Your Dallas Stars let that one slip away last night

Waking up this morning, it feels like we just lost a prime parking spot at NorthPark on Christmas Eve, doesn't it? The Dallas Stars fell to the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 at home, and honestly, it felt like one we should've had locked down. We came out with some fire in the first period, even after Brayden McNabb got Vegas on the board early. Wyatt Johnston and Jani Hryckowian both found the back of the net to put us up 2-1 heading into the locker room. The Stars were buzzing, and the energy in the AAC was something else.

But that second period, y'all. It just felt flat. Ivan Barbashev capitalized on a power play to tie things up, and from there, it was a grind. We outshot them something fierce — 33 to 15! — which tells you Jake Oettinger was solid, but we couldn't make enough of those shots count. Then, with just over three minutes left in the third, Reilly Smith put one past Oettinger, and that was all she wrote. It's a tough pill to swallow when you dominate on the shot clock but can't close it out.

Even with the loss, the Dallas Stars are still sitting pretty with 97 points, second in the Central Division, and our last ten games are still looking good at 6-2-2. We're still in a fantastic position, but these are the kind of games you want to snag, especially against a team like Vegas who we might see again down the line. We've got to tighten up, especially on the power play and with those late-game lapses. This team is too good to let these slip.

This is Hutch — Dallas Stars hockey. Big state, bigger game.

Catch Blake and the gang breaking down all the action this morning at mornings.live — they're fixin' to get into it.