Dave Tippett gambled and lost Saturday night.

The Dallas Stars coach tabbed backup goalie Johan Holmqvist to make his first start in a Stars uniform, and then watched as Holmqvist allowed three goals on 12 shots in an eventual 4-3 loss to the Vancouver Canucks.

Tippett was hoping for more from Holmqvist, but just as important, he was hoping for more from his team.

"I feel bad him for him, because the mistakes we made in front of him, we didn't give him a chance," Tippett said "In situations like that, more times than not, they [the players] rally, and I was disappointed in that tonight."

Instead of tightening up to help Holmqvist assimilate to a new building and a new style of play, the Stars gave pucks away to the Canucks and allowed Holmqvist to face a couple of breakaways and an early power play. Instead of uniting after a disappointing loss to Detroit on Thursday, the Stars came out flat – a trend they have shown for much of the season.

"That was definitely not the start we wanted," forward Stu Barnes said of a 3-0 deficit after 11 minutes of play. "If you have slow starts like that, and you're behind the eight-ball already."

The Stars allowed the first goal in a game for the 38th time. They are 18-19-1 when allowing the first goal (best in the NHL), but that's a dangerous game to play and one that has been biting the Stars more often that not during a 1-5-0 slump.

"The odds are going to catch up to you, and they certainly did tonight," Barnes said. "It was a slow start, we came out flat and when you do that, you have to play a perfect game the rest of the way. We didn't."

No, but they came close. Tippett pulled Holmqvist after the first period and inserted Marty Turco in net. Dallas outshot the Canucks, 25-18, the rest of the way. Joel Lundqvist, Mike Modano and Brad Richards scored to tie the game after two periods, but Vancouver got the game-winner when Brendan Morrison drove the net midway through the third period and had a pass knock into the goal off of some part of his body while he and defenseman Stephane Robidas met in a crumpled heap at Turco's doorstep.

"It was a bad bounce for us at the end," Modano said. "We haven't been getting many breaks lately."

The Stars (42-27-5) also haven't been making breaks. They have struggled to put together a complete game in weeks and they are quickly falling behind in the race for the Pacific Division title. Dallas has as many wins as the Sharks, but it now has two more losses than the Ducks and six more than division-leading San Jose.

And with just eight games to play, Dallas also has to be able to find chemistry and a solid line rotation. Tippett mixed up his lines Sunday and found solid scoring chances created by Mike Ribeiro and Brenden Morrow, as well as Jere Lehtinen and Richards. He also saw some improved play by young defenseman Matt Niskanen, who played a team high 25:47 and was plus-2.

Still, when one part of the game improved, another seemed to break down.

"We had more veterans making mistakes tonight than we did young guys," Tippett said. "If we're expecting to be a good team, we can't make turnovers that allow penalty shots, we can't have 2-on-0's at our net. That's just not the way the game works. If we're too arrogant to figure that out, then shame on us."