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Score tied, 3-3, after two periods

October 6, 2009, 10:23 PM

By: Richard Durrett

Score tied, 3-3, after two periods The Stars had two leads in the period but couldn't hold them as each team scored two goals.

Some thoughts:

* Steve Ott in a fight with Ryan Stone. Lots of hugging and not a lot of punching early on. But Ott then got a few in with his jersey on his head. Nicklas Grossman was blindsided and Ott seemed to be retaliating to that. He does look out for his teammates and sure can be irritating to opponents.

* Give Marty Turco some props for a great play while the Stars were on the penalty kill. Turco flipped the puck to center ice and James Neal did the rest. Neal sure can put the puck in the net. He came flying down the right side shorthanded after receiving Turco's pass and scored top shelf. It was a very nice goal to give the Stars' their first lead of the season. The Stars had just two shorthanded goals all last season.

* But on that same power player, the Oilers tied it up when Sam Gagner scored from the left circle. Trevor Daley may have screened Turco some as the puck went right past him before slipping past Turco.

* Defenseman Karlis Skrastins was active in the second period. He made a nice poke check to end an Oilers' rush and moments later drew a penalty on Shawn Horcoff to give the Stars a power play in a tie game with 9:22 left. And the Stars ended up scoring on it.

* That was the Stars' best power play. They had the puck in the Oilers' zone and missed some early chances (Ribeiro and Eriksson). But then the puck roates around and Brad Richards gets it to Stephane Robidas at the left point and he fired a one-timer at the net that went in to give the Stars a 3-2 lead.

* The Stars' aggressive offense can draw some penalties. Loui Eriksson came in the zone and was hooked with 6:42 left. It was yet another opportunity (the Stars' fourth) on the power play. Dallas put some good shots on net. Nikolai Khabibulin made some nice saves.

* Poor Tom Wandell never saw Jacques coming out of the penalty box for the Oilers and was hit pretty good.

* Defenseman Jeff Woywitka didn't get close enough to Dustin Penner, who skated toward the net from the right side and had time to use some fancy stick work and get the puck past Turco. As Daryl Reaugh said on the broadcast: "You can't give him that much room." Woywitka will certainly learn from that one, I'm sure. The goal tied the score ... again. * The Stars will start the third period with a 4-on-3 power play, so maybe they can create something early.

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