Recap: Stars 5, Hurricanes 3

There's an old hockey saying that your best players have to be your best players and for the Carolina Hurricanes, Andrej Nestrasil and Victor Rask looked like their best players in this game.  Unfortunately for that duo, they are not paid like it.

The Dallas Stars came into the PNC and dominated the Hurricanes for most of the game on Thursday night while skating to a 5-3 win.

The home team could only manage four shots on goal for the entire first period and they were stuck on a total of 11 shots for the game through half of the third.

Down 4-1 and with many of the loyal faithful already seeking the exits,  Chris Terry would smack in a rebound with a bevy of humanity in front of goalie Kari Lehtonen, and the home team had a spark.

Less than a minute later, Nestrasil battled his way to the front of the net and put in a rebound to make it 4-3 and suddenly the Canes were in the game.  The crowd came alive and there was finally a sense of excitement in the arena that had been lacking for about 50 minutes of play.

The Canes put in effort to try to tie the game up and pulled goalie Anton Khudobin with two minutes plus left to give them an extra skater, but former Hurricane Patrick Eaves would score a long empty netter to put the game away.

The loss gives the team a 1-2-1 record in this "important" home stand.

The Hurricanes actually jumped out to an early lead in this one and that usually bodes well for the team that strikes first.  Rask got the goal four minutes in, with Brett Bellemore and Michal Jordan earning the assists.  But the rest of the period belonged to Dallas and they went into the first intermission with a 3-1 lead.

After a scoreless second period, the Stars would make it 4-1 midway through the third before Carolina started their rally.

The Canes were outshot in every period and lost that stat, 32-18 for the game.

Next up for the Hurricanes will be the Florida Panthers on Saturday night.

Game Notes:

• The powerplay went 0-2 and did not look good this night.  Surprisingly, Eric Staal was called for embellishment on one play, negating an additional chance.
• Rask finished with a goal and two assists for a solid three point night.  Nestrasil had a goal and was (+2), and Terry had a goal and an assist and was (+2).  Bellemore had two assists.
• Of the team's 18 shots, Rask had a team high three.  Terry, Dwyer, Lindhollm, and Nestrasil had two each.
• Event Summary - stats