It was a night that began with optimism and intrigue for Stars fans. Tonight Stars fans welcomed back Kari Lehtonen from the injured reserve and welcomed Erik Cole from the Montreal Canadiens. Cole was making his Stars debut and Lehtonen was coming off a lower body injury suffered February 15th against the Vancouver Canucks.  Edmonton was ready to play from the first puckdrop and really pounced the Stars tonight in the final game of the season series

First Period

It only took Edmonton 73 seconds to score as Sam Gagner shot the puck past Lehtonen for his sixth goal of the season.  The Stars could not get anything going in the first as they were in penalty trouble for parts of the period and Edmonton goaltender Devyn Dubnyk was ready to answer any Dallas shot attempt. Edmonton struck again at the 13:52 mark as rookie defenseman Justin Schultz scored his fifth goal of the year from the point and gave Edmonton a 2-0 lead. Dallas outshot Edmonton 15-10 but ended the period down by two.

Second Period

The second period gave the Stars their biggest chance to come back as Edmonton took three minor penalties in a row and the Stars couldn’t capitalize. The only goal of the period came in a weird way as Jeff Petry shot a puck that took a couple of bad bounces and went behind Kari Lehtonen. The Stars were down 3-0 to end the second.

Third Period

The Stars penalty troubles continued in the period as Stephane Robidas was sent to the penalty box just 12 seconds into the period, and the Oilers just needed about 40 seconds to score as Ales Hemsky scores on the powerplay for his eighth goal of the year. Frustration got the better of the Stars as they lost their discipline throughout the period including Antoine Roussel and Jamie Benn who was ejected from the game after cross-checking Ryan Jones in the back when he interfered with Kari Lehtonen and bumped into him. Ben Eager would add a goal at the 11:37 mark of the period for his first goal of the year and giving the Oilers a 5-0 lead. The Stars would not get shutout tonight as a late offensive push finished off with a wrist shot from the slot by Jaromir Jagr that beat Dubnyk for his sixth goal of the season. The Stars don’t get shutout, but were dominated at home 5-1.

Game Extras

• Congratulations to Jere Lehtinen who was named to the 20th Anniversary all time team
• Erik Cole played 14:58 in his debut with the Stars and was a -2 with one shot on goal
• Another tough game for the first line as Jamie Benn was a -2 while Brenden Morrow and Jaromir Jagr were both -1.
• Jamie Benn’s cross-check on Jones certainly looked intentional and was a bit of a malicous play as Jones left the ice after the cross check. Expect Benn to get a call from Brendan Shanahan in the next couple of days.
• Bad luck on the Jeff Petry goal in the second as the shot went off Kari Lehtonen, off Trevor Daley who was defending in front of him and into the back of the net.
• Attendance for tonight’s game: 17,004
• Official three stars of the game chosen by Mark Stepneski Stars writer at Stars Inside Edge and DallasStars.com : 1. Devyn Dubnyk  2. Sam Gagner  3. Ales Hemsky
• Stars will try again Sunday as the St. Louis Blues will travel to the AAC. Puck drop at 2:00