Friday, March 14, 2008

Detroit Red Wings 5, Dallas Stars 3

By Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

The Dallas Stars were able to build a 3-1 lead at Joe Louis Arena Thursday night, but the Detroit Red Wings rattled off three goals in a 4:44 span to erase that lead as they rallied to beat the Stars 5-3.

"I think we sort of sat back and tried to play with the lead," Stars captain Brenden Morrow said. "We were on our heels to start the third."

Detroit scored with 3:34 left in the second period to make it a one goal game and then took the lead with two goals in the first 1:01 of the third period to take the lead for good in the game and hand the Stars their fourth loss in the last five games.

"We had a bad start in the first two periods, but a good start in the third," said Detroit center Pavel Datsyuk, who had two goals and an assist in the game. "We tried to put [the puck] behind the defensemen and play more in the offensive zone, shoot more and have traffic."

The Stars, who lost three of four against Detroit this season, remained one point behind San Jose and one point ahead of the Anaheim Ducks in the Pacific Division.

Trevor Daley, Jere Lehtinen and Morrow scored for the Stars, who also got a pair of assists from Joel Lundqvist. Marty Turco stopped 26 of 30 shots in falling to 0-7-2 in his NHL career at Joe Louis Arena.

The Red Wings, who ran their winning streak to five games, clinched a playoff spot by securing the Central Division title and reached the 100-point mark for the eighth straight season, tying an NHL record set by the Montreal Canadiens from 1975-82.

"I think you should give our organization a lot of credit for what we've been able to do,'' said Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom. "Especially with the new salary system where everybody is on an equal playing field.''

The Red Wings started their rally late in the second period. The Stars couldn't clear the puck out their own end and Datsyuk got the puck in the right circle, put a shot on net and then scored on his own rebound with 3:43 left in the second.

The Red Wings struck for two goals in the first 1:01 of the third period to then take the lead. Datsyuk scored 36 seconds in when he was able to chip a puck away from Lundqvist off the rush and then beat Turco five-hole with a blast from the right circle to tie the game.

The Red Wings took the lead 25 seconds later. After Henrik Zetterberg beat Mike Modano in a faceoff in the Dallas zone, the Red Wings got the puck to the net and Mikael Samuelsson was credited with the goal that Stars defenseman accidentally knocked into the net during a scramble in front of Turco at the 1:01 mark.

"The first goal was a bad goal and the second, we didn't check very well," Stars coach Dave Tippett said of the Wings' two early third period scores.

The Stars best chance for the equalizer came in the final minute of the game, but Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood made a nifty glove save on a Niklas Hagman blast from the left faceoff circle.

Valtteri Filppula scored into an empty net with five seconds remaining to round out the scoring.

The Stars struck early, scoring just 1:08 into the game. Joel Lundqvist came off the bench on a line change, got to a puck behind the goal line and sent a pass along the boards to Daley, whose shot from the point beat screened Chris Osgood.

But the Wing, who had three power play chances in the first period, scored on the second one to tie the game at the 7:46 mark. After Datsyuk won an offensive zone draw, Lidstrom's blast from the point was deflected past Turco by Johan Franzen.

The Stars scored just 44 seconds into the second to take a 2-1 lead and again it was Lundqvist setting it up. He got to a puck behind the net, skated to the left circle, spun and put a shot on net that Lehtinen deflected it into the net.

The Stars made it a 3-1 game when they cashed into their second power play chance of the night. Morrow got to the rebound of a Stephane Robidas shot at the side of the net and then put it home at the 13:43 mark.

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