Not in the Stars

DETROIT – Saturday night’s Game 2 was Dallas’ time to show everyone what kind of series we can expect. The Stars did, and now we can expect a short one.

Oh, everyone in the Lone Star State will be quite offended and quick to point out fortunes will change once the scene shifts to Dallas for the next two games. But it says here the Stars are not going to figure out how to win a faceoff, how to take the puck away from Detroit and how to seize control of any game for any significant portion of time during four of the next five tries, amidst a three-hour flight and with only one day off.

Then there’s the matter of keeping composure. Mike Ribeiro figures to have a great view of Game 3 thanks to his actions after the whistle in the dying seconds of Saturday’s game when he snapped. His two-handed stick swing from behind the goal caught his intended target Chris Osgood right in the chest. And even if Osgood embellished the action a bit, there’s no denying intent and the possible result of injury with Ribeiro’s actions.

He’ll be quite inactive now, it’s just a matter of how long the suspension will be for Ribeiro, who didn’t make himself available for comment afterward and appeared to be retaliating after getting butt-ended by Osgood.

“Even if I did butt end him it was an accident,” Osgood said. “But I don’t think that justifies a two-hander over the net. … We’re both professionals out there and he could have gone at it another way.”

“Ozzie is fine. I just get on the conference calls before the series and the league makes it clear they’re going to look after this kind of stuff so we’ll see,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock added.

On the other side of the coin, the Detroit Red Wings are playing the best hockey seen in the NHL this side of the lockout. They score the first goal in Monday’s Game 3 and this series will be over faster than Don Cherry can tick off Detroit by categorizing the region as filled by rednecks. He said it, not me.

After a dominating performance in Game 1 two nights earlier, and after seven straight playoff victories, one might reason the Wings couldn’t possibly be dialed up with the same intensity Saturday night. Wrong, unless you take into account they were even more focused.

“Five minutes after I get home tonight I’ll start getting scared for Game 3,” Babcock said. “You spend your whole life trying to win that thing, so you just try to get that opportunity.”

Minutes before warm-ups came the announcement that the playoffs’ leading goal-scorer, Johan Franzen, would miss at least Games 2 and 3 after experiencing concussion-like symptoms. Would this be the adversity that might derail Detroit? Hardly. The Wings came out skating with as dominant of a first period as a coach could hope for, and then they followed it up with an even better 20 minutes in the second. The third period was a clinic in how to defend a one-goal lead.

Detroit has led for 105:07 of the 120 minutes played and tied for the other 14:53. The Stars are still looking for their first lead. Detroit dominated in shots (34-18), in faceoffs (39-16) and in hits (39-26). This was not as close as the final score would indicate. And this is a one-sided series, just like the Wings displayed in Round 1 against Nashville and Round 2 against Colorado.

“I think we’re just trying to be a tenacious team, more so than in the past,” Osgood said. “I’m sure that is frustrating after a while, but that just comes with us being a tougher team to play than in the past.”

History, too, is not on Dallas’ side. The Red Wings have emerged victorious in nine of 10 playoff series since 1996 when opening with two wins at home. The only time they stubbed their toe was in 2001. That’s when Los Angeles Kings rallied with four straight victories – all by one goal and the last coming in overtime – to advance out of the first round.

And if Detroit is hosting a series, it has been nothing short of dominant in Game 2 – now 21-7 since 1993.

“With the exception of the second period when we took four minors we were in control,” Babcock said.

Dallas was intent on improving on its poor showing in Game 1 when tired legs and uninspired play suggested the Stars just weren’t ready for the Wings’ pace after surviving a six-game battle in the second round against San Jose.

The handwriting was on the wall just 15 seconds into Saturday’s game when Detroit won the faceoff and put a quality scoring chance on Marty Turco 15 seconds into the game. Dallas Drake laid a big hit on Stephane Robidas at 1:23 that got the fans into it, and when Toby Peterson fanned on an open shot in the slot at 2:30, the Stars already were thinking.

Brenden Morrow tried to lead by example, taking a big run at Pavel Datsyuk along the boards in the Detroit end, but the Wings’ shifty forward dodged the hit just in time. Morrow’s teammate Jere Lehtinen wasn’t as fortunate as he knocked heads with Morrow and both went down. Coincidentally, Lehtinen skated all of nine seconds in the second period and the team announced before the third he was done due to a leg injury. Yeah right.

The real topper, though was a Stars 4-on-1 rush five minutes into the game and with only Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall back, the best Dallas could produce was Steve Ott missing the net at the end of the sequence.

If that wasn’t enough of a slap in the face, when the puck went the other way it was none other than 21-year-old rookie Darren Helm burying his first career NHL goal with a shot from off the rush from the left dot that fooled Turco at 5:56.

Dallas got back into the game briefly when Robidas one-timed a cross-ice feed from Ribeiro past Osgood for a power-play goal at 10:41. But just as Detroit’s top defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom was victimized by taking a minor penalty (delay of game, throwing the puck over the glass), Dallas’ Sergei Zubov would regret his hook of Valtteri Filppula less than five minutes later.

Detroit needed just 24 seconds to convert and take the lead for good when Turco’s preoccupation with Tomas Holmstrom in front made him late to move post-to-post to try and stop a Henrik Zetterberg drive at 15:13.

Holmstrom has gotten into the heads of Turco and the Stars. Dallas could have had something going in the second period when Detroit uncharacteristically took four minors. But Turco slashed Holmstrom and got away with a big-time trip on Filppula. The actions said more for where Turco’s head is at now than anything else.

“I thought what they were trying to do was push him into the goalie,” Babcock said of Dallas’ tactics against Holmstrom. “Bottom line, we’re going there and we’re going to stay outside of the blue paint.”

Desperate for a tying goal, Dallas just didn’t bring enough in the final period. The Stars were still losing draws, still chasing the Wings and showing more frustration at the end.

“We’ve got to forget about all that stuff and just play,” Robidas said. “We played better tonight than the first game, but obviously it’s not enough.”