Bishop injured in Stars' 2-1 loss to Rangers

The Dallas Stars fell flat at Madison Square Garden on Monday night, losing 2-1 to the New York Rangers. And they also lost goaltender Ben Bishop, who left the game with a lower-body injury.
Bishop departed with the injury after the second period, and Stars coach Jim Montgomery provided an update after the game.
"Lower body, we think it is day to day," Montgomery said. "He'll be re-evaluated tomorrow, but it is soft tissue. It's nothing serious."
Montgomery said he wasn't sure yet if the Stars will need to recall a goaltender from the AHL before the Stars play at Pittsburgh on Wednesday.

As for Monday's game, the Stars played well in the first period, grabbed a 1-0 lead early in the second on a power-play goal by Tyler Seguin, and then the Rangers took over the game.
"We probably played 20 minutes of hockey," Stars captain Jamie Benn said. "The first was our best, and after that it just really went downhill."

The Stars, who had seven shots on goal in the first period, recorded just ten shots on net over the final two periods and not much in the way of scoring chances.
"I thought only the first period was a good period for us," said Montgomery. "I don't know if we had more than three scoring chances in the second and third period."
Bishop stopped 12 of 13 shots before leaving after the second period, and Khudobin stopped nine of 10 in the third period. The Stars fell to 11-8-2 on the season and 4-5-1 on the road.
Henrik Lundqvist stopped 16 shots, and Jimmy Vesey and Filip Chytil scored goals for the Rangers, who improved to 8-1-1 over their last ten games and are now 11-8-2 on the season.
"We just think about coming here daily and getting better," said Rangers coach David Quinn. "And we've built some momentum here."
The Stars outshot the Rangers 7-4 in a scoreless first period. The Stars had 2:00 of power play time, including 15 seconds of five-on-three time, but couldn't take advantage.

The Stars went on their third power play of the night early in the second, and Bishop came up big, making a spectacular save on a Brett Howden shorthanded chance to keep the Rangers from taking the lead.
Just 44 seconds later, the Stars cashed in on the power play when Seguin scored through a Benn screen to put the Stars up 1-0 at the 2:17 mark.
The Rangers drew even midway through the second on a goal by Vesey, who scored on a falling backhand shot to make it a 1-1 game at the 9:38 mark.
Both goaltenders came up with quality saves to keep it a 1-1 game. Bishop had a slick pad stop on a Kevin Hayes shot from the slot and a redirection by Vesey off the rush. Lundqvist made a glove save on a Miro Heiskanen bid from the slot late in the second.
Khudobin took over for Bishop in the third period, which was controlled by the Rangers who scored the only goal. After Dallas dumped the puck into the neutral zone, the Rangers turned it around, and Chytil roofed a shot off the rush to put the Rangers up 2-1.
The Stars pulled Khudobin for an extra attacker with 2:17 left and had some good zone time but the Rangers blocked four shots, and Lundqvist made a save on Alexander Radulov to preserve the New York win.

Turning point

The Stars played a strong first period, outshooting the Rangers 7-4 and limiting them to one scoring chance and then grabbed a 1-0 lead early in the second period on Seguin's power-play tally. But the Stars were not able to build any momentum off that, and when Jimmy Vesey scored midway through the second, the Rangers got some life and took over the game. New York continued the strong push in the third and got the game-winner from Chytil.
The Stars recorded just ten shots on goal in the final two periods. They had just four high-danger scoring chances in the game and only one in the final two periods, according to naturalstattrick.com.
"We just didn't do much," Seguin said. "It didn't feel like we generated many chances."

Three stars of the game

Filip Chytil, New York: The 19-year-old forward scored the game-winner and ran his goal-scoring streak to four games.
Jimmy Vesey, New York: Rangers forward scored to tie the game in the second, had three shots on goal and was a plus-two.
Kevin Hayes, New York:Rangers forward played a strong game, recording six shot attempts, four scoring chances in 20:09 of ice time.

They said it

"Their work ethic was superior to ours." -- Stars coach Jim Montgomery on the difference in the second and third periods
"It started in the second on that power play. It was pretty sloppy even though we scored. It was pretty bad, and we followed it up with a terrible second, and they get one in the third, and that's the game." -- Stars captain Jamie Benn
"Nothing." -- Stars goalie Anton Khudobin when asked what changes in his approach with Ben Bishop possibly being out due to injury

Pitlick returns from illness

Stars forward Tyler Pitlick returned to the lineup after missing Sunday's game due to illness. With Pitlick returning, the Stars went back to the traditional lineup of 12 forwards and 6 defensemen. Ben Gleason was the healthy scratch on the blue line, and Brett Ritchie was the healthy scratch at forward for a second straight game.

Stat pack

What's next

The Stars close out their three-game road trip Wednesday at Pittsburgh. This will be the first of two meetings between the Stars and Penguins this season. Pittsburgh, which lost 5-4 in overtime to Buffalo on Monday, has dropped nine of its last 10 games (1-7-2) and is currently in last place in the Eastern Conference with a 7-8-4 record.
MIKE HEIKA: [Stars' best must lead charge to improve work ethic]

Stars lineup

Jamie Benn - Tyler Seguin - Alexander Radulov
Roope Hintz - Jason Spezza - Gemel Smith
Blake Comeau - Radek Faksa - Tyler Pitlick
Mattias Janmark - Jason Dickinson - Valeri Nichushkin
Esa Lindell - Julius Honka
Miro Heiskanen - Roman Polak
Gavin Bayreuther - Joel Hanley
Ben Bishop
Anton Khudobin
Scratched: Brett Ritchie, Ben Gleason
Injured:Devin Shore (lower body), John Klingberg (hand), Marc Methot (lower body), Connor Carrick (foot), Martin Hanzal (back), Stephen Johns (post-traumatic headaches).

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mark Stepneski has covered the Stars for DallasStars.com since 2012. Follow him on Twitter @StarsInsideEdge.