Dallas dropped another one, their third loss in four games tonight against the Vancouver Canucks. Dallas looked lively in the third period but just couldn't quite put together a comeback.
The Canucks doubled up their lead on a Kevin Bieksa goal just five minutes into the period. A Kevin Bieksa shot was stopped by Lehtonen but he couldn't control the rebound enough. Bieksa picked up his own rebound and easily skated his way to the net and put it over a sprawled Lehtonen. No defensemen picked up Bieksa and just allowed him to skate free through the zone.
Dallas would finally get on the board on a wacky goal. The puck went behind the net and Schneider went back to get the puck as it bounced off the boards but flat out missed it. He fell down as a result and the puck rolled right in front of the net and Vernon Fiddler was the first guy to reach the puck to tap it in.
It was a weird game for the Stars. There wasn't a whole lot of energy to the team for some reason, but they were more than willing to throw some extra punches and shoves after the whistle. Dallas was really trying to be physical, maybe too physical, in this game. It kind of seemed like they were trying to intimidate the Canucks but that didn't really work.
Dallas couldn't get past Cory Schneider enough tonight. He was stellar throughout and only a fluke play led to a goal, one in which he was behind the net when the puck went in. If it had been Roberto Luongo in net, Dallas would have won this one.
Kari Lehtonen had a pretty good game, stopping 26 of 28 shots. He couldn't do much on the first goal but his rebound led to the second goal.
Dallas now holds a very precarious lead on first in the division. The other teams in the Pacific are currently playing and all could jump ahead of Dallas with wins.