Dallas Stars game notes: Not enough pressure, heavy legs, & elite DeSmith in loss at Ducks

The Dallas Stars just didn’t have the legs during the second night of a back-to-back in a 3-1 loss against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Tuesday.

Stars lines

• Steel – Johnston – Rantanen
• Robertson – Hintz – Bourque
• Hryckowian – Duchene – Benn
• Bäck – Faksa – Blackwell

• Lindell – Lundkvist
• Harley – Petrovic
• Capobianco – Lyubushkin  

• DeSmith
• Oettinger

Scratches: Miro Heiskanen (personal family matter), Adam Erne, Nathan Bastian

Just 20 minutes before puck drop, Stars PR announced this:

Per Stars PR:

Miro Heiskanen will miss tonight's game in Anaheim due to a personal family matter.

— Sam Nestler (@samnestler) January 14, 2026

Ilya Lyubushkin will enter the lineup in Heiskanen’s absence and will be paired with Kyle Capobianco on the bottom duo. Up front, Nathan Bastian comes out after playing last night in Los Angeles. Colin Blackwell jumps back into the lineup, and Adam Erne remains a healthy scratch.

Casey DeSmith starts after Jake Oettinger played well in the win last night.

Top story

Last-minute absences.

As we showed above, Miro Heiskanen will miss tonight’s game due to a personal family matter. That was announced just before (scheduled) puck drop, so hopefully everything is okay.

On the Anaheim side of the puck, the Ducks have a few key absences, also announced late. Leo Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier will miss tonight’s game for unknown reasons. Troy Terry is also out with an upper-body injury. He has missed the past two games. Anaheim will have to go 11 forwards / seven defensemen tonight.

It’s already a whacky one from the OC, and the puck hasn’t even dropped yet. Yes, I am writing this at 9:23 CT, and the puck has still not dropped. Tsk, tsk.

Oh, and if you don’t know why… It’s because tonight is an exclusive national broadcast. You may be asking yourself, ‘Wait, don’t both teams broadcast their games on Victory+?’ Good observation, class! It is true. The Victory+ bowl is blacked out on Victory+.

That’s irony.

Live game notebook

Period 1

• Mavrik Bourque has been flying lately, and he drilled the post with a chip shot that deflected off a stick down the right win just over one minute into the first.
• Mikael Granlund nearly made a spinning pass reception, as he tried to chip it past the defenseman and spin around to the outside. The puck went just out of his reach.
• Nils Lundkvist was called for tripping for the second straight game. This time, he really didn’t get much of Beckett Sennecke to knock him down. But Lundkvist did take a poor angle and get beaten to the middle of the ice. When you do that, you put yourself in position to be called for a penalty when a player goes down. I don’t agree with the call though either way.
• Lundkvist came out of the box and got a puck at center ice after Jason Robertson chipped it away from the Ducks. Lundkvist was unable to get his head up to see Robertson streaking through the middle of the ice. Probably would’ve been a breakaway if he made the pass, and Robertson went offside and slammed his stick on the ice in frustration.
• Casey DeSmith used great positioning to stop a couple of great chances in tight. Anaheim is activing its defense a lot and getting Dallas spinning a bit in its own end.
• Ducks have also closed quickly, stopping Dallas in the neutral zone before it really gets going. The Stars have had a couple of rush chances, but not much in the way of sustained pressure.
• DeSmith has had to be really good as the period winds down. Ducks would be up one or two if not for a couple of huge stops when things break down.
• Robertson had the best chance of the night for Dallas, just barely getting stopped by Lukáš Dostál and the pipe on a shot from the bottom of the left circle, and then again on a wraparound attempt on the rebound.
• DeSmith… WOW! What a save on a backdoor pass from Jackson LaCombe to Ryan Strome. DeSmith read it perfectly, getting a good push from left to right and getting a pad on it. Wow.
• Two more saves for DeSmith to end the period. He stood on his head.

Stars 0, Ducks 0

Period 2

• Dallas gets an early power play and now, because of a bench minor to Anaheim, will get 17 seconds of 5-on-3 time. If the Stars gave Anaheim the puck a little earlier, they could’ve had closer to 30 seconds up two men.
• Well, nevermind. Robertson was called for hooking just off the faceoff in the offensive end. That’s pretty unexcusable with two extra skaters and an offensive-zone faceoff.
• This next sequence was so ugly, I will just let you see how I posted it on Twitter…

That was an ugly sequence for Dallas.

Timeout wasted, 5-on-3 penalty immediately, Capobianco penalty while playing 4-on-4, Chris Kreider left alone in the slot coming off the bench during the delayed penalty, and it's 1-0 Ducks.

— Sam Nestler (@samnestler) January 14, 2026

• Chris Kreider rips one past DeSmith as the extra attacker. The play was just a mess all around for the Stars.

• Wow, the Stars were absolutely buzzing for a full two minutes in the Ducks end. It included a couple of good saves, close calls, and a big hit on Mikko Rantanen by Radko Gudas. In the end, a weak shot from Wyatt Johnston is gobbled up by Dostál.
• Drew Hellesson took a scary puck to the head after Lundkvist’s one-timer from the point was deflected up off his visor and bucket. Scary.
• Anaheim has simply won battles and races all over the ice. Dallas looks tired, mentally and physically. Even Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said so on the bench, stating that his team just has not found its game yet. Gulutzan said if they don’t find it soon, it will be a long night.
• Despite being outplayed, Dallas has a power play chance to tie the game late in the second. Feels like one they need to score on, as the fatigue is only going to get worse in the third.
• Johnston was stopped about three times to the right of the net in tight. Now, he just barely missed the net on a backhand rebound.
• Alex Killorn put the puck in the Dallas net off the shorthanded rush, but the goal was waived off immediately for goalie interference. It’s close, as Thomas Harley does bump Ryan Poehling into DeSmith, but Poehling had a lot of steam heading toward the blue paint. No goal on the play. Big break for Dallas.

Here’s a good visual example of how much Anaheim is outplaying Dallas tonight.

Ducks 1, Stars 0

Period 3

• Rantanen and Gudas have come together a couple of times tonight. Earlier, Gudas ran over Rantanen along the wall in the Anaheim zone. And in the third, Gudas came out of the box and collided with Rantenen. No. 96 got the worst of it.
• Kyle Capobianco saved a goal after Poehling out waited DeSmith and had an open net. This was a good example of DeSmith needing to be more aggressive than Oettinger because of his size. It results in more scramble plays like this.
• Stars were unable to get the puck out of their net, DeSmith and co. were unable to locate the puck near the side of the net, and Sennecke tucks it in along the ice to make it 2-0. That one feels like the clincher for Anaheim.

• Dallas actually created a few great chances 6-on-5, but Dostál made three quick saves, and the Ducks cleared.
• After a failed Anaheim clearance, the Stars went to work. A quick one-touch pass by Matt Duchene and a diving shot by Roope Hintz in the slot made it 2-1 and gave Dallas life.

Back within 1 💪 pic.twitter.com/qAYE6e58u7

— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) January 14, 2026

• Sam Steel and Justin Hryckowian nearly connected on a 2-on-1 to tie the game just after the Stars goal.
• Jacob Trouba scores into the empty net from his own Faceoff dot.

Final: Ducks 3, Stars 1

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It looked an awful lot like a back-to-back for Dallas.

They weren’t clean, they lacked the energy needed, and give credit to Anaheim, they played a good game and deserved to win. Stars have now lost eight of their past 10 games. Meanwhile, the Ducks win snapped a nine-game losing streak.