The Dallas Stars took an early lead but ran out of answers in a 4-1 loss against the Tampa Bay Lightning at American Airlines Center on Sunday.

Stars lines

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

• Lindell – Heiskanen
• Harley – Lundkvist
• Capobianco – Lyubushkin  

• Oettinger
• DeSmith

Scratches: Alex Petrovic, Adam Erne, Nathan Bastian

Top story

Frustration.

This was maybe the most frustrated and down I have seen this team all season. And rightfully so.

This group has lost 10 of 12. They have scored a single goal in three-straight games. They have started to allow four goals or more per game on a consistent basis. They are allowing far too much in the high-danger areas and turning pucks over going up the ice. And the things that carried them through their fantastic beginning to the season have stopped doing so (power play, goaltending, shooting percentage).

I will tell you this, though. The team is not just pushing this aside.

They understand things need to change fast. And Stars coach Glen Gulutzan himself is taking full responsibility and saying he needs to find a way to get more out of this group and gain some traction on what has been a really tough stretch of hockey.

Live game notebook

Period 1

• QueBäck is off to a hot start after being put back together. A harmless shot by Nils Lundkvist after a Tampa turnover snuck through Andrei Vasilevskiy, and Oskar Bäck poked it across the goal line. This shot should never sneak through and sit in the crease, especially on the best goalie of the past 10 years, but Mavrik Bourque made a great pass off the turnover, and Lundkvist… Shot the puck! Yeah, I am being serious. One shot, one rebound, one goal. One bourbon, one scotch, one beer.

• Tampa pushed a 2-on-1 after a bad pass at the offensive blue line by Dallas. Seeing them come down 2-on-1 with a lefty on the right side just makes me think of Blake Coleman hammering the one-timer to end the Stars season in Game 6 of the bubble. Coleman is pretty good, they should go get him, eh?
• Speaking of 2-on-1’s… Tampa got another — This time with both skaters coming down the left wing — And a saucer pass got through to Dominic James, who snuck a snap shot past the blocker of Jake Oettinger on the near side. I am not sure if this shot ticked off the stick of Esa Lindell, but either way, Oettinger looks to be off his angle. I will let you be the judge.

• We need more Jackson 5 at the AAC. That much is true.
• Jason Robertson with a really good shift. First, he caught a stretch breakout pass from Colin Blackwell that was still a bit off the ice and perfectly in the triangle between skate and stick blade, where it is almost impossible to handle. He did it flawlessly on the backhand, created a chance, then found Roope Hintz in space with speed with a perfect leading pass through the neutral zone.
• Justin Hryckowian with a flawless Justin Hryckowian shift. He picked up the loose puck after Max Crozier blew a tire, created a nifty scoring chance, crashed the net for a rebound, then got into a scrum, knocking the helmet off Declan Carlile. Stripes wouldn’t let the two drop their gloves, but then this happened and it was wonderful.

Stars 1, Lightning 1

Period 2

• Nikita Kucherov has one of the quickest shot releases I have ever seen. He just picked up a puck in the left circle and chipped it off the crossbar over the shoulder of Oettinger before he even reacted. Close call.
• Dallas got away with one after Robertson turned the puck over at center ice with a weak flip out of his own end. Tampa turned it back, Roope Hintz changed, and Robertson nor any defensemen picked up Jake Guentzel on the backside wing. He was all alone if the puck carrier could have found him. He couldn’t.
• The Stars looked to get a four-minute power play after Kyle Capobianco ate a high stick that drew blood. But after review, it was Radek Faksa who tried to lift a Tampa Stick and instead clocked Capobianco up the nose with the toe of his blade. Ouch.
• Robertson made another good play and turned it into a 3-on-1 for Dallas. Robertson outwaited the sliding defender, but Matt Duchene looked to slow up expecting a pass on him so he could collect it and shoot. Robertson threw it in front of him for more of a tip play, and it just missed connecting.
• Tampa nearly scored on a power play, but Guentzel jammed the rebound off the outside of the left post. Oettinger looked like he would have gotten it with a diving paddle save if it was on net, though. Good kill from the Stars.
• Oof. What a freakin pass by Rantanen through the entire Tampa team to find Sam Steel breaking in alone in the slot. Steel couldn’t pick it up in time and only got a one-handed poke on it. Down the other way, Steel makes a nice shot block but the rebound falls right to Brandon Hagel on the side of the net with Oettinger out of the crease. Esa Lindell actually blocked the first jam attempt, but Hagel willed it in. That’s a good example of Steel not having enough offensive instinct to play on the top line. Has to be frustrating sometimes for Rantanen. But full credit for the shot block on the other end.

• Now the Stars created a good chance on the power play, but Vasilevskiy made a great save on Hintz in the low slot and the rest of the power play was not good.
• Tampa has started to get to the slot a lot more in this second period, and they have been rewarded with two rebound goals in tight. Great second period team defensively, but they have scored today, too. 3-1 and a TOUGH goal to allow with one minute to go in the second.

• Tampa has allowed the fewest second-period goals all season. They held Dallas to zero and scored two of their own.

Lightning 3, Stars 1

Period 3

• Tampa Bay continues to get to the middle of the ice and Dallas is continuously turning the puck over in their own end. Spelling trouble for the Stars.
• Nils Lundkvist just took a forearm shiver up high directly to the jaw. Nothing was called on the play and Lundkvist went to the bench gingerly. He is okay and back for the next shift.
• This game has been just about 60 minutes of “almosts” or “just abouts” for Dallas. Another one there, as Bourque couldn’t catch up to a pass that would’ve sent him in on about breakaway.
• Steel was unable to catch up to two separate passes, one from Duchene was a bit lazy and out of his reach, but both turned into completely unnecessary icings. Been a tough night for a lot of Stars, Steel and Duchene included.
• Somehow, Nikita Kucherov has missed twice on the Stars empty net, both from the Dallas blue line.
• Now Tampa scores into the empty net.

Final: Lightning 4, Stars 1

Quotable

Stars coach Glen Gulutzan on the team’s frustration level:

“Oh, yeah, it’s gone on too long for a little bit now. And we’re bouncing a little bit of fighting, getting through it, but not getting any traction… LA, Washington. But there’s no break. 
You guys know, there’s no break. It’s Boston coming in here, all the games are like this. They’re all like this. 
One or two will get out of hand, but for us, they’re going to be all like this. And they were when we were winning. We were just winning them. 
We’ve got to stay with it, find a different mindset to stay with it longer.”

Oh, and to make matters worse on this fine Sunday, Vegas is reportedly acquiring Rasmus Andersson. So, there’s that.