Tonight is Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals. Detroit leads the series 2-0 (4-1, 2-1).
For Dallas, this is essentially a must-win game. They cannot afford to go down 3-0 to Detroit. Some keys to the game for the Stars:
Score first. Dallas has not had a lead this series and they have not played very good catch-up hockey. If they score first tonight, they’ll give themselves a chance.
Marty Turco. Turco needs to be perfect tonight, something he has not been yet this series.
Elevated game. The Stars have been underwhelming thus far. They will need to bring their “A” game tonight to stand a chance.
The Wings will be looking to exact the best revenge for Mike Ribeiro’s idiocy at the end of Game 2: a win. My hope is that they focus on that rather than physical retribution. There’s no need to go after Ribeiro when a Detroit win will hurt him much more. Some keys for the Wings:
Overcome the crappy ice. This will mean a slight adjustment in game plan (i.e. shorter passes), but it’s something the Wings must do early on.
Big first period. If the Wings can put up a few goals in the first, they can take the crowd out of it and go a long way in cutting the Stars off at the knees.
Chris Osgood. Osgood’s calm and confidence need to continue tonight. The Stars will be buzzing him as much as they can, trying to take him off his game.
The lineup should remain the same as it was in Game 2. Johan Franzen (concussion-like symptoms) is out at least another game. Dan Cleary bears the responsibility of filling in for the big Swede on the second line. I expect him to break out soon.
This should be a tightly-contested game. Of course, we thought this series would be tightly-contested, but the Stars haven’t shown up yet. Maybe they will tonight.
Admin note: I’m sorry for the minimal coverage over the past couple days. My access to a computer has been a bit more limited and will probably remain so for at least a couple more days.
I can’t wait. Going into the Star’s den with Wings jersey a’blazin. I think the biggest deal will either to be able to weather the ’storm’ of the first 10min, or even better, to score first and to take the crowd out of the game (sans me). It’s looking more and more important to wrap this series up quickly as the Pens look to be making short work of the Flyers.
So any word on Franzen? Should we be scared? Usually during the playoffs the report of an upper body injury means a groin, and a report of lower body injury means a shoulder, i’m just sayin.
Greg,
That is very cool you’ll be at the game. Hows the weather?
Game was really awesome. To the Stars fans credit they were all pretty good about the loss (something that I dont think Detroit fans would be to an opposition fan) and I got to drink about 14 too many beers with a lot of them after the game.
Texas weather.. is amazing. It’s always sunny and gorgeous. It’s a bit overwhelming from comming from Michigan where as you have months like Ocotober that average 3 sunny days for the month.