The Dallas Stars like to move on and start concentrating on the next game as soon as the last one is over, but it's hard to imagine them ever being able to get Thursday night's bizarre ending out of their head.  Dallas saved face in a game they looked destined to squander.  Thanks to a bizarre gaffe, the Edmonton Oilers did, too.

"I've been in pro hockey — what is it? — almost 25 years now, and I've never seen that and I hope I never see it again," Tippett said. "I guarantee you that won't happen to Stef again.   There's about 15 years of craziness between Edmonton and Dallas."  Tippett said that the missed shot into an empty net by forward Patrik Stefan was a huge mistake – leading to the tying goal for the Oilers in a game the Stars won, 6-5, in a shootout.  But the coach was just as upset that Stefan tried to score into an empty net a half a minute earlier and almost iced the puck.

Thursday night's game ended in one of the most improbable endings in recent memory, with the Dallas Stars up 5-4, Stefan had a breakaway on an empty net with seven seconds left in regulation.  But he lost control of the puck in the Edmonton crease, with the Oilers net empty in favour of an extra attacker, and overskated the net.  Stefan then wiped out and the Edmonton Oilers retrieved the puck and raced back up the ice on one last desperate attempt.  The Oilers Ryan Smyth took the puck along the right sideboards and hit Ales Hemsky charging down the slot all alone.  Hemsky made a nice deke on Stars goalie Marty Turco, and ####ed a backhander into the net past the netminder with just 2.0 seconds on the clock, stunning the Stars and forcing overtime.

"It's something that shouldn't happen."  "I tried to carry it all the way to the net, but unfortunately, it just jumped over my stick," explained Stefan.

Sounds like an excuse to me.  The bottom line is Dallas gave away a point that could be very costly later in the year come playoff time.

``They may show it a million times for years to come,'' joked Stefan. ``I mean, we came out with the two points so it's easy to laugh about it right now.  ``It's not like I missed the net, I saw it was bad ice and I had so much time so I just tried to carry it all the way to the net.  As soon as I put it on my back hand it jumped over my stick.  Not much I can do about that.''

Stefan!  Wrong!  You made more than one mistake.  Admit it.  Get over it.  Quit making excuses.  When I saw the replay, I thought, AADHD moment.  Get help if you need it.

Niklas Hagman thought the empty-net goal turned breakaway at the other end with two seconds left had to be divine intervention.

Oilers Coach Craig MacTavish was happy to take the free point.  ``We were bestowed a miracle at the end,'' said MacTavish. ``I have never seen anything like it. It's one of those moments in hockey that you'll remember forever.  It turned a disaster into a debacle.''

A debacle?  The Stars can not afford to have debacles.  They aren't good enough to get away with it.  Maybe in the past.  But not this year.

``That was bizarre,'' said Dallas defenceman Darryl Sydor.  ``Seconds left with an empty net and then it's down in our end and tie game. I've never seen any thing like that and you probably won't see anything like that again for a long time.''

"That was an emotional roller-coaster, that's for sure," Turco said.

The Dallas Stars and Edmonton Oilers have engaged in many memorable battles over the years, most in the playoffs when the two clubs met six out of seven years from 1997-2003. But Thursday night's matchup at Rexall in Edmonton must rank very high up on the list.  The Stars displayed remarkable resiliency in outlasting the Oilers 6-5 in the shootout, in a game that featured several moments that could only be described as unusual.

In their second shootout in as many nights, the Stars were powered by their reliable aces, Sergei Zubov and Jussi Jokinen, each of whom scored in the game-deciding penalty shot competition. When Turco stopped Hemsky and Petr Sykora's shot zipped wide left, Dallas had secured yet another shootout victory, improving its record this season to 4-1 and 16-2 over the past two years.

Trailing 4-2 entering the third, Turco replaced starting goaltender Mike Smith.  "He had a headache and we kept him out for precautionary reasons," Tippett said.   Smith has now allowed four goals in each of his last three starts, and has been pulled in two of them.

At 3:35 in the second Smith took a Marc-Andre Bergeron slap shot flush in the mask, stunning the rookie netminder. Smith went down falling straight back immediately and was tended to by Stars head athletic trainer Dave Surprenant, but after a few minutes to recover and replacing his dented facemask, Smith remained on the ice.  At 3:55 Stu Barnes was whistled for high-sticking, putting Dallas at a two-man disadvantage for 1:36. The Oilers didn't need nearly that long, as Petr Nedved cashed in just 17 seconds later with his first goal since being claimed off waivers from Philadelphia on Tuesday.

Stars General Manager Doug Armstrong announced today that the club has recalled goaltender Tobias Stephan from the Iowa Stars, Dallas' primary development affiliate in the American Hockey League. Stephan will meet the team in Calgary, where it will face off against the Flames on Saturday at 9 p.m. CT. Goaltender Mike Smith will miss that game, as he is day-to-day with a mild concussion.

The Stars fell behind by two goals in the first six minutes for the second time in their last three games.

Dallas was once again without the services of the injured Mike Modano, Eric Lindros, Brenden Morrow and Steve Ott.   Dallas fell to 7-8 while Modano recovers from his injury. 

On Wednesday night the Dallas Stars had the Vancouver Canucks down, but failed to knock them out.  Ryan Kesler scored the deciding goal in the sixth-round of a shootout to give the surging Canucks a 2-1 win over the Stars at Vancouver's GM Place.   The Canucks Brendan Morrison and Dallas' Jussi Jokinen each scored in the second-round before Kesler was able to solve Turco with a nifty move on his first shootout attempt of the season.  Zubov's attempt in the first round hit the post after he was able to deke Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo.

Dallas captured a much-needed point to stay on pace with the San Jose Sharks, who were idle.

The Stars hurt their cause by failing to capitalize on back-to-back power-play attempts with less than six minutes left in the middle frame.  Dallas was 0-for-7 on the power play after coming in having converted seven of its last 17 man-advantage opportunities. 

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Joe Thornton scored his 200th career goal to help the San Jose Sharks snap a three-game losing streak with a 4-2 victory over the Dallas Stars on Sunday night.  Joe Pavelski, Jonathan Cheechoo and Patrick Marleau also had first-period goals for the Sharks, coming off a season-worst 8-0 road loss to the Phoenix Coyotes on Saturday night.  ``First of all, scoring the first goal for the first time in a long time was huge for us,'' Sharks Coach Ron Wilson said. ``Last night we were down 3-0 after the first period. Tonight we get a three-goal lead with the same effort.'' 

Dallas Coach Dave Tippett removed Marty Turco and replaced him with rookie Mike Smith.  ``We were just trying to stop the bleeding and look for a change in momentum,'' Tippett said of the goalie change.  Vesa Toskala made 21 saves for the Sharks, who have 52 points, two more than the Stars, for second place in the Pacific Division.  He made two great stops on Phillipe Boucher.

Dallas was guilty of too much standing around and not enough movement without the puck.  Shark Power Plays also led to the Stars falling.

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