The Detroit Red Wings ended another road trip in the dumps. Their tremendous start was suddenly silenced by the Dallas Stars who went on to score four straight in the late stages winning 5-2 at American Airlines Center on Thursday. Antti Niemi made 31 saves on the Red Wings to pick up two important points in their division.
Despite being on a two-game slide, the Red Wings saw progress on the offensive side of the puck scoring 10 goals in their last three games. Their comeback late against the Blackhawks produced a point to their name but while the scoring is alive, Detroit needed to focus on being out front to win games. They continued on their road trip facing the Stars who are on an on and off winning situation. In their return home to start, ending Detroit on a bad note could help them inch into contention for the wild card.
They began the period with a good turnover in the Detroit zone giving the Stars a quick steal. Jordie Benn’s drive from near the blue line rifled straight to the net where Lauri Korpikoski gained credit for the goal and his sixth. Dallas held the lead on shots to the net but the pace changed in the second half of the period. The Red Wings picked up a power play hoping that their newfound push could put an end to their drought of goals while on the man advantage.
Their first didn’t go anywhere but their second chance with seven minutes left produced their best opportunity with a 5 on 3. They made it happen with a minute to go with Tomas Vanek finding a lane to find teammate Gustav Nyquist for his first in 22 games and second in the last 35. Detroit ended a 19-game slump on the power play while also leveling the score with Dallas.
They took the lead with 4:18 left on the clock with Anthony Mantha making a good turnover behind the Dallas net. Nyquist came in for the fore-check to come around and find captain Henrik Zetterberg open for a one timer and a 2-1 lead. Zetterberg picked up his eight while the youngster on the first line gained his ninth assist. By the time the period came to a close, Detroit outshot Dallas 11-4 while also doing spectacular against them on the faceoff.
The second started much like the first with Dallas making their moves with strength. A battle for the puck was won stealing it away from Detroit to set them up with a scoring chance. It came on the stick of Brett Ritchie for his ninth that put things back to level pegging for the Stars. As the period elapsed, the vulnerability of the Red Wings showed leading to a disaster in the final minutes.
John Klingberg gave his team the lead with 4:07 left on the clock with a rebound shot that notched his sixth. Mrazek never saw it go in and suffered further troubles just under a minute later. It was the perfect shot near that boards that Stephen Johns took in the Detroit zone zipping past defenseman Jonathan Ericsson to find space behind Mrazek for his fourth and a sizable lead going into the third. They returned with force outshooting the Red Wings 12-6 carrying all the momentum.
The Red Wings tried to show some recovery going into the third period in order to save the game and pull off an upset to their roller coaster of a road trip with fathers and mentors in tow. Detroit brought plenty of action into the Dallas end where they had to deal with Niemi in net for the Stars. In the opening minutes of the period, the Dallas netminder made huge saves at point blank range killing off their shots to tie the game. It continued for some time as Detroit racked up the shots but couldn’t find the back of the net.
Frustrations began to become a bigger problem for the Red Wings as they lost control of the puck giving the Stars a chance to push further away from the on the scoreboard. They never did find another goal during the even strength moments but held on to their two-goal margin. The final minutes saw Mrazek pulled from the net to give Detroit six attackers. Despite all their wishes to cover the spread, the Stars held them off with ease that saw former Detroit forward Patrick Eaves seal the deal against them with 1:06 left.
The horn sounded victory for Dallas while the Red Wings suffered their third loss in regulation and fifth overall.
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