The Two That Got Away!

Mirror images can be a tricky reminder of what you anticipate when you are on the receiving end. The way one moment in time can end in your favor feels wondrous and amazing. 48 hours later you reverse the trend and reach for the bicarbonate of soda when feeling sucker punched.

How else to describe the mood of the Dallas Stars after having had an 11 spot put upon Richard Bachman and the team in the space of five days? You can thank the Calgary Flames for what went down Sunday afternoon.

Having been in attendance for the Ducks game ten days prior that was arguably their best game of the year.

Of late Glen Gulutzan's group has played well having won 6 of 8. There are some days you'll look back on and say, 'This was an easy two points'. Alas it was not to be.

In 48 hours Chris Nilstorp gets the recall back to Dallas after Kari Lehtonen goes on injured reserve for a lower body injury.

He will miss at the very least a week. Richard Bachman gets a heavy dose of Canadian Bacon with the Flames and Canucks before the Sharks of San Jose come to town on the 23rd for a visit.

Backtrack to last Friday. The Canucks of Vancouver riding a six game winning streak and nursing a 3-1 lead over the Stars with 22 minutes left to play. British Columbia has not been kind to Dallas of late.

Lo and behold Cody Eakin, Antoine Roussel and Vancouver native Brenden Dillon fire back with three unanswered goals and an improbable 4-3 road win. Their 5th win in 6 games. I was transfixed on the third period watching from the sofa in my mini-cave.

Sunday night in the second period Dallas plays darn near perfect hockey after falling behind 1-0 on a Mike Cammalleri blast. In the space of 56 seconds Antoine Roussel and Reilly Smith lit the Star Lamp before Ryan Garbutt would also do the same. 22 shots on goal in that period-a season best-and a 3-1 lead after two periods. In the bag, right?

Not so fast...

Borrowing from the Evelyn Wood School of speed scoring Calgary's Roman Horak and Matt Stajan would each find net in 45 seconds for a three all tie. Steve Begin (say like BAY JEENG) would net the game winnner for a dramatic 4-3 Flames win, and a disappointing loss for the Stars. Not how you want to give away your home cooking.

I asked Richard Bachman about the final shot that got past him.

"I didn't see the initial shot," Bachman said. "There were a lot of bodies in front, it kind of bounced around and kicked out to my right, and as soon as I saw that, the first instinct's to get the pad down, try and seal the ice. He kind of spun around and he got a little elevation on it."

To say there was frustration in the Dallas clubhouse would be fair. Reilly Smith would convey this.

"It's very frustrating," said Smith, who scored for the second straight game. "With the big win in Vancouver, it's kind of not worth it anymore because with those two points that we should have had tonight, we let them go."

You of course wonder how disappointed Coach Glen Gulutzan was at game's end.

"It's very disappointing, very disappointing that we didn't come out with two points here at home," Dallas coach Glen Gulutzan said. "We needed to be stronger in front of our net. You got to be battle-ready for 60 minutes. I think we just lost some battles."

Of course with the Flames improving to 3-1-1 on the road there was one happy coach.

"We showed lots of character. I'm very proud of our players," said Flames coach Bob Hartley, whose club is 3-1-1 on the road this year. "We had a good talk after the second period. I told them if we want to build some foundation to be a playoff team, it's games like this that we need to win."

The Stars now have three days off to lick their wounds and try their luck again against the Vancouver Canucks. As for Calgary maybe the blame should just be on Michael Cammalleri. His 4 goals (three of the hat trick variety) the difference in 5 days.

Even more disturbing: Sundays loss ended a string of 79 games (71-0-8) that the Stars lost a game after leading for two periods. That last loss 10-31-09 to the Predators. 6 wins in 9 tries is good but this one the good guys let get away. 

Over and out in Big D.

Mr. Will