Thursday, May 8, 2008

Detroit Red Wings 4, Dallas Stars 1

By Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

So much for a long layoff grounding the Detroit Red Wings. The Dallas Stars were the team that looked not ready to go Thursday night at Joe Louis Arena, falling 4-1 to the Red Wings to go down 1-0 in the Western Conference Finals.

"Whether it was some fatigue from that last game (four overtime win over San Jose), whatever the reason, we didn't play close to our abilities," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "Give the Red Wings all the credit in the world, they did what they had to do. We're going to have to be much better."

The Red Wings won the game on special teams, scoring on three of their first five power plays and holding Dallas' power play scoreless on all four of its chances in the game.

"The special teams battle was very important, obviously," said Red Wings coach Mike Babcock. "It was very important that we were skating early so that we could draw some penalties and get some momentum."

The Stars were shorthanded five times in the first 26 minutes of the game, giving the Red Wings the opportunity to take control of the game early.

"We played right into their hands. They are a good puck possession team," said Stars captain Brenden Morrow. "Too often we were checking with our sticks instead of our legs."

The Stars were able to take control of their first two playoff series by winning the first games on the road, but they were unable to breakthrough in Detroit, where the Red Wings improved to 6-0 in these playoffs.

"We had a good two or three shifts to start the game," said Morrow, who scored the lone goal for the Stars. "But then the ice got tilted the other way."

Detroit goalie Chris Osgood stopped 20 of 21 shots to run his record to 7-0 since taking over for Dominik Hasek in the first round series against Nashville. His biggest save of the game came early in the second period when he stopped Niklas Hagman on a breakaway with Dallas with the Red Wings up 2-0.

"Ozzie played great for us. Didn't see a lot of action first period but second period played great for us when he had to," said Detroit defenseman Brian Rafalski. "That's what he's been doing these last six seven games and expecting him to continue to do the same."

Marty Turco, who dropped to 0-8-2 in his career in Detroit including both regular season and playoffs, made 27 saves on 31 shots.

"A lot had to do with the team in front of him tonight, not so much Marty," said Tippett.

There was a lot of special teams play in the first period and the Red Wings dominated, scoring two power play goals and killing off two Dallas chances.

The Red Wings scored 4:28 into the game on a a 1:26 five-on-three chance after Mark Fistric took a roughing penalty with Mattias Norstrom already in the box for hooking. Brian Rafalski scored off the rebound of Nicklas Lidstrom shot that hit the post.

"Obviously, 5 on 3 early in the game is a huge opportunity. We obviously wanted to score there," said Rafalski.

The Red Wings made it 2-0 with another power play goal at 15:34 when Johan Franzen deflected a Niklas Kronwall shot from the point past Turco.

The Red Wings struck on the power play at 6:40 of the third to make it a 3-0 game. After Stars forward Steve Ott won a draw in his own end, Wings forward Tomas Holmstrom got to the puck in the corner to give Detroit possession, went to the front of the net and deflected a Lidstrom shot past Turco. The Stars thought Holmstrom interfered with Turco.

"The third goal was obviously one that we were told that if there's going to be a player in the blue paint that would be no goal," said Tippett. "Obviously that didn't happen."

It was a 4-0 game at 15:37 of the second when Mikael Samuelsson set up Valtteri Filppula, who split the Dallas defense and beat Turco on a breakaway.

The Stars finally broke through on Osgood with 1:07 left in the second when Morrow scored off the rebound of a Steve Ott shot.

There was no scoring the third period.

Pegasus News content partner - Andrew's Stars Page
Stars Stats, Schedule, Roster, and Blog

See more stories in:

• Hockey > NHL > Stars