NASHVILLE – Mike Smith gave himself a failing grade in his season debut Saturday night.

The second-year backup goalie for the Stars allowed four goals on 21 shots in a 5-1 loss to the Nashville Predators and took the blame for the defeat.

"He outplayed me, that's the bottom line," Smith said of Nashville goalie Chris Mason, who stopped 28 of 29 shots. "You've got to make big saves at the right time, and tonight I didn't do it. It cost our team the win."

Smith's two biggest foibles came on goals No. 2 and 3. On the second goal, Smith went down early while forced to wait out J.P. Dumont on the power play. It was a tough decision, but Smith was just a tick ahead in trying to take away the bottom of the net, and Dumont raised the puck over his glove. On the third goal, Smith had to stop a shot on a pass across the slot during a 2-on-1. It's basically the goaltender's assignment to stop that shot, and Smith was unable to stack the pads on David Legwand.

Stars coach Dave Tippett said the team play did not support Smith but added that Smith could have been better.

"I don't think you can blame that game on Smitty, but a couple of big saves wouldn't have hurt our cause," Tippett said.

Smith, who was playing in his first real competition since April, said he couldn't blame the performance on rust.

"I know what it's all about now," he said "There are no surprises out there."

Barch shines in debut: Tough winger Krys Barch came into the lineup for the first time this season and had a good night, winning a fight with Jordin Tootoo and scoring the Stars' only goal. Tippett put together the energy line that had been so good in the preseason with Brad Winchester at left wing, Steve Ott at center and Barch at right wing.

"We asked our energy line to give us emotion in the game, give us energy in the game and score for us, and that's basically what they did," Tippett said. We need more players to do that. They gave us everything we needed. We've got to figure a few things out higher up the food chain."

When asked about fighting Tootoo on his first shift, Barch admitted that making up for last season, when Tootoo punched Stephane Robidas, was in the back of his head.

"Maybe I was a little more aggressive than I should have been," he said.

Briefly: The Stars return to play Wednesday against Los Angeles at American Airlines Center. They will have Sunday off and Tippett said, "We need a couple of good practices." ... Dallas continues to win the battle in the faceoff circle, taking 30 of 54 (56 percent). Mike Modano won 11 of 15. ... The Stars had 29 shots on goal. Modano had five, and Antti Miettinen had five. Miettinen also had three shot attempts blocked and three that missed the net.