The Dallas Stars spoiled the return of Pascal Dupuis and snapped the Pittsburgh Penguins winning streak at three games with a 4-1 win Thursday night. The Penguins came out firing, but Stars goaltender Antti Niemi stymied the attack, stopping 33 shots in the game, including 11 in the first period.
Seemingly everything went right for the Stars in the first 20 minutes. Seconds after the halfway mark, Johnny Oduya floated a shot from the left point through a few bodies and past the right shoulder of Marc-Andre Fleury. Fleury appeared to lose sight of the puck on the play.
Only 5:10 later, with Patric Hornqvist in the penalty box for shooting the puck over the glass, John Klingberg fired a snapshot past Fleury high on the glove side. Kris Letang fanned on a backhand clearing attempt, and Klingberg picked up the the puck at the right point and backpeddled around a stationary Dupuis all the way to the top of the left faceoff circle for the shot.
The Penguins started the second period on the powerplay but failed to sustain any significant pressure. With five minutes gone, David Perron chased a loose puck into the Penguins zone and threw a blind pass up the middle of the ice to a forechecking Jason Spezza. Spezza walked down the slot and fired a shot past Fleury, giving the Stars a 3-0 lead.
The Penguins looked out of sync after going down by three despite Nick Bonino finally solving Niemi with a strong individual effort, swooping out from behind the net, turning and burying the puck in the top right corner of the net. However, only 1:42 later, another defensive breakdown in the Penguins defensive zone led to a wide open Klingberg getting the puck on the back door. Fleury made the initial save, and after pinballing around at the top of the crease, Mattias Janmark slammed in the loose puck to reclaim a three-goal lead.
Quite frankly, the Penguins looked defeated and overwhelmed in the third period as the Stars adopted a defensive system to preserve the lead. A Vernon Fiddler minor for tripping and a Jason Demers major for elbowing gave the Penguins some life with just over three minutes remaining in the game. With Fleury on the bench and play six Penguins against three Stars, the bounces continued to go to the Stars and Niemi. Matt Cullen rang a shot off the crossbar, the only real scoring chance for the Penguins on the advantage.
Dupuis, Sergei Plotnikov, Kevin Porter and Bryan Rust all played in favor of Daniel Sprong, a surprising move given the Penguins inability to score so far in the season and the skillset of Sprong.
The Penguins play again Saturday against the Nashville Predators hoping to find a way to kickstart the offense.
Photo credit: Chaz Palla – Trib Total Media
