{"id":390950,"date":"2026-01-04T23:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T23:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/390950\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T23:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T23:44:10","slug":"stars-cant-overcome-mistakes-as-losing-skid-continues-with-ot-stumble-vs-canadiens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/390950\/","title":{"rendered":"Stars can\u2019t overcome mistakes as losing skid continues with OT stumble vs. Canadiens"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Stars<\/a> began to skid shortly before the Christmas break, and now two games into 2026, they haven\u2019t been able to stop the bleeding.<\/p>\n

The Stars fell 4-3 to the Montreal Canadiens in overtime at American Airlines Center on Sunday afternoon, as careless penalties and a sloppy second period handed Dallas its fifth loss in a row \u2014 its longest losing streak of the season. <\/p>\n

Wyatt Johnston <\/a>scored two goals, including one in the third period to force overtime, but Lane Hutson scored the game-winner with 1:20 left in the overtime period for Montreal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we were trying hard,\u201d Stars forward Radek Faksa said. \u201cWe were pushing in the third period. But we still have to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sports Roundup<\/p>\n

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The Stars did record a point by forcing overtime, allowing them to tie Minnesota for second place in the Central Division with a game in hand. The Wild had passed Dallas in the standings Saturday.<\/p>\n

A competitive first period ended in a 1-1 tie. Brendan Gallagher put Montreal on the board first, as Alexandre Carrier\u2019s shot from the point was deflected multiple times before making its way past Jake Oettinger. <\/p>\n

Mavrik Bourque answered for the Stars against his hometown team. The Quebecois scored a wraparound goal just over five minutes later.<\/p>\n

The game started to get away from the Stars in the second period, but the momentum began to shift when Jamie Benn<\/a> was called for tripping with 27 seconds left in the first period. Montreal started the second period on the power play and went on the man-advantage another three times in that frame.<\/p>\n

Dallas was able to capitalize on its one power play of the period, with Johnston scoring one second after a Montreal too many men on the ice penalty ended. But Montreal scored twice in the period. The first was a one-timer by Oliver Kapanen shortly after the Johnston goal. The second was in the final two minutes of the period when Montreal\u2019s power play broke through on its fourth try with a goal from Juraj Slafkovsky. <\/p>\n

Ilya Lyubushkin, Esa Lindell and Sam Steel committed the three penalties in the period, leaving the Stars without some of their best penalty killers.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou lose a lot of guys momentum-wise when you take four, and you give them an opportunity,\u201d Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. \u201cWe do have to clean up that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dallas was outshot 16-7 in the second period alone.<\/p>\n

The Stars made a push in the third period, outshooting Montreal 9-5. Johnston scored his second goal of the game with under 10 minutes left in regulation, and the Stars had a power play with just over five minutes left, but a penalty on Johnston while on the power play negated that opportunity.<\/p>\n

Dallas also lost Benn early in the third period when he hit his face on the ice and was bleeding profusely from his face.<\/a> Benn left for the locker room and never returned.<\/p>\n

The Stars had a handful of chances in overtime, including a Grade-A opportunity for Johnston to complete the hat trick, but Samuel Montembeault made the save. He and Oettinger each finished with 24 saves.<\/p>\n

Shortly after, Hutson beat Oettinger for the game-winning goal.<\/p>\n

Unable to win any of their three home games in the last two weeks, Dallas will now look to end its losing streak during its longest road trip of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might be good for us to go on the road,\u201d Gulutzan said. \u201cWe seem to thrive there a little bit. The league doesn\u2019t get any easier. We do have to find our game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Stars will head both East and West for six straight road games \u2014 four against teams currently in the playoff picture \u2014 before playing their next home game in two weeks on Jan. 18.<\/p>\n

Colorado already leads Dallas and Minnesota in the Central Division race by double-digit points with games in hand. But the Stars and Wild remain neck and neck for second place and home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

The Wild won seven straight in December after trading for defenseman Quinn Hughes,<\/a> so the Stars need to find an answer on the upcoming road trip to keep pace.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time to step up,\u201d Faksa said. \u201cThe [Olympic] break is coming around soon, so we need to finish on a good note.\u201d<\/p>\n

Find more Stars coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Stars began to skid shortly before the Christmas break, and now two games into 2026, they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5117],"tags":[2322,196,147,5278,5,4,197],"class_list":{"0":"post-390950","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-stars","8":"tag-american-airlines-center","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-stars","11":"tag-dallasstars","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-stars"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115839491498960074","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}