Detroit Red Wings set NHL record after beating Dallas Stars, 3-1 – NHL Recap
The Detroit Red Wings have set a National Hockey League (NHL) record by winning 21 straight games on home ice. The recent victim was Dallas Stars, which got defeated, 3-1, on Tuesday, February 14, 2012, at Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, Michigan.
No other team has won more than 20 straight home games in one season and when the Red Wings became the first ones to do that, the crowd became jubilant.
And not just the fans, the overwhelming winning run forced everyone to sing Detroit’s praises.
Detroit’s coach, Mike Babcock, said:
"We're thrilled this has happened for our team. I think it's really good for our logo, it's really good for our ownership, our team. I'm proud of the guys. They've worked hard and now let's get on with it."
Detroit’s performance strongly justifies their dominance over the Western Conference with 80 points after 58 games.
When Detroit’s players entered the rink for this special game, they were looking confident and were determined to set the history.
They played pretty well throughout the game, but lost focus late in the final period when the victory was almost inevitable.
At 7:57 in the first period, Henrik Zetterberg took advantage of the shorthanded Stars and scored the first goal of the game.
Zetterberg’s first attempt was not completed. However, he did not miss the second shot and fired the puck on the rebound to get the goal.
After less than a couple of minutes, Brad Stuart doubled the lead at 9:15. He fired a shot from 58 feet to send the puck into the net.
Most part of the rest of the game went goalless.
Both the teams failed to find a scoring move in the last 10 minutes of the first period and the complete second period too could not witness any scoring move.
During the last 10 minutes of the final period, however, a couple of goals were scored.
At 15:11, Jiri Hudler scored to take Red Wings’ lead to three points.
At that time, the victory was seemingly imminent and that was what distracted Red Wings as they conceded a goal in the final minute of the regulation.
At 19:27, Adam Burish provided Stars’ a consolation goal, but the attention was turned towards Red Wings who would go on to register the history after a few seconds.
Stars’ forward, Steve Ott, said after the game:
"Twenty-one games in a row at home, let alone five in a row at home, is amazing. It's a tremendous accomplishment for their organisation. It completely [stinks] to be on the other end of it watching them do it against our team. It's disappointing [and] disheartening,
because we wanted to be the spoilers."
Detroit will now face Nashville Predators on Friday, while Stars will take on Calgary Flames on Thursday.
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