The Detroit Red Wings took a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference Finals by defeating the Dallas Stars 4-1 at home last night.
I didn’t take notes and I’m a little short on time so this will be brief:
… I missed the first couple minutes of the game, but it looked like the Stars were in control early on. Things started to unravel for them as they got into penalty trouble before the game was four minutes old. After that, the Wings took over and held the high ground for most of the rest of the game.
… The roughing on Mark Fistric was pretty stupid. If anyone deserved a call there, it was Steve Ott. Fistric did very little, but I thought Ott went a little overboard in his encounter with Holmstrom.
… I thought Brian Rafalski had a strong night for the most part. He made absolutely the right decision on his goal, chosing to take advantage of the chaos following Lidstrom’s shot going off the post. Turco had no idea what was going on.
… Franzen continues to play like an MVP. His goal will get the press, but his play in the defensive end was exemplary. If he’d played like that all season, the Wings could have had three Selke finalists.
… Valtteri Filppula looked strong all night. He was particularly impressive in his strength on the puck, which led to a Stars penalty in one instance. He made no mistake about it when he found himself open in the middle just before his goal. Turco doesn’t deserve much criticism on that one. It was just a great shot.
… Turco, by the way, was not the stellar goalie we were led to believe he’d be. I have no doubt that we’ll see the better side of him this series, but he’d better bring it quick or the Stars will be in trouble.
… I thought Chris Osgood looked stellar. He made a few huge saves at various points in the game and definitely was the goalie his teammates need him to be.
… Of course, Osgood was helped by a tight team defense. The Wings were very good about regaining possession in their zone and closing off the Stars’ attack.
… I was surprised to see Kirk Maltby in the lineup. I didn’t notice him much, to be honest.
… Darren Helm was great last night. He took an elbow shot to the face from Turco, though. Not sure how the officials missed that one.
… Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk looked like themselves with seven shots each.
… If the Wings’ power play clicks like that all series, Dallas will be very hardpressed to win a game, let alone four. The Stars are going to have to cut down on the penalties, for sure.
… The Wings held the Stars down for a good half of the game and then let off the gas. That’s not going to work if Dallas gets its act together. They’re better off staying on the attack all night.
… You could see the Stars’ frustration late in the game. My guess is Game 2 will be a different animal as they come out looking to make up for their poor performance last night.
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