Overview:
The Dallas Stars can be an exciting team to watch or a major disappointment. What started out as an opportunity to make up for an awful road trip ended in a devastating loss. The Minnesota Wild had no right to beat Dallas, but they did it anyway. The Wild took advantage of Dallas’ lack of depth scoring and eventually broke through Ben Bishop.

First Period:
The Stars came out slow and luckily for them, the Wild were not much faster. Through the first ten minutes, Minnesota had five shots on goal and Dallas had zero. However, the Stars netminder Ben Bishop didn’t have much of a challenge. The Stars powerplay was similar to the one on the road trip. Terrible. The Stars could not generate any scoring chances off the powerplay either. Overall both teams had nothing to brag about.

Second Period:
If the Stars had any chance of winning this game it would’ve come in the second period. Dallas peppered Minnesota Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk with a total of 24 shots. Dubnyk stopped all 24. Bishop stood strong in his net as well as, keeping the Wild at bay. This period was a much faster-paced style of play but nothing to show for it on the scoreboard.

Third Period:
What seemed like a promising start, quickly turned into another disappointment. Jason Spezza deflected a shot from the point from Miro Heiskanen and broke the scoreless game. This was Spezza’s first goal this season. Dallas looked like they were going to take control of this game, but the Wild’s Matt Dumba thought otherwise. A giant rebound off of Bishop allowed Dumba to easily tap in the puck to tie the game. A few minutes later, the Wild’s Ryan Suter got a lucky bounce off of Stars’ defenceman Esa Lindell, giving Minnesota the lead. Dallas tried to apply more pressure but couldn’t break through the defenses of the Wild. In a last desperation attempt, the Stars pulled Bishop with two minutes remaining. A minute later the Wild’s Zach Parise slipped the puck into the empty net and all but finished off the Stars.

Recap:
All the Minnesota Wild had to do to win this game was shut down the Stars top line. Luckily for them, Alexander Radulov was out for the game so that left just Benn and Seguin. Once again the Stars could not muster up some secondary scoring, outside of Jason Spezza, who now has 5 points in 7 games. The Stars hounded Dubnyk, but they just could not finish. It’s as if they do 90% of the work and then quit on the last ten percent. For some strange reason, the Stars just cannot find players that can contribute on the scoreboard. The game against the Wild was just another example of this. The top line of Dallas will have their moments. And they will score a lot. However, it is going to be a long season unless the Stars snag another top 6 forward. Currently, there is a forward in Toronto named William Nylander or a center in Ottawa, named Matt Duchene, that could be traded. Dallas has a few players with some trade value. Maybe Jim Nill makes something interesting happen. Or maybe Dallas continues to be a one-line team. The ball is in Jim Nill’s court.

What’s Next:
The Stars remain at home as they look to rebound against the Los Angeles Kings.