The Stars could blame the officials for another overtime loss, but they really have only themselves to blame.

After officials appeared to wrongly whistle Nicklas Grossman for delay of game in overtime, the Stars found a way to quickly lose to the Calgary Flames, 3-2, on Wednesday. Jarome Iginla scored the game-winner 16 seconds into the power play.

However, the game never should have gotten to overtime, for countless reasons.

Dallas outshot the Flames, 40-22, couldn't convert a 5-on-3 power play and a penalty shot, and let a 2-1 lead get away in the final minute of regulation. Calgary's Daymond Langkow scored with 49 seconds remaining to force OT.

"We dominated the game, we were ahead in the game, and we're sitting here like this," Stars center Brad Richards said. "That can't happen."

Officials cited the delay-of-game rule on Grossman when he shot a puck that was sitting in the neutral zone over the glass. However, the rule is open to many interpretations, including whether or not Grossman "deliberately" shot the puck out of play from anyplace on the ice or whether he was indeed in the defensive zone when he shot the puck out of play. Either way, the Stars come up losers again.

Dallas slipped to 6-3-6, good for 18 points in 15 games. Calgary moved to 8-4-1.

"There were a lot of chances we couldn't bury," Stars center Mike Ribeiro said. "We had a lot of chances on our power play, and we need to bury at least one."

The Flames went through a brutal practice Monday and were chewed out by coach Brent Sutter, but the Stars were the team with all the fire early.

Dallas drew four power plays in the first period, including 52 seconds of 5-on-3 play, but couldn't dent the net. Flames backup goalie Curtis McElhinney was solid. However, the Stars didn't get to any rebounds and didn't force him to make many fantastic saves.

Iginla gave Calgary the lead in the second period when he got loose down the right wing and blasted a shot past Marty Turco, but that only seemed to inspire the Stars to do more.

Dallas dominated the opening 10 minutes of the third period and scored twice to take the lead. James Neal converted from the bottom of the right circle, off nice passes from Trevor Daley and Karlis Skrastins, and Loui Eriksson made a tap-in off a beautiful feed from Richards.

For most of the night, the Stars looked like one of the best teams in the league. Mike Modano and Jere Lehtinen returned to the lineup and fit seamlessly, with Modano playing 14:28 and winning 6-of-9 faceoffs and Lehtinen playing 12:38 and getting three shots on goal.

In between, Stephane Robidas played 24:32 and had five hits and five blocked shots, Skrastins had maybe his best game in a Stars uniform, and Neal and Richards proved they are prime-time players.

"This wasn't a good performance," Stars coach Marc Crawford said. "This was a great performance."

Still, there is that pesky thing about winning the game.

"We lost the game," Richards said. "If we lost the game 1-0, I'd tell you their goalie stole it. But we were winning the game on home ice. ... We didn't get it done."