Detroit Red Wings host the Dallas Starsin their fourth and final meeting of the season - NHL Previews
The second game of Thursday will be hosted by the Detroit Red Wings as they are up against the Dallas Stars at the Joe Louis Arena. This will be the fourth and final meeting between the two sides and the first during this year.
Out of the first three meetings, the Stars won the first game 4-1 easily. The second one a tough one as the Stars managed to win 4-3 in overtime. However, in their last meeting on the 29th of December 2010 the Red Wings came up with a splendid
performance that saw them winning 7-3 in the end. Patrick Eaves was in top form for the Red Wings as he scored a hat-trick during their last encounter.
The Stars was one of the strong teams in the league who were comfortably moving into the Stanley Cup play-offs but their recent form slipped them from third to the final play-off spot. The interesting fact about this is that there are still around six weeks
left in the regular season. Coupled with this is that there are eight teams from the fourth to 11th spot that are within four points of each other. This close battle for the play-offs has led to some experts saying that the Stars won’t be able to
make it into the play-offs.
In their most recent game against the New Jersey Devils this past Tuesday, the Stars probably came up with the best performance out of the last five games. They lost all of these last five games but this last 1-0 loss was a close battle between the two sides
which could have gone in either teams favour.
However, a late penalty award to the Devils changed the course of the game as the Devils were on top after this. They scored through Nick Palmiere to win the game 1-0 in the end. The Stars goal keeper, Kari Lehtonen made 22 saves during the course of the
game.
"I loved our commitment tonight, I loved the way our guys battled," Coach Marc Crawford said. "It is disheartening that we ended up losing in that fashion, but you have to take the good right now and there was a lot of pretty good tonight."
Both the teams have played 60 games during the course of the season so far. The Stars have won 31 games in regulation time, six games in overtime and scored 68 points. On the other hand, the Red Wings have won 37 games in regulation time, six games in overtime
and scored 80 points.
The Red Wings were very impressive on their road trip which saw them winning all three games. However, their return to home ice wasn’t as impressive as they lost 4-3 against the San Jose Sharks this past Tuesday.
Danny Cleary scored twice while Henrik Zetterberg scored a late goal for the Red Wings but it wasn’t enough as they lost the game.
"I thought we started good," Cleary said. "We were in the box a little too much in the first. They got some momentum, got that goal. They played well. We didn't play great at all. We had some chances offensively, but I think defensively, we were too loose."
The game will be very competitive keeping in mind that the Red Wings are looking to top the Western Conference while the Stars look to score crucial points to stay in the cut.
Tags: