Home ice advantage wasn’t enough for the Dallas Stars to get the win at the American Airlines Center on Monday night in game one of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Stars lost 3-2 in double overtime. A game that ended around 1 a.m. CT.
While it wasn’t the outcome the team or fans wanted against the Minnesota Wild, the team’s President and CEO said there are reasons to be optimistic.
“It was an unbelievable game,” Brad Alberts said. “I wish we would have won, but obviously, it's only one and we’re not done yet. It’s just one game.
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Dallas Stars Drop Game 1 of first series of Stanley Cup Playoff
It wasn’t just the loss that was frustrating, but also the big hit that took Joe Pavelski out of the game. After being blasted into the glass by Wild defenseman Matt Dumba in the second period, he had to be helped off the ice and didn’t return to the game.
“I don’t know the details of how he is doing. I mean, I know that he didn’t have to go to the hospital and that’s good. He left kind of on his own power last night and was able to go home, so all of that is good. I don’t know if that means he’s playable if that, you know, if I understand correctly, but I don’t know his specific condition. I know he got banged up pretty good,” Alberts said.
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Stars head coach Pete DeBoer said much of the same in the post-post game press conference.
“I’m not confident for Game 2. He’s okay. He’s walking out of the rink on his own okay,” DeBoer said.
He said he is hopeful for the rest of the series, considering what he saw from the team Monday night. They just dealt with some bad luck when it came to finishing.
“I think we played well for the latter part and back end of the second period into the third. Then, for the majority of overtime, we had possession of the puck and we dominated. We just didn’t get the puck luck that we needed to get the win last night and that is something I have seen from time to time in my 20 years in this business,” Alberts said.
He also said he has confidence going into the road portion of the series.
“We just need to keep playing like we did and dominate possession. We can’t give them a lot of high-quality scoring chances and ultimately finish and hopefully get that luck. I mean, maybe we do use this and run the table and win four in a row. This team has been a really good road team all year. Going to Minnesota doesn’t scare us or me. We can definitely win there,” Alberts said.
