Archive for the 'Stars' CategoryPage 5 of 5

Wings 3, Stars 6

Published
by
Matt Saler
on January 8, 2006
in 2005-2006, Game Reports and Stars
. 1 Comment

The Wings blew a three-goal lead, allowing six unanswered goals in the second and third periods, to lose 6-3 at the Joe today. In contrast to the trend of just a few games ago, Detroit came out of the gates flying in the first but faltered after scoring their second and third goals early in the second period. The Stars took advantage of this and dominated for the next 35 minutes or so, getting an important win for their franchise.

The Wings showed us their two sides tonight: in the first and early goings of the second, it was the crisp-passing, game-dominating team we love to see so much. In the rest of the second and all of the third, they were the sloppy-passing, on-their-heels team we see all too often. In a month where that first team needs to show up more often than not, it is extremely disappointing to see the Wings play their “B” or even “C” game.

The game started out fairly well, with an okay pace and both teams skating. Dallas helped Detroit out by taking two penalties in the first three minutes, handing the Wings a lengthy 5-on-3 power play opportunity. They took less than a minute to score, giving themselves a one-goal lead at 3:13. The goal came from Henrik Zetterberg to essentially one-timed a Mathieu Schneider shot/pass and beat Marty Turco just inside the right post. The rest of the power play was uneventful as the Wings couldn’t get set up until the waning seconds.

Dallas came on a bit after this and had a good pressure shift in the Detroit zone. The Wings soon took the puck the other way, however, and drew a penalty on the resulting rush. This power play was not so successful and merely resulted in some sustained pressure that was continued after the penalty expired when the Stars inadvertently iced the puck.

At this point, the Wings were passing the puck well and out-skating Dallas, who had to commit penalties, much the way the Predators did in the last game, in order to keep up. It took the Stars until 13:20 to even get a shot and this was from 76 feet away from the net. Whatever his teammates were or were not doing, Marty Turco was equal to the task of stopping the Wings, however, and they couldn’t get the puck past him again in the first, though they got yet another chance on the power play before the end.

The first period ended with a glorious scoring opportunity for the Wings. Marty Turco, known around the league as a puck-handling goalie, sent a pass up the middle that was intercepted by Zetterberg. Hank walked in on Turco and then passed the puck across the crease to Jason Williams, who had joined the play. Somehow, Turco made the save and the puck stayed out, saving his own hide.

Shots in the first were 10-3 Wings.

Detroit started the second period with a goal, scoring at :25 to double their lead. This time, it was Mathieu Schneider, notching his second point of the night, who scored from the point after receiving a pass from Pavel Datsyuk. The goal was the result of Dallas’ inability to clear the zone, despite numerous chances to do so. For Datsyuk, it was his 200th career point.

Less than a minute later, the Stars took another penalty and the Wings went back on the power play. Again, they wasted no time in taking advantage of it, scoring at 1:32, just nine seconds into the man-advantage. Jason Williams scored this time, after getting the puck from Datsyuk. He took a shot from the point that found its way into the net, likely due to the good screen Tomas Holmstrom had going on Turco, who saw it too late to stop it.

Turco was pulled for the second straight game at this point and was replaced by Johann Hedberg.

The Stars rebounded well after the Wings scored and finally got themselves on the board less than a minute later. Chris Osgood made a couple good initial saves but Brett Lebda, falling into the net, got in his way and he was not able to get firm footing in order to slide across the make the final save. So, Niklas Hagman had an easy goal from the backdoor to put his team within two goals.

Dallas started to come on after this, though the Wings did have a couple of good shifts to counter this. They got another power play but spent most of it passing and skating with little shooting.

The Wings finally took a penalty at 10:12 and handed the Stars their first power play of the game. It took them a minute, but Dallas took advantage of the man-advantage, scoring at 11:10 to put them within one. Jere Lehtinen took a pass from the corner and one-timed it, with Zetterberg covering him, past Osgood, beating him stickside. I’d like to see Osgood make that kind of save but it was a bit of a defensive breakdown so it wasn’t all his fault.

Zetterberg took a holding penalty half a minute later, though I thought it was a bit of a weak call. Osgood was quick, however, and stopped Dallas’ shots as they set up and cycled the puck.

The Wings were becoming more and more sloppy, not connecting on passes and not standing up very well to the pressure from Dallas.

Tomas Holmstrom went off for roughing at 16:38 and again, the Stars scored within a minute, tying the game at three. This time, it was a shot from the point that may have been screened, though I still thought it a bit weak. The puck beat Osgood in the top right corner.

Just after the goal, Zetterberg had a nice scoring chance, making a nice move around the Dallas defenseman and letting loose a shot from 26 feet out. Hedberg made the save, however, and did also on a flurry around the net that soon followed.

The Wings got a power play late in the period but it looked much more like a Dallas power play than anything else as the Stars had a couple of good chances shorthanded. Osgood was sharp, however, and kept the puck out of the net.

Shots in the second were 15-8 Dallas.

The Wings began the third period on the power play but accomplished little. I thought the teams looked fairly even here but the Stars were about to take off.

Holmstrom took another penalty at 5:23 and the Stars went on the power play once again. They quickly got set up and then Jere Lehtinen scored again less than a minute later to put Dallas ahead. Sergei Zubov took a shot from the point that did not get through but Lehtinen picked up the puck and backhanded it past Osgood, who was taken off-balance by the initial shot from the point and was not in any position to stop the new one. I don’t know what was going on in Osgood head on that one but it looked like a bad goal to give up.

Fourty-one seconds later, Dallas scored again. This time, the puck was turned over and the Stars got an odd-man rush going the other way. Niko Kapanen, the last man to join the rush for Dallas, received the pass and ripped the puck past Osgood, who was left out to dry by his defense. Still, it would have been nice if he could have made the save.

The Stars finished piling on the goals just under two minutes later when Mathias Tjarnqvist’s shot from the top of the right circle beat Osgood at 8:44. Head coach Mike Babcock pulled Osgood in favor of Manny Legace at this point. Ken Daniels and Mickey Redmond kept saying that it wasn’t because they were playing bad that the two goalies were pulled, it was that the puck wasn’t hitting them. Yes, that’s true, but both of them could have made a save or two more than they did.

The Wings were very much outplayed in the third period, though they did not give up as many chances as they could have. They were not connecting on passes and couldn’t complete the scoring chances they got themselves. As usual, they were trying to be too cute with the puck, one-timing passes back to each other instead of one-timing shots into the net. All too often, they would start out going toward the net and then angle away from it only drop a pass behind them in vain hope that a teammate would brave the low slot and score.

Henrik Zetterberg was called for hooking at 15:56, though nothing came of it. I only point it out because it was an awful example of the new NHL rules and how such a strict interpretation can lead to such BS calls. Because of the angle at which the ref was looking at the play, it looked like Hank hooked the Stars player when in fact, he did not even touch him. I’m all for calling hooking but it’s when they start making phantom calls that I get angry.

Anyway, the clocked ticked away and finally the horn blew with the Wings on the other end of a 6-3 loss.

Shots in the third were 14-7 Dallas and 32-25 Dallas for the game.

Manny Legace was solid replacing Osgood, who has very likely lost the starting job, despite playing with a lack of support from his teammates.

The Wings’ penalty kill was awful tonight for some reason. 2-for-5 is not acceptable for a team hoping to do well in the playoffs.

Neither is blowing a three-goal lead to a likely playoff opponent. I agree with Ken Daniels, who said, “I can’t remember the last time anybody scored six unanswered goals on the Wings.” Neither can I.

Johan Franzen sat out another game with that mysterious upper body injury. Maybe the papers will shed some light on it tomorrow. Mark Mowers played again in his place.

Marty Turco still hasn’t beaten the Wings, since he was pulled, but his coach, Dave Tippetts now has. The Stars hadn’t beaten Detroit since January 16th, 2002, going 0-5-5 in 10 meetings until this win.

So, of a possible 28 points from the 14 games in January, the most the Wings can get now is 24.

Staying ahead of the Predators will not get any easier with this loss. They play the Chicago Blackhawks tonight and as of this writing, are leading them 5-1 in the third period. The Wings’ six-point lead will become a four-point one soon.

Next up, the Southeast Division-leading Carolina Hurricanes. The puck drops at 7:00 ET and the game will be aired on OLN.

UPDATE (09. Jan): Well, it looks like the Predators know how to hold on to leads. They beat Chicago 5-1 and are now just four points behind them. The two games coming later this month just became a whole lot more important.

Also, check out Abel to Yzerman’s recap.

UPDATE (12:37 PM, 09. Jan): The News mentions Franzen today, though his injury is still listed as an “upper body” one, with no more detail. They report that Babcock is “optimistic” that Johan will be back in the lineup tomorrow night. (News)

Lines*

Datsyuk-Shanahan-Lang
Cleary-Maltby-Draper
Datsyuk-Shanahan-Williams
Shanahan-Yzerman-Lang
Zetterberg-Samuelsson-Williams
Mowers-Yzerman-Holmstrom
Holmstrom-Draper-Williams
Holmstrom-Zetterberg-Datsyuk
Mowers-Zetterberg-Yzerman
Zetterberg-Williams-Yzerman
Holmstrom-Zetterberg-Samuelsson
Maltby-Lang-Draper
Yzerman-Lang-Draper
Mowers-Maltby-Cleary
Samuelsson-Datsyuk
Samuelsson-Maltby
Draper-Maltby

D-parings

Lilja-Lidstrom
Chelios-Schneider
Woolley-Lilja
Lidstrom-Schneider
Lebda-Chelios
Schneider-Woolley
Schneider-Lebda
Lidstrom-Lebda
Schneider-Lilja
Lidstrom-Chelios

PP

Lidstrom-Samuelsson-Williams-Datsyuk-Shanahan
Lidstrom-Datsyuk-Williams-Zetterberg-Holmstrom

*compiled by Brian

GameDay: vs. Dallas (26-12-2, 54 Pts) 5:00 ET

Published
by
Matt Saler
on January 8, 2006
in 2005-2006, GameDay and Stars
. 0 Comments

This afternoon, the Wings will play the Stars for the second time this season. They won the first game, in Dallas on December 27th, 4-1. The Wings overcame a slow start with the help of Chris Osgood and pulled ahead in the second and third periods with goals by Henrik Zetterberg, Tomas Holmstrom and Kirk Maltby. These teams face each other twice more before the end of the regular season: January 28 in Dallas and April 17 in Detroit.

The Wings are coming off a big 3-1 win over division rival Nashville Friday night. It was a playoff-style game, physical and fast-paced with a lively crowd and one of the best games of the season. Steve Yzerman, in his second game back from a groin injury, notched his 1,049th career assist, tying him with Gordie Howe for 7th all-time. Detroit played well and provided a glimpse of what they are capable of against quality opponents, showing they can skate with youth and speed after all. The season-series with the Preds is bound to be exciting and a tough one. The win made Detroit 7-1 in their last eight games, the only loss in that span coming to Minnesota on the 3rd.

The Stars are coming off a 4-3 shootout win over Anaheim on Friday. They rallied from a three-goal deficit in the second and third periods to force overtime and then the shootout. Then, Johan Hedberg stopped Teemu Selanne and Antti Miettinen scored in on JS Giguere in the fourth round of the shootout to give Dallas the win. Marty Turco, who had signed a contract extension Thursday, was pulled before the second period after allowing three goals on the Ducks’ first six shots in the opening period. Since playing Detroit on the 27th of last month, Dallas has gone 3-1-1, with two losses to LA (one in regulation and one in overtime) and wins over St. Louis and Vancouver to go with Friday’s win over the Ducks. Those losses to LA didn’t help Dallas’ place in the standings. They are now second in the Pacific Division, two points behind LA, where before they had been first.

Mike Babcock stated before Friday’s game that Chris Osgood would start today for the Wings. Manny Legace started against the Blues Thursday and the Preds Friday and played very well so it’s time for Ozzie to show us where he stands. He is 24-9-3 against the Stars in his career and I say this is a great time to get win #25.

As for the Stars, we may see Johan Hedberg in net instead of Marty Turco, who still hasn’t beaten the Wings (through ten games, he is 0-5-5).

Johan Franzen was hurt late in the game Thursday night when he was hit along the boards by Eric Brewer. He has an “upper body”injury and was scheduled to get an X-ray taken last night. He told the Free Press, “Can’t really move that well. Little stiff today. Not sure what it is.” Of course, the papers say nothing about Johan today so I have no idea whether he’ll be in the lineup or not. If something is broken, he won’t be but if not, it’s up in the air and depends on how he feels, most likely.

In a month of important games, this is yet another game the Wings need to win. They need to carry on the momentum they have gathered over the past two games and play with authority at home against the Stars. They beat the Preds Friday night but that won’t mean much if they falter between now and their next meetings on the 24th and 26th.

Wings 4, Stars 1

Published
by
Matt Saler
on December 28, 2005
in 2005-2006, Game Reports, Stars and The Team
. 2 Comments

The Wings extended their win-streak to four games with a 4-1 win over the Stars in Dallas tonight. It was a better game than their last two, though they were still dominated for stretches of the game by the Stars.

Chris Osgood was without a doubt the #1 star of the game (though Zetterberg won the arena #1 star), making very good saves when needed and bailing his team out when they left him out to dry. The first period was the most extreme example of this, when for long stretches of play, Detroit seemed unable to clear the puck. The Stars took advantage of this by out-chancing the Wings 8-0 in the first and out-shooting them 13-8. The final shots total for the period is a little misleading: the Wings scored on just their third shot eight and half minutes in and play wasn’t even close until mid-period.

To compound the problems created by their inability to clear their own zone, the Wings had trouble penetrating the Dallas zone effectively, meaning their chances were more along the periphery and much less dangerous. They capitalized on a rare chance at 8:34 when Marty Turco coughed up the puck to Henrik Zetterberg along the near boards. Hank sent it to the far side post, where Mikael Samuelsson got a nice slam-dunk of a goal. The goal followed a long stretch of play in which the Stars dominated Detroit and was a bit of a surprise.

The Wings followed up their goal by coming on a bit for the next couple shifts. The pace quickened and the teams began trading chances up and down the ice after mid-period. The Wings, still riding the momentum from their goal, controlled the puck a tad more but it amounted to nothing, as it had for the Stars earlier, when Dallas scored to tie it up at 16:49.

Kirk Maltby had absorbed a big hit by Niklas Hagman behind the net, knocking him to the ice but the tables turned right then as Hagman got a hold of the puck and sent it out front. Nick Lidstrom just missed preventing the pass but as it was, it got through to Jaroslav Svoboda, who one-timed it past Osgood. The Wings goalie had no chance to stop it and the game was tied at one.

Some good Wings pressure led to a power play late in the period but they accomplished little on it before the period ended.

The second period began with the Wings on the power play for 50 seconds. They got almost nothing on this power play, except for a chance by Pavel Datsyuk in the waning seconds. This was followed up by a breakaway by Stephane Robidas who barely took a shot and was stoned by Osgood.

Brett Hull joined the broadcast for a few minutes early in the third and was distracting enough that I didn’t really digest the events on the ice until he went off the air. He did say he has no regrets about retiring, that he wishes he could still play but that he knows he can’t. He also likes what he sees of the League so far and commented that it’s hard for the refs to have real consistency.

Hull had me so distracted that I practically didn’t see Henrik Zetterberg’s goal at 4:14. Jason Williams had the puck along the far boards and centered it to Hank in the slot. Zetterberg redirected it past Turco and put the Wings ahead 2-1.

Mikael Samuelsson went to the box for a nasty but accidental high-stick on Brendan Morrow at 7:01, putting the Stars on the power play for four minutes. It was a very good kill for the Wings, who withstood Dallas pressure in their zone but also killed time by clearing it and controlling the puck deep in the Stars’ zone. Kirk Maltby whiffed on a centering pass from Kris Draper towards the end of the penalty-kill though he would have almost certainly scored had he gotten much wood on it.

Robert Lang and Pavel Datsyuk got a nice 2-on-1 chance but Pavel’s pass was blocked and it came to naught at about 14:00.

The rest of the period was pretty uneventful.

Jason Woolley went to the box early in the third and the resulting Dallas power play required Osgood to make some very good saves once again. During this penalty kill, Kirk Maltby took a stick in the face from Billy Guerin when he dove to the ice to take a swipe at the puck. The stick drew blood and may have knocked a tooth or two out but Maltby came back and finished the game strong.

Robidas went off for holding, a blatant penalty behind the net. The Wings put on a passing clinic and held the Stars in their zone for most of the power play, using the same unit the whole time and getting a couple good chances out of it, though they didn’t score.

They did score at 8:34, however, increasing their lead to two goals when Tomas Holmstrom redirected a Brett Lebda redirection of Zetterberg’s pass/shot from the top of the right circle. Lebda was way down low and got a stick on it but it hit Holmstrom’s stick before going into the net so Tomas got the credit for the goal. 3-1 Wings.

After the Holmstrom goal, the Wings set about the business of shutting the Stars down. They did a good job of it, minimizing Dallas’ chances and getting a few of their own.

Brendan Morrow went after Samuelsson at 15:07, looking for revenge on the latter’s high stick earlier in the game. He ended up handing the Wings a power play. Detroit squandered it though, allowing a solid shorthanded chance and getting a penalty on the play at 16:32.

Fortunately, the Stars weren’t too threatening, on either the 4-on-4 stretch or their power play.

They pulled Turco late in the period but it did them no good. Kirk Maltby blocked a shot at 19:07 and got a breakaway as a reward. He skated in on net and hardly took a shot, scoring an empty-netter at 19:15 to really put it away for the Wings.

Brendan Shanahan had his eight-game point streak snapped, having scored five goals and ten assists over that span.

Henrik Zetterberg had another very good game, notching two assists to go with his second period goal. He was also strong in the defensive zone, as usual.

Marty Turco still hasn’t beaten the Wings and is 0-5-5 all-time against them now. Along similar lines, the Stars haven’t beaten the Wings in nine games, dating back to January 16, 2002. The Wings are 4-0-4-0 in that span (four ties).

Next up, the Wings have Columbus on New Year’s Eve. The puck drops at 7:00 ET.

Lines

Shanahan - Datsyuk - Holmstrom
Williams - Zetterberg - Samuelsson
Zetterberg - Datsyuk - Holmstrom
Cleary - Datsyuk - Shanahan
Williams - Zetterberg - Samuelsson
Samuelsson - Lang - Holmstrom
Holmstrom - Lang - Draper
Shanahan - Datsyuk - Holmstrom
Maltby - Mowers - Franzen

D-parings

Lidstrom - Woolley
Lilja - Lidstrom
Lidstrom - Chelios
Lilja - Schneider
Lilja - Lebda
Schneider - Chelios
Lebda - Schneider
Woolley - Schneider

GameDay: @ Dallas (23-10-1, 47 Pts) 8:30 ET

Published
by
Matt Saler
on December 27, 2005
in 2005-2006, GameDay and Stars
. 0 Comments

Tonight the Wings and Stars will meet for the first time this season. Detroit won the 2003-2004 season series 3-0-1 and won the most recent game between these two teams, 3-0 on March 13th, 2004. The second game in that series is famous for this goal by Pavel Datsyuk (.mpg file), one that put away a 6-2 win on November 12th, 2003.

As noted by Kevin Palczynski in this week’s Rinkside Ramblings column on LetsGoWings.com, the Wings had a bit of a lucky week last week, winning two games in which they were out-played for the majority of the time.

First, they faced the miserable Columbus Blue Jackets at home on Tuesday and came out of the gates looking pretty good. The Jackets then proceeded to outplay them in the second and third periods, negating Brendan Shanahan’s go-ahead goal late in the third and forcing overtime. The Wings survived overtime and the game went to a shootout, their first ever. A combination of solid goaltending and offensive skill got them out of the shootout with a 4-3 win.

The guys then traveled to Chicago to face the Blackhawks on Friday night. They were, as Kevin puts it, “thoroughly outplayed for the first 59 minutes and 20 seconds of the game,” but they managed to score two goals in the final minute and tie up the game, forcing overtime. It looked like we were headed to another shootout but Pavel Datsyuk’s shot (apparently) beat the buzzer and the Wings won the game with a couple tenths of a second left on the clock.

Those two wins extended the Wings’ win-streak to a whopping three games and helped them maintain their lead in the Central Division over their only competition: the Nashville Predators. They are third in the league, behind only Ottawa (53) and Buffalo (51, but 25 wins - tie-breaker) with 51 points and 24 wins.

The Stars’ season started out a bit bumpy, with them going 6-5-1 through November 2nd. Since then, however, they have won pretty regularly and lead the Pacific Division with 47 points. They went 3-2-0 in their past five, with wins over Chicago, Columbus and St. Louis, and losses to Minnesota and Phoenix. They are coming off an easy 6-1 win over St. Louis last night and will look to continue their stretch of dominance over Central Division teams tonight against the Wings. Hopefully the Wings won’t make it as easy for them as the Hawks, Jackets, and Blues did.

Chris Osgood will get another start tonight but may lose his job soon. The papers report that Manny Legace is targeting a December 31st comeback from his knee injury.

Mikael Samuelsson will return from a leg bruise that kept him out of the Chicago game.

The Wings have been lucky lately but luck won’t be enough tonight. They will need to play hard for most of the game, not the other way around. They’ll be facing a very good goalie in Marty Turco and will need to play well defensively in case they don’t get the puck past him too often. This will be their first test since returning to intra-conference play after their win in Tampa.