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Coyote Feed- (DallasStars.com reports) When teams suffer disappointing losses, coming up with the words to describe
all their emotions is often difficult. "Chalk it up as a dud," Stars right wing Rob DiMaio said, later referring to the Stars' effort as a "clunker" as well. "Disappointed and embarrassed" is how Dallas goaltender Marty Turco described feeling. Stars head coach Dave Tippett was equally open, concentrating on each time period of the contest. "We didn't start well, we didn't finish well and we didn't do anything well in the middle," Tippett said. Those three pretty much summed up the sentiment of the entire Stars team, one that entered the first game of this new year unbeaten in its last six games (4-0-2). The Stars had also lost just once in their last 10 games going into Friday, but they got behind quickly against the Coyotes and never recovered. It all started when Bill Guerin was whistled for a high-sticking double-minor just three minutes into the game, giving Phoenix a four-minute power play right off the bat. They would need just six seconds of that man advantage to get what proved to be the winning goal when Ladislav Nagy scored his 18th of the season. Before the period ended, the Coyotes would get one more when Tugnutt lost control of the puck behind the Dallas net, then watched as Daniel Cleary fed Chris Gratton for a goal before Tugnutt could get reset. That goal chased Tugnutt from the game in just his third start of the season, though he said he would not blame the long layoff for his showing on this night. "I thought I played well in San Jose and I had just as long a layoff," Tugnutt said. "It didn't go my way this time, but hopefully it will next time." Things didn't get much better for the Stars when Turco replaced Tugnutt. Phoenix would double its lead in the second on goals by Shane Doan and Brian Savage. They got two more in the third -- one from Daymond Langkow and another from Branko Radivojevic -- for the 6-0 final, the Stars' worst loss ever at American Airlines Center and worst defeat overall since losing 8-0 in Los Angeles in January of 2001. Hopefully, the Stars can rebound quickly -- they will have to as they face the Kings in Los Angeles Saturday night. There is no other option. "There's not a positive we can take out of this game," DiMaio said. "We let (Tugnutt) down right from the hop and that's really unfortunate. "We had a clunker, and we're not in the position to have any of those. We were on the right track, we fell off it tonight but we've got to get back on it tomorrow." Even if they do that, Turco said, there will be no eliminating this loss from their collective memory. "I don't think we'll forget this for the rest of the year," he said. "But we can't have it in our heads tomorrow." StarGazing *Nagy's early power-play goal ended the Stars' streak of consecutive successful kills at 41. The last time they had killed that many in a row was in 1997, when they killed off 43 opposing power plays in a row. The streak of consecutive games without allowing a power play goal also ended at 11 games, just shy of the franchise record 14 consecutive games, set in 1967. *This was the first time Tugnutt had started in Dallas with Turco healthy since Jan. 24 of last season against Tampa Bay. The Stars lost that game 4-1. *Tickets are still available for the Baylor Heath Care System StarNival, which is the Dallas Stars Foundation's Winter Carnival scheduled for Jan. 11. All Stars players will be at the e event and available for autographs. For tickets, call (214) GO-STARS.
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