Stars drop Stanley Cup Final series 4-2 to Lightning, bringing an end to the most unique season in team history

Two thousand miles away from Dallas, in the sterility of the Edmonton bubble and amidst the relentless skill of the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Stars finally succumbed. They yielded at long last, humbled by Tampa Bay’s depth and ruthlessness in a season-ending 2-0 loss in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday night.

During the most unique season in Stars history, not much could topple the team in Victory Green. They overcame a regular season in which they lost eight of their first nine games, and all of their last six. They shrugged off the firing of their coach. They laughed at multigoal deficits in the regular season and in the playoffs.

In eliminating the Calgary Flames, Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights, this Stars team won the West for the first time since 2000.

So many things in the past year-plus could not deny the Stars their shot at the Stanley Cup, which would have been their first since 1999 and second in franchise history. The final blows were Brayden Point’s brilliance and Tampa Bay’s vicious forecheck, an ending brought to reality by the season’s closure at 8:48 p.m., Edmonton time.

Stars captain Jamie Benn was emotional after the game, struggling to put into words his feelings. He couldn’t answer a question about what he’d remember most about this group, and paused for extended periods of time after each of the three questions to collect his thoughts.

“It sucks,” Benn said. “You go through a lot with that group.”

John Klingberg: “We’re two wins away from winning the Stanley Cup. We gave it all. Some key players got hurt, we grinded out, players coming in, stepping up, doing a great job. I’m proud of this team, this organization for what we’ve done. At the end of the day, we’re two wins away from the Stanley Cup.”

Tyler Seguin: “Proud of this organization, these guys, all the guys, the Aces [backup players] coming in when guys have been hurt and different guys stepping up at different times. Going into that locker room, that trainers room, and having to wait in line to get in because everyone’s got ice bags on them, boys are grinding through.”

Anton Khudobin: “No feelings right now. Just say to you, we battled hard, especially with this situation. It’s not easy to stay without families for two months and stuff like that, but we stick together, we stick to the team, we stick to each other. Right now, there is nothing.”

On Monday night, the Stars struggled to generate any offense of consequence.

They couldn’t get out of their own zone cleanly. They couldn’t get into Tampa Bay’s zone with speed. They couldn’t were 0 for 3 on the power play and finished the series 1 for 19 on the man advantage. They couldn’t contain the Lightning power play, which scored on 7 of 19 chances.

Point scored on the power play for the Lightning in the first period, and Plano-born Blake Coleman added another tally in the second period off the rush. It was enough to sustain the Lightning, who held the Stars to four shots on goal in each of the first two periods. Dallas mustered 12 shots in the third period, a push created by a two-goal deficit.

Khudobin finished his strong and unforeseen postseason by making 27 saves. The Stars were shut out for the fourth time in the playoffs.

Just as wins in the playoffs displayed why the Stars advanced to the Cup Final — mobile defensemen creating offense, timely goals from veterans, strong goaltending and a stingy defensive structure — Monday’s loss displayed why Dallas could fall into lulls of performance. The Stars were hemmed in their own zone too often, they dumped the puck too much, and they simply didn’t employ a player as good as Point or a line as good as Tampa Bay’s top unit.

It will be another year to wait for the Stars.

They spent nine weeks at the JW Marriott in Edmonton and outlasted 29 other teams, including 22 others that qualified to return to play almost two months ago. The core — led by Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and John Klingberg — finally got past the second round, and the Stars shrugged aside their underdog status against Colorado and Vegas.

This Stars season will be remembered for the improbable run in an empty arena, one that will result in raised expectations for Dallas whenever the next season begins. Making the playoffs will not be enough, nor will winning one round. This team is responsible for pushing the bar higher.

But the team will also regret blowing a 1-0 series lead in the Final and taking too many undisciplined penalties. They didn’t take advantage of a Lightning team without captain Steven Stamkos and without a superhuman effort from goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy.

They’ll rue the lack of goal-scoring from Seguin, who went without a goal in the final 15 playoff games, and the injuries that chewed away at their forward corps and forced Khudobin to play without rest. They’ll be remorseful of their special teams performance on both ends of the ice.

Chances to win the Stanley Cup don’t come around often, and this team did well enough to get there but not enough to outduel perhaps the most talented team in the league.

This entire group probably will never be together again. Khudobin is a free agent. So are Corey Perry, Andrej Sekera and Mattias Janmark. Rick Bowness has to decide whether he wants to return as the head coach next season.

In 103 games — across preseason, regular season, exhibition and postseason — games like Monday night’s happened often.

But none of the previous ones ended the Stars season, and the team that repelled and withstood, resisted and survived for 12 months finally relented.

“No one expected us to get here, but we believed in ourselves, and we were committed to each other,” Bowness said. “We had team play, great camaraderie, great leadership. And we pushed this team as far as it can get. We came up a little bit short, but I’m very, very proud to be their coach. I’m very proud of the players, very proud of the organization, and there’s still better days ahead for us.

“But it was a great experience. I enjoyed getting in here, helping them to get here, and it’s unfortunate we came up short. But I know we got as much out of this team as we possibly could and from a coaching perspective, that’s all you can ask.”

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