ESPN

The decision to go with Kari Lehtonen in goal on back-to-back night’s turned out to be a good one for the Dallas Stars. Lehtonen was brilliant Friday night in Buffalo, but it wasn’t enough for the Stars to get two points, as they couldn’t hold a 2-0 third period lead and lost 3-2 in a shootout to the Sabres at First Niagara Center.

The Sabres forced overtime, scoring with 38.3 seconds left in regulation.

“I thought right from the beginning we managed our game pretty good and limited their chances. We did what we wanted to do defensively. It came down to the last minute and they had to pull their goalie,” said Stars coach Glen Gulutzan. “Those things happen in the league. I’m sure we’ll look at the last minute, but the shot gets through, it gets through to the guy on the backside – they’ve got an extra guy – and they get a bounce. That’s just the way it is.”

With the shootout loss the Stars remained winless in the second games of back-to-backs with an 0-8-2 record.

The point they picked up in the game moved them to within one point of eighth place in the Western Conference.

“Obviously we were looking for two points and we were close,” said Stars forward Tomas Vincour, who scored his second goal of the season in the game. “We had a good game and we’ll take the one point and we’ve to get ready for Sunday.”

The Stars took a 1-0 lead late in the first period by cashing in on the game’s first power play. Alex Goligoski’s shot from the left point was tipped into the net by Michael Ryder.

Lehtonen, who originally wasn’t scheduled to start the game, made that lead hold up in the second period, making some great stops including a couple on Buffalo forward Drew Stafford with the Sabres on the power play.

“He’s at the top of his game right now, that’s for sure,” Gulutzan said of Lehtonen.

The Stars extended the lead to 2-0 when Steve Ott knocked Sabres defenseman Christian Ehrhoff off the puck in the corner and Jamie Benn set up Vincour, who scored from close range to give the Stars a 2-0 lead at the 4:17 mark.

But 27 seconds later Stars forward Radek Dvorak was in the penalty box for holding, and Buffalo cashed in on the power play chance to make it a 2-1 game. Jason Pominville centered the puck from the right circle and Thomas Vanek redirected it past Lehtonen at 5:04 of the third.

The Sabres, who outshot the Stars 13-3 in the third, pulled goalie Ryan Miller for the extra attacker with just over a minute remaining and they scored with 38.3 seconds remaining to tie. Tyler Myers got a shot on net from just inside the blue line and Derek Roy scored off the rebound.

“Myers made a great shot, Stafford did a great job in front and I found the puck,” said Roy. “We need big goals like that to win games.”

In overtime, Lehtonen came up with another huge save, making a pad save on a wide open Vanek with two seconds remaining.

But in a five-round shootout, the Sabres got goals from Brad Boyes and Nathan Gerbe, while only Jamie Benn could find the back of the net for the Stars.

“I think we played a pretty good game overall. I think we maybe sat back a little too much in the third and gave them some momentum. I think we had only three shots,” said Ryder. “It’s a big point for us, but we would have liked to get two. Give those guys credit, they came at us hard and managed to tie up in the last minute and they won in a shootout. Overall, we had a good game. It’s just a matter of us sticking to the game plan in the third.”

Notes: Morrow out for a while longer

*Stars captain Brenden Morrow, who has missed the last three games with neck/shoulder problems, could be out another at least another couple weeks.

*Stars center Vernon Fiddler was injured in Friday’s game when a puck shot by teammate Mark Fistric hit him in the ankle area. "He's limping around,” said Stars coach Glen Gulutzan. “We'll get an x-ray and see what goes on there."

*Sheldon Souray missed Friday’s game with a foot injury. He was hit by a puck in Thursday’s game in Columbus. He is day-to-day.

*Adam Pardy and Toby Petersen were healthy scratches Friday.

*The Stars are 16-0-1 when leading after two periods.

*The Stars haven’t won a game in Buffalo since Stanley Cup clinching win in 1999. They are 0-4-2 in Buffalo since then.

The Dallas Stars squandered a 2-0 third period lead and fell 3-2 in a shootout to the Buffalo Sabres Friday night. The Stars fell to 0-8-2 in the second games of back-to-back this season. The Stars got a brilliant performance from goaltender Kari Lehtonen, who stopped 30 of 32 shots in the game. Michael Ryder and Tomas Vincour scored goals for the Stars, who pulled to within one point of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

First period

The Stars got the game’s first power play late in the first period when Buffalo’s Cody McCormick took a roughing penalty, and they took advantage. Alex Goligoski’s shot from the left point was tipped into the net by Michael Ryder with 2:07 left in the period.

Kari Lehtonen was sharp in goal for the Stars, stopping seven shots including a nice glove stop on Jason Pominville with 35 seconds left in the period.

Second period

Kari Lehtonen came up big in the second period for the Stars, stopping all nine shots he faced to help the Stars preserve their 1-0 lead.

With Buffalo on its first power play of the game, Lehtonen made back-to-back saves on Drew Stafford including a sharp glove save on Stafford’s second chance from point blank range.

Buffalo came close to tying the game with just under five minutes left in the period, but Christian Ehrhoff’s shot from the left circle rang off the post.

The Stars outshot the Sabres 11-9 in the period and had a 21-16 advantage through two periods.

Third period

The Stars extended their lead to 2-0 at the 4:17 of the mark of the third. Steve Ott knocked Ehrhoff off the puck behind the Buffalo net and Jamie Benn then centered the puck to Tomas Vincour, who scored from close range to make it a 2-0 game.

But the Sabres got the on the board less than a minute later, cashing in on their second power play of the game. Jason Pominville’s centering pass was redirected into the net by Thomas Vanek at the 5:07 mark.

Buffalo pulled goalie Ryan Miller with a little more than a minute to go for the extra attacker and tied the game with 38.3 seconds left when Derek Roy scored off the rebound of Tyler Myers shot.

The Sabres outshot the Stars 13-3 in the third period.

OT/Shootout

Lehtonen got the game to a shootout with a spectacular pad save on a wide open Vanek’s point blank shot with two seconds remaining in four-on-four overtime.

The shootout went five rounds and the Sabres won it 2-1 on goals by Brad Boyes and Nathan Gerbe. Jamie Benn scored the only goal for the Stars.

Stars lineup

Benn-Ott-Vincour
Eriksson-Ribeiro-Ryder
Nystrom-Fiddler-Dvorak
Dowell-Wandell-Burish

Grossman-Daley
Goligoski-Robidas
Fistric-Larsen

Lehtonen (starter)
Bachman

Injured: Souray (foot), Morrow (neck/shoulder)
Scratched: Pardy, Petersen

Dallas Stars at Buffalo Sabres
Friday February 10
6:30 p.m.
TV: Fox Sports Southwest Plus
Radio: KTCK-1310 (AM)

About the Stars

The Stars (28-23-2) are coming off a 4-2 at Columbus Thursday. The Stars scored two goals in the first 4:21 of the game and added a third at 1:05 of the second to build a 3-0 lead in the game.

“It was a big start tonight. Those two goals were huge. Getting some momentum on the road for our team is big. We definitely want that in the first period,” said Stars center Jamie Benn, who scored two goals. “We battled a lot harder. We won some battles. There are still things we can clean up. Our second period wasn’t very good. We know that. It was because of bad penalties and turnovers that they got their chances. We need to clean that up.”

The Stars are 4-2-0 in their last six games.

The Stars are 0-8-1 in the second game of back-to-backs this season.

Richard Bachman will get the start in goal for the Stars on Friday.

Injuries: D Sheldon Souray (foot) is questionable. LW Brenden Morrow (neck/shoulder) is out.

About the Sabres

The Sabres (23-24-6) ran their points streak to five games (4-0-1) with a 6-0 victory over Boston in Buffalo Wednesday night. The game featured 90 minutes in penalties and three fights.

“We’re not going to back down,” Sabres forward Jason Pominville said. “Guys stepped in. Some of them played out of character. Everybody did different things to help us win. And that’s what a team is all about.”

Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller stopped 36 shots for his second shutout in the past three games.

Buffalo is 5-0-4 in its last nine home games.

Injuries: F Jochen Hecht (concussion), D T.J. Brennan (lower body) and F Colin Stuart (lower body) are out.

Series notes

*This is the first and only meeting between the two teams this season.

*The Stars won last season’s only meeting, shutting out Buffalo 4-0 in Dallas.

*The Stars are 41-52-18 all-time against the Sabres.

FRISCO – The Dallas Stars have been in a bit of a funk lately and Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said the only way the team is going to get out of it is by bearing down and working their way out of it.

“There’s no magic elixir or potion that is going to come,” Gulutzan said. “It’s about digging in. This game is still about that, working together and doing the same things within our structure. That’s what it is about.”

The Stars haven’t come out of the All-Star break the way they wanted. The record is 2-2-0. It could be worse if not for the goaltending of Kari Lehtonen. They’re actually a point closer to eighth place than when they came out of the All-Star break, sitting only two points out of the final spot. But teams have pushed ahead of the in the standings, leaving the Stars in 12^th place at the end of play Wednesday.

The Stars were expecting more, and they’ll need more as they move ahead. That was the message Wednesday as the Stars prepared to head off on a brief road trip.

“The message is we’ve got to dig in here and get to work to right this ship,” Gulutzan said.

The Stars didn’t practice Wednesday, saving some energy now that they are in a stretch where they play at least every other night and travel between each game for the next couple weeks.

The Stars hit the road for the next two games and while the opponents are out of the playoff picture, they won’t be easy matchups. Thursday’s opponent – the Columbus Blue Jackets – are sitting 15^th in the Western Conference, but have been playing better and are on a two-game winning streak.

“They beat Minnesota (Tuesday) night. They are a team that works very hard, they got skilled guys and at this juncture this is an even matchup,” said Gulutzan. “We’re going to have to make sure that we’re ready to play.”

And Friday’s opponent – the Buffalo Sabres – are on a bit of a roll. They’ve picked up points in five straight games (4-0-1) and are coming off a 6-0 rout of Boston Wednesday night. That will be a tough matchup on the second night of a back-to-back, something the Stars have struggled with this season.

Back-to-back No. 10

Thursday’s game at Columbus and Friday’s game against Buffalo will be the Stars’ tenth set of back-to-back games this season. The first nine haven’t gone well. The Stars have a 4-12-2 record in those games, including a 4-4-1 mark in first games of the back-to-back and a 0-8-1 record in second games. Excluding the goal awarded for a shootout victory, the Stars have been outscored 36-14 in those second games.

Here are some photos of last night's Dallas Stars-Buffalo Sabres game. You can check out all of Shannon Byrne's photos here or by clicking below on the picture of Andrew Raycroft.

Buffalo Sabres at Dallas Stars
Saturday October 30
7:00 p.m.
TV: TXA 21
Radio: KTCK

About the Stars

The Stars (5-4-0) fell to 0-3-0 on their current homestand after a 5-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings Thursday night. It was the Stars’ second straight loss by a 5-2 score.

“To be quite truthful, what I don’t like is that we beat ourselves in these last two games. I thought we learned the lesson in the last game and we didn’t,” said Stars coach Marc Crawford. “We have to smarten up. We have to learn the lesson that this is a league where you cannot even take a shift off. If we think that we’re so good that we think we can out skill teams and we can beat teams with pure skill, we are sadly mistaken. Our team has to commit to do the right things 60 minutes every game.”

Crawford wouldn’t announce a starting goalie on Friday but appeared to be leaning towards Kari Lehtonen, who was pulled in the third period of Thursday’s game.

Defenseman Stephane Robidas, who served a one-game suspension on Thursday, will return to the lineup Saturday.

Injuries: None.

About the Sabres

The Sabres are coming off a 4-3 overtime loss in Atlanta Friday night. Buffalo sent the game to OT when Derek Roy scored with just 7.3 seconds remaining to tie the game. But Atlanta’s Dustin Byfuglien scored with 29 seconds left in overtime to give the Thrashers the extra point.

Sabres coach Lindy Ruff opted to scratch captain Craig Rivet for Friday’s game.

"I put a lot of thought into it. I said the guys that are playing the best are going to have to play,” Ruff told the Buffalo News. “Right now we’re 3-6-2. We got a point. If the six [defensemen] that are going are playing well, they’re going to stay in.

"He just hasn’t played well enough, hasn’t played well enough. That’s just the bottom line. He missed training camp, and it just seems like he’s a step behind right now.”

Saturday’s game concludes a four-game road trip for the Sabres, who are 1-1-1 in the first three games.

Injuries: F Jason Pominville (concussion) is out.

Series Notes

• This is the first and only meeting between the two teams this season.
• The Sabres won last season’s meeting, which was in Buffalo, 5-3.
• The Stars are 0-4-1 in their last five meetings with the Sabres and have not beaten them since March 31, 2003.

Statistical Tidbits

• The Stars have been outscored 11-4 during their three-game losing streak.
• The Stars have allowed five goals in three of their last five games.
• The Sabres have allowed four goals or more in four of their last six games.
• The Stars have been outscored 5-1 in the second period over the last two games.
• Buffalo has been outscored 15-8 in second periods this season.
• The Sabres have allowed seven power play goals in their last four games.