Marty Turco isn't fully to blame for the Stars' hole

	If Turco had more help in Game 3, this goal by Taylor Pyatt would not be in the goalie's gallery of infamous moments. AP
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If the situation had been reversed, if it had been, say, Jussi Jokinen uncorking that uncontested one-timer from high in the slot, you just know Roberto Luongo would have made the stop, don't you?

That's what you'd expect, anyway. Playoff novice or not, Luongo's got the rep. When the game's on the line, Bobby Lu has a knack for stopping pucks that have a date with the back of the net.

Marty Turco, on the hand, is the hard-luck loser who makes the valiant effort but ends up fooled by the off-speed shot, the tricky deflection, the knuckle puck. There's always a ready excuse, but the red light's still flashing and it's the other bench that clears in celebration.

That scene, heartbreakingly familiar to Stars fans who've seen just one home win in the last 10 playoff games, unfolded again Sunday night in Dallas' 2-1 OT loss to Vancouver. Taylor Pyatt, the beneficiary of some scrambly defensive work by the Stars, found himself in front of Turco with just enough alone time to bury the winner on the short side and give the Canucks a well-deserved 2-1 series lead.

And just like that, less than 48 hours after gaining some measure of redemption with a 2-0 win in Game 2, things were back to normal in the nightmarish world of Marty Turco.

Another OT. Another loss. For those keeping score at home, that makes eight of the last nine overtime dramas in which he's blinked before the other guy.

So it's natural to want to fit Turco for the goat horns ... but it wouldn't be fair.

Just as Turco was the beneficiary of a nearly flawless road performance by his teammates Friday night in Vancouver, he was hung out to dry on Sunday by 18 skaters who appeared paralyzed by the pressures of preserving a 1-0 lead at home. Instead of putting their boots on the collective throats of the Canucks by maintaining the pressure that got them the lead in the first place, the Stars retreated into a defensive shell that exposed Turco to a relentless third period assault.

He responded brilliantly as the Stars were outshot 14-5. Almost slammed the door, too, allowing only an unmolested Jan Bulis -- notice a theme here? -- to slip a backhand between his pillows and tie the score.

But look at the big picture. After coughing up the winner in Game 1, Turco went 105:13 before finally allowing Bulis' Game 3 equalizer. In the series opener, he shut the gates for 90:30 with the game on the line. That's a long time between moments of shame. Certainly long enough for his teammates to maybe put one or three up on the boards themselves, give him a little breathing room.

So yeah, it would be nice to see Turco author the game-stealing save. But it would be even nicer to see one of his teammates chip one past the other guy once in awhile. And it's on their shoulders that the blame for the 2-1 deficit should fall.

The Stars thrived on offense by committee in the regular season, and in theory that's what wins in the playoffs. But a team that has aspirations of getting past the first round still needs its best players to be its best players.

Mike Ribeiro, the team's leading scorer in the regular season, has two shots in this series. Jere Lehtinen, the top sniper, hasn't had a sniff. And outside of a lovely assist in Game 2, Mike Modano's been a non-factor, generating 11 shots but perhaps two scoring chances. So when you hear that Stu Barnes and Antti Miettinen are the team's leading scorers through three games, you can't be too surprised to hear the Stars are trailing.

Should Turco have had Pyatt's shot? Yeah, it was stoppable, especially at that moment. But just as he did in Game 1, Turco kept his teammates in the game long enough for one of them to win it. They let him down, not the other way around. And unless they figure out how to score the big goal, the Stars are headed for another spring cleaning.