Dallas Stars 5, Detroit Red Wings 4 (OT)

by Mark Stepneski of of Andrew's Stars Page

DALLAS — The Dallas Stars have been putting a lot of shots on goal lately and not getting a lot of results. Monday night they put even more shots on net and they finally got some goals. And they needed them. The Stars overcame 2-0, 3-1 and 4-3 deficits to beat the Detroit Red Wings 5-4 at the American Airlines Center.

Steve Ott's power play goal with 3:00 left in regulation tied the game at 4-4 and Trevor Daley scored 1:51 into overtime to win it for the Stars, who peppered Detroit goalie Chris Osgood with 49 shots.

The Stars had a total of 75 shots directed at the net, including 14 that missed and another 12 that were blocked by Detroit defenders.

Osgood was brilliant at times, he got a few breaks at other times but the Stars were relentless in their pressure in the second and third period, when they outshot Detroit 39-15 and outscored them 3-1 to rally and tie the game.

"I like the way our guys hung in there. We kept playing aggressively and got pucks to the net and the last play was the definition of aggressive," said Stars coach Dave Tippett, who called out some of his team's best players after last week's 6-1 loss to Detroit. "When you push people and prod them to be better, this game proves that it can be done. We can still be better, and when you get solid desperation and effort, that's exactly what its going to take."

The Stars got three goals from their defensemen. Niklas Grossman and Stephane Robidas both scored to join Daley in providing offense from the blue line.

"It was a great day for the d- guys and the scoring was spread around," said Grossman. "We're trying to get a good run before the All-Star break and every game and every point is critical right now."

Mark Parrish joined Ott in providing scoring punch from the forward ranks. Krys Barch had two assists.

The win gave the Stars an 18-17-6 record at the midway point of the season. The two points lifted them back to within three points of the last playoff spot in the Western Conference.

"It was a big two points, but we're still chasing from behind and there's still a lot of work to do," said Daley. "The way we responded tonight shows what kind of a team we are, and I hope we can take a lot out of it. We need to build off of it, it's time. We need the points right now."

The Red Wings scored two goals 1:50 apart in the first period to take a 2-0 lead. Grossman's goal, his first career regular season goal, cut the lead to 2-1. Detroit scored on a power play to make it 3-1 after the first 20 minutes.

But the Stars said they weren't about to roll over, not after what happened in Detroit last week.

"We came in the room (after the first period) and didn't want the same situation to happen again," Stars center Mike Ribeiro said. "We were mad. We wanted to finish our checks and get loose pucks."

The Stars took control of the game after that from a territorial standpoint. Robidas scored 52 seconds into the second to make it a 3-2 game. The Stars kept up the pressure, outshooting the Red Wings 23-10 in the period. The Stars got the equalizer with 4:07 left in the period when Barch set up Parrish, who scored from the slot.

Only a couple of great saves by Osgood, who stopped Mike Ribeiro and Brad Richards on the power play, kept the Stars being up two goals. It appeared Ott scored on the rebound of Osgood's save on Ribeiro, but the referee said no goal on the ice and the call was not overruled by a video review.

But the Red Wings got the lead back early in the third period when Pavel Datsyuk scored off a sharp angle at the 5:19 mark.

The Stars kept up the pressure and held a 16-5 shots advantage in the third period but it took a late power play chance - their seventh of the game- to get the equalizer.

After taking a pass from Brad Richards, Ribeiro made a slick pass in front of the net to Ott, who redirected the puck past Osgood with 3:00 left in regulation.

The Stars were forced to kill a Detroit power play the last 1:21 of regulation and the first 39 seconds of overtime before Daley crashed the net and knocked a loose puck past a diving Osgood to give the Stars the dramatic come-from-behind win.

The loss snapped a six-game winning streak for the Red Wings, who got a goal and two assists from Datsyuk along with the 44-save effort from Osgood.

"We got off to a good start, but they took the game over," coach Mike Babcock said. "Give them credit. They got beat in our building bad and they responded with a good effort and we weren't as good as we should have been."