Wings Close Trip With Tie in Dallas

The Red Wings are ready to be done with their West Coast road trip and head for home after finishing up with a 2-2 tie against the Dallas Stars.

The teams got off to a slow start, trying to get a sense of each other. Detroit began to pressure first. Henrik Zetterberg had a good scoring chance against Marty Turco early, but hit the goalpost.

Pavel Datsyuk opened the scoring at 12:28 of the first period. Jiri Fischer made a pass into the Stars’ zone. Datsyuk raced in to beat Sergei Zubov to the puck, then took a hard wrist shot which beat Turco through the five-hole.

Dallas tied the game up on a power play late in the period. Jason Arnott won the faceoff in the Red Wings’ defensive zone. Richard Matvichuk took a hard shot from the left point, and David Oliver tipped the puck on its way through. Steve Ott was screening Manny Legace so that the goalie couldn’t see the shot until it was too late.

The late goal gave the Stars a confidence they may have lacked before, and they came on strong for the second period. The Red Wings’ skaters had a tough time getting the puck out of their zone, let alone trying to set up any scoring chances against Turco. Fortunately for Detroit, Legace was there to stop every Dallas shot he faced in the second.

Tomas Holmstrom moved the Red Wings back into the lead with a non-characteristic goal early in the third. He intercepted a pass from Matvichuk to Teppo Numminen deep in the Dallas zone. Turco came out of the net to challenge, but Holmstrom stick-handled around the goaltender and zinged a hard shot into the net.

The Red Wings seemed to slump back into a defensive position after that, but the Stars continued to pressure offensively. They tied the game back up with just 6:03 remaining in regulation. Pierre Turgeon won the faceoff in Detroit’s zone. Numminen shot the puck from the right point. Turgeon and Bill Guerin were both in front of the net creating a screen so that Legace couldn’t see the puck sliding through traffic.

Detroit controlled the overtime, coming up with five good scoring chances against Turco to the Stars’ one shot against Legace, but neither goaltender allowed another shot through.
Dallas outshot Detroit by a count of 29 to 26. The Red Wings will return home to face the New Jersey Devils on Thursday evening.

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This was Steve Yzerman’s 1425th game, moving him past Pat Verbeek into 15th place on the list of total career games played…. Dominik Hasek’s injured groin will be re-evaluated on Wednesday.