The Dallas Stars were less than a minute away from winning their fifth game in a row.
They were clinging to a 1-0 lead, playing an excellent road game against a St. Louis Blues team that is one of the best in the Western Conference, and inching closer too a win.
Then chaos started to unfold.
Already playing shorthanded due to a penalty to Jani Hakanpaa, Miro Heiskanen was called for slashing during a sequence where he was hauled down behind the net with no call. It was during that delayed penalty situation that the Blues were able to tie the game with Ryan O’Reilly’s sixth goal of the season. Because the Stars were already shorthanded at the time, Heiskanen still had to serve his penalty, giving the Blues another power play opportunity.
It took them less than 20 seconds to capitalize when Jordan Kyrou was able to get a fortunate bounce and beat Braden Holtby for his 14th goal of the season.
Here is the entire sequence.
Stars coach Rick Bowness was obviously frustrated with the sequence and took it out on (we think) Joe Pavelski’s stick.
Checking in on Rick Bowness after the Stars loss to the Blues... pic.twitter.com/qQ0a1rOpvd
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) January 9, 2022
Here is what Bowness had to say after the game, via the Dallas Morning News’ Matthew DeFranks.
“If you’re watching the game, you saw what happened. They clearly pulled Miro down, clearly grab his stick and pull him down. That’s my opinion. They got lucky. Broken stick on a penalty kill, second goal goes in off our feet. That’s the breaks of the game. We played a hell of a hockey game. We deserved a lot better than that. We did. We played a hell of a road game for our third game in 3 1/2 days. We battled hard. We deserved a lot better than that.”
Tough breaks.
Even with that it was still a solid effort for the Stars and continues what has been a very encouraging stretch here as they try to find some consistency. At different times this season they have lost six out of seven, won 10 out of 11, lost five in a row, and then won four in a row.
The Blues, meanwhile, now have at least one point in 12 consecutive home games thanks to Sunday’s late rally.
—
Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.