Stars Shut Down Wings, End Skid at Two Games
On the second night of a back-to-back for both teams, the Dallas Stars ended a two game losing streak with a straightforward 4-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings.
The Stars were looking to bounce back after Saturday afternoon's game against Colorado, which ended in a 6-3 loss in Denver. Detroit also lost 5-1 at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning Saturday night. Both teams were looking for a better effort in front of a packed crowd at the American Airlines Center.
Almost immediately to start the game, Detroit went on the power-play due to a tripping call against Evgenii Dadonov. The first place Stars penalty kill was able to hold off the Red Wings, but Detroit fired off four shots and looked dangerous.
Shortly after, the Stars capitalized on Detroit's inability to take the lead when Matej Blumel scored his first goal of the season. Blumel cleaned up a rebound in tight to Wings goalie Alex Lyon, and Justin Hryckowian picked up his first NHL point with an assist. It was fitting for Blumel to score after getting a goal called back against Colorado due to an offside call.
The Stars got their first attempt at the power-play soon after, which at the American Airlines Center has been almost non-existent. But this time, it didn't take long for Jason Robertson to sweep in a rebound from a Matt Duchene slap-shot into an empty net when Lyon got caught out of position.
Dallas has also struggled with allowing the opponent to score within a couple shifts of a goal, but they made sure that did not happen when Mavrik Bourque scored after just over a minute had passed. Defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin joined a 3-on-2 rush up the ice and fired across a pass to Borque who once again had a wide open net staring back at him.
Up 3-0 and a near perfect period from the Stars put the Red Wings behind the eight-ball for the rest of the night.
The second frame was a quiet one from the Stars, with Dallas happy just to maintain the status quo on the scoreboard. The Red Wings pushed back and outshot Dallas 14-7, with the high-danger chances in favor of Detroit 7-1. The Stars stayed even-keeled and Jake Oettinger remained solid. In the dying minutes of the period, Nils Lundkvist was called for tripping but the Stars were able to kill off the penalty against the second ranked power-play in the NHL.
The third period strategy from Dallas was to shut down Detroit and let the clock bleed as much as possible, which worked until the 13 minute mark when Marco Kasper broke Oettinger's shutout bid on a tip from a hard shot. Detroit briefly had life but Wyatt Johnston extinguished that with the first real offensive chance all third period as the clock ticked down to close to five minutes left in the game. Johnston found himself in alone against Lyon, and beat the Wings goaltender with a backhand deke to seal the game at 4-1.
Three Takeaways:
- Robertson stays hot, posting a goal and an assist. Robertson is the leading scorer in the NHL since the Christmas break.
- Matt Dumba was scratched after a poor performance against Colorado. Brendan Smith came in on the third pair with Nils Lundkvist and was not noticeable in the best way. Esa Lindell moved to the top pairing with Miro Heiskanen, and the duo was extremely strong defensively all night. The Stars still don't have their top-6 quite set yet, which should be a priority leading up to the trade deadline.
- This is the first game Dallas has won since Roope Hintz has been out of the lineup with an upper body injury. Dallas had lost the last two and didn't seem to pack the same offensive punch without three of their top six scorers. Depth scoring is more important than ever now for the Stars.
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Two (2) goals in two (2) games. This team cannot shoot better than me - and I am lousy!!!
34 shots - one (1) goal last night. Dallas 3 goals on 17 shots at one point. Tampa: five (5) goals on 14 shots the night before!!! DRW one (1) goal on 30 +shots!!! These guys get MILLIONS of dollars - and score one (1) goal a game - against in conference teams they MUST beat to get in playoffs. Sorry fans! Montreal and Ottawa are going to get the spots. IT’S OVER,!! Waive the crap- bring up the prospects. If you are going to lose, at least get them prepared for next year !