DALLAS -- A tough night is when your goaltender who can't lose in regulation does.

When your power play is meek as a puppy.

When you're a skilled team and the only area you dominate is the fights, with team captain Sidney Crosby amassing more penalty minutes than shots.

When you control the puck with the grace of a two-fingered gorilla.

And that's the polite version of what happened with Brent Johnson and the Penguins Wednesday night in a 5-2 loss to the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center.

"We got outbattled," Penguins defenseman Alex Goligoski said. "They just played a better game than us. It's not acceptable, the way we've been playing."

The Stars got to Johnson (5-1-1), the Penguins backup goaltender who had not allowed a regulation goal in his previous two starts. He stopped 24 of 29 shots.

The Penguins are 1-3-1 in their past five games. In their past six games, they are 0 for 27 on the power play, including 0 for 4 against Dallas.

Trailing, 2-0, in the first period against the Stars, winger Eric Godard drew an interference penalty against Stars defenseman Trevor Daley. Just 23 seconds into the power play, Evgeni Malkin took a stick in the face from Dallas' Adam Burish.

They were looking at 1:37 of a five-on-three advantage but squandered it with two shots.

"We've had a few five-on-threes," Crosby said. "It's something we need to improve on, but we get one early on and we didn't generate a lot."

That particularly stings considering Dallas entered the game ranked last in the NHL in penalty killing with a success rate of 68.4 percent.

Loui Eriksson scored twice and added an assist for Dallas, including a goal on his first career penalty shot, and the Penguins never got closer than 2-1, which came when Tyler Kennedy shoveled in a bouncing puck off of a faceoff won by Max Talbot at 6:20 of the second period.

Penguins winger Matt Cooke got the final goal of the game, at 15:36 of the third period, but by then the tenor of this game was clear.

"We have no excuse," Talbot said. "We're not satisfied with the way we played. They worked harder than us, and that's what happens.

"Obviously, we've got to look at ourselves in the mirror and try to be better."

Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said he had no indication in the morning skate or at any point beforehand that his team would be so sloppy.

"In a game where we got outbattled and outplayed, I'd say it's a concern," Bylsma said.

The Penguins found one thing to admire about their game -- the tenacity they showed by sticking up for teammates in a handful of spirited fights.

It started when Kennedy took exception to linemate Malkin getting bent over the boards along the Dallas bench by the Stars' Jamie Benn in the final minute of the first period. Kennedy then took on Benn.

Shortly after Kennedy emerged from the penalty box early in the second period, he scored his goal, cutting in half the lead the Dallas had built on first-period goals by Stephane Robidas and Brad Richards.

After Dallas took a 4-1 second-period lead on goals by Steve Ott and Eriksson, who deked Johnson so deftly that he was able to easily slide the puck inside the right post on his first career penalty shot, the Penguins engaged in a series of three fights in a little over two minutes.

Defenseman Kris Letang, who played despite a sore right ring finger, took on Dallas' Brenden Morrow. Crosby, in his fifth career fight, landed several punches against Matt Niskanen, inducing him to ice his right hand in the penalty box. And winger Chris Kunitz went one round with Benn.

"I like the way our team got together there," Bylsma said of the fights.

That was about all there was to like about the Penguins' game, however.

Eriksson added his second goal of the game at 5:13 of the third period.

"For whatever reason, we couldn't really find it tonight," Goligoski said.

Penguins Plus, a blog by Dave Molinari and Shelly Anderson, is featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.