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Game Report: Canadiens 3, Stars 1

Observations and quotations from Sunday evening’s game at AAC. When the fingerprints of Mike Modano and Marty Turco are found at the scene of the crime, you know the autopsy isn’t going to be pleasant.

The Stars will win another home game. Sometime. I think. Sunday’s loss made it six straight losses at home. That equaled the franchise record. Without first identifying the year, suffice to say one of the visiting teams that won during that previous streak was the Oakland Seals. (January-February 1970 during the third season of the Minnesota North Stars.)

On the topic of blood, there was plenty coming from Steve Ott early on. His mouth intersected with the flight pattern of Mathieu Schnieder’s stick midway through the first period, resulting in a four-minute double minor. Coming a few minutes after Loui Eriksson opened the Stars’ scoring on a 5-on-3, there was blood in the water from a Canadiens team dragging around two previous losses on their current road trip. As the first period wore on, Montreal wore a rut into the ice headed to the penalty box. Nine minor penalties. But Dallas could manage only the one goal, only one shot on the entire 5-on-3. Said young winger James Neal: “It’s tough to see us play that hard, do all those good things in the first and come out with nothing.”

And then everything came apart. With the score tied 1-1 late in the second period, Montreal’s Alex Kovalev fired a shot that banged high off Turco and into the top of the net. A bad goal, Stars coach Dave Tippett called it. And Turco felt the same way: “I’d love to have that second goal back. It kind of hit off of the shoulder. I was between blocking it and trying to catch it. You trust your instincts.”

Then there was the back breaking third goal early in the third. Canadiens defenseman Ryan O’Byrne, on the right side inside Dallas’ blue line, routinely rocketed the puck around the back of the net. Turco, often a third defender with his mobility and puck-handling, will stop that play just about any other time, even when the puck skids high along the glass like this one. This time, he fanned. Then, as he described, “I couldn’t make my turn, just got jammed up there on the boards. Stumbled into the boards. By the time I pushed off and turned around, it was on the way to the net.” Courtesy of Chris Higgins, waiting along the left boards as the puck flew to him like out of the log flume at Six Flags. ”That’s the way it goes,” Turco said. “You live and die by that.”

There was no blaming the Ribeiro line for Sunday’s result. Eriksson accounted for the only goal, giving him four in the last three games and 32 total. Ott was all over the ice again and continues to show he has become more than fists and his famouly flapping jaw. Ribeiro, always motivated against his previous employer and team of his boyhood dreams, played a team-high 28:31, was creative and even helped kill off a 5-on-3.

Tippett minced no words in noting the dropoff of production from the Ribeiro line to those centered by Modano and newcomer Brendan Morrison: “If we don’t get something out of Modano and Morrison soon, we are going to be in trouble.” That includes the two veterans helping to raise the play of the youngsters alongside them.

Modano (one goal in 20 games since Jan. 21) didn’t offer any rebuttal of Tippett’s assessment. Asked if he could cite what needs to be changed, he said, “It’s a combination of things. It’s not to give up anything on the offensive end and playing good defense. Being smart about your offensive chances and what you do with that puck. I thought we had a lot of shots as a line as the game wore on, but everything gets deflected or knocked off the net.” He also wasn’t thrilled with the 5 p.m. start, a Stars concession to not wanting to play opposite NBC’s afternoon slot and not wanting to play a 7:30 game on a school night. Said the tweener start left too much time for sitting around the house but not enough to do anything before heading to work. Couldn’t get into the game mentally.

So an offense that has played without Brenden Morrow for forever and without Brad Richards for a couple weeks and that lost Jere Lehtinen last week (upper body injury – day to day) and lost Fabrian Brunnstrom in the second period (upper body injury – day to day) and looked so good last week in California  seemed to look like it wanted to make the perfect pass against the Canadiens.

So the Stars still sit eighth in the West, two points out of sixth, two points ahead of 11th. And we’ll see if the main point that Tippett made after Sunday’s game is addressed in St. Louis on Tuesday.