hit Arizona, same thing," Brind'Amour said. "They're a team fighting to try and crawl in. Always play hard, especially at their home rink and then obviously you've got the next one playing the Stanley Cup champs."