Heika’s Take: Crazy third period sees Stars fall just short of comeback in loss to Islanders

The Stars have had a habit of keeping almost every game competitive this season, and Tuesday was no exception.

The only problem is Dallas may have been a bit too competitive in a 3-2 loss to the New York Islanders.

Wyatt Johnston scored with 0.1 second remaining on the clock in the third period to seemingly tie the game, but the goal was disallowed after a video replay because Jason Robertson made contact with goalie David Rittich in the crease. Combine that with a five-minute major and ten-minute game misconduct assessed to Mikko Rantanen for boarding Alexander Romanov in the final minute, and you had the most heated game of the season.

“That’s us,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said of the comeback attempt. “They’re still pushing ‘til the end. If you listened to the bench, they’re saying that there’s time, there’s time. We’re never out of it. I just wish the last one would have counted.”

It almost did.

After Robertson made it 3-2 with the goalie pulled, Dallas took the major penalty and had to play shorthanded. But even with Rantanen out of the game, Johnston got to a loose puck and pushed it home in the nick of time. However, Robertson was skating in the crease and his skate and stick hit Rittich. The goal was called good in the game, but NHL replay officials in Toronto overturned the call, and the Islanders took the win.

“The call on the ice was a good goal and we can argue all day whether contact was made before he got into the blue or when he got into the blue, but it’s not going to do us any good,” Gulutzan said.

Robertson added, “I don’t think I’ve been in a scenario like that before. I mean 25 seconds left, five-minute major. It was a good push. I mean we got a chance…it didn’t go in legally.”

The two teams went back and forth in a methodical game that had no penalties through the first two periods. Then, the Stars had a golden chance to tie the game in the third period when it received a four-minute power play for a high stick that cut Oskar Bäck on the nose. However, instead of the vaunted power play helping out, Dallas allowed a shorthanded goal and then took its own penalty to pretty much wipe out the remainder of the long man advantage.

It was a double dose of poor decisions that put the team down 3-1.

“The shorty hurt us,” Gulutzan said. “We get a four-minuter and we take a penalty and give up a shorty, that’s not a good recipe.”

The Stars have had one of the hotter power plays in the league and have been great at posting comebacks, so this was disappointing.

“That was our chance to get back in,” Gulutzan said. “You wish you had that four-minuter back.”

That said, the team had more chances. Tyler Seguin feathered a perfect pass to Robertson for a one-timer that Rittich gloved. And then the play in the final second was well-planned and almost executed.

Gulutzan said the team has been working on a 6-on-5 play since camp, and while this was a shorthanded attempt, it was still very dangerous.

“You could see we generated some chances,” Gulutzan said. “The one pass from Seggy to Robo, they make a heck of a save, otherwise we’re not even going to a challenge, we’d be in overtime.”

And that’s part of the lesson from a loss that stops a five-game winning streak and drops Dallas to 12-5-3.

“It was a great hockey game,” Seguin said. “Great compete on both sides.”

One of the big reasons for that was the return of captain Jamie Benn, who played his first game after suffering a punctured lung in training camp. Benn logged 9:46, had one shot on goal and won 3-of-5 faceoffs. Gulutzan started him on the fourth line, but quickly moved him up the lineup.

“It felt good to be back out there,” Benn said. “I just need to get some timing back. It was my first game in a little bit. It was unfortunate that the outcome wasn’t better, but it’s good to be back.”

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X @MikeHeika.