Game Recap: Fourth Straight Loss Overshadows Damiani's First NHL Goal

The Stars struggled to score goals. Sound familiar?

After a three-game losing streak on the west coast which saw them score only five goals, Dallas was once again held to one in the 4-1 loss to St. Louis Tuesday.

The Blues played an excellent road game, checking hard and giving Dallas little space all around the ice. Marking the first of 10 straight games against the Central Division, this game certainly had all of the feels of a division rivalry.

After an early Blues goal was disallowed for offsides, the game remained scoreless until late in the second period.

On an extended shift in the offensive zone, John Klingberg took a pass from Jason Robertson down the right-wing and spotted rookie Riley Damiani, who was making his NHL debut Tuesday, on the far side of the net. Klingberg made a slick pass through the slot and Damiani took his time before ripping a shot under the crossbar for his first NHL goal.

“Guys made a couple of good plays,” Damiani said about the shift leading up to his first goal. “One, I just kind of popped up and I totally fanned on it, puck didn’t even come off the ice so I felt like I was gripping the stick a little tight. Next play, I just fanned out to the backdoor and Klinger [Klingberg] made a great play and I think he would be pretty mad if I missed that one. It was exciting, I am happy it went and it is just an all-around good feeling.”

The goal gave Dallas a 1-0 lead, something that has usually meant success for them this season. Unfortunately, the emotions did not last long as a broken play in front of Jake Oettinger turned into a Colton Parayko goal and a 1-1 score just minutes later.

From that point, St.Louis seemed to find their game as Dallas struggled to penetrate their checking. Just a few minutes into the third period, Justin Faulk fired a shot from the point that tipped off a Stars stick and knuckleballed its way past a screened Oettinger to give the Blues their first lead of the game.

The hill continued to get steeper when Radek Faksa was called for a four-minute high sticking penalty with only 11 minutes remaining in the game. After Dallas killed off 3:30 to near perfection, another broken play resulted in a tap-in goal for Blues captain Ryan O’Reilly and just like that, it was 3-1. St. Louis would add a late power-play goal to blow the game wide open.

"When you get one goal, and it's from Damiani's first NHL game, that's incredibly disappointing in a big game like this," Stars head coach Rick Bowness said. "We had some guys who, I'll have to check the video to see if they even played. I couldn't find them on the ice. Unless you want to show up and get your nose dirty and get involved in a game like that then you're a complete non-factor, and we had a few of those guys that were complete no-shows. We have no chance if we have guys that don't want to show up and play in those games."

The game marked the fourth straight loss for Dallas who has yet to win since their seven-game winning streak came to an end last week.

Oettinger finished the game with 24 saves on 28 shots and played a huge role in keeping the Stars in the game throughout the first period. The loss moves his record to 5-2-0 and is just the second loss in his young career at American Airlines Center.

Dallas was once again without their leading scorer Roope Hintz who joined Alexander Radulov and Joel Kiviranta on the illness/injured list.

The two teams will be right back at it when they meet at Enterprise Center in St. Louis on Friday night.