Red Wings Avoid Shutout but Fall to Stars

The Detroit Red Wings narrowly avoided being shutout for the second time in three games on Tuesday night, dropping a 2-1 decision in their home opener to the Dallas Stars.

One night after being the shootout hero who gave the Red Wings their first victory of the season, rookie Damien Brunner scored the team’s only goal. Pavel Datsyuk’s pass across the top of the crease reached Brunner on the far side with a wide open net for his first career NHL goal, coming with just three seconds left in the game.

Michael Ryder provided all of the offense for Dallas.

At 5:41 of the first period, Ryder carried the puck from the left wing boards across the top of the faceoff circles and flung a shot on net. The puck deflected off of defenseman Kyle Quincey’s stick early and sailed over goalie Jimmy Howard’s shoulder, into the top corner.

Ryder struck again at 5:34 of the third period when he was left wide open in the left circle, taking a pass from former Red Wing Ray Whitney and snapping a shot past Howard.

Howard finished the night with 32 saves on 34 Dallas shots. Stars’ goalie Kari Lehtonen made 40 saves on the 41 shots he faced.

Though Brunner’s goal came with Howard on the bench for an extra attacker, the Wings were scoreless on four power play tries, still looking for their first power play goal of the season. Dallas did not score on either of their two tries with the man advantage.

Having completed three games in four nights, the Red Wings are now off until Friday when they host the Minnesota Wild.

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Former Red Wing Tomas Holmstrom, who announced his retirement earlier in the day, participated in a ceremonial puck drop to start the game… The Red Wings were without forwards Mikael Samuelsson, Darren Helm, Todd Bertuzzi, and Jan Mursak, defensemen Jonathan Ericsson, Jakub Kindl and Carlo Colaiacovo, and goalie Jonas Gustavsson… Defenseman Kent Huskins made his Red Wings debut, having been signed earlier in the day due to the injuries decimating Detroit’s blue line… Forward Gustav Nyquist was called up from the Grand Rapids Griffins to fill in up front. He and goalie Tom McCollum were returned to the Griffins after the game.