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Zetterberg's late goal lifts Red Wings over Stars

Feb 15, 2007 - 6:15 AM DALLAS (Ticker) -- Henrik Zetterberg and the Detroit Red Wings were embarrassed by their last effort and responded accordingly.

Zetterberg's scored the go-ahead goal late in the third period as the Red Wings rallied for a 3-1 win over the Dallas Stars.

The Red Wings, stung by a 6-1 loss to the lowly Philadelphia Flyers on Monday, are 7-2-0 in their last nine.

"Well, we needed it," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "The one thing about our team is, when we embarrass ourselves, we respond. We don't do that very often, but the other night in Philly was a humbling experience, to say the least. And you would like to have a couple of days off to talk about it."

"We let their best players take the game over," Dallas coach Dave Tippett said. "That's very disappointing. We just have to have more poise in those situations than we had."

Detroit trailed, 1-0, in the third period when Pavel Datsyuk tied the game at 11:14 of the third period. He took Zetterberg's between-the-legs pass from behind the Dallas net and poked the puck past rookie goaltender Mike Smith.

"I saw Pavel was coming in front of the net, and I hoped the goalie would come in my direction, and the pass went through and the goalie was on my side," Zetterberg said. "It's fun when it works, but it doesn't work that often."

"I didn't really see anything on their first goal," Smith said. "I saw it coming out of the net before I saw it going in the net. It was one heck of a play, that's for sure."

Zetterberg netted the decisive tally at 15:24 when his wrist shot from the slot beat Smith over his glove for a 2-1 advantage. The left wing finished with three points in the game, giving him eight goals and 12 assists in his last nine contests.

"Pavel made a pass across and Holmer (Tomas Holmstrom) as usual was standing in front of the net," Zetterberg said. "I don't think Smith saw that much, and I just tried to hit the net."

Defenseman Mathieu Schneider iced Detroit's win with an empty-net goal with 33 seconds left. Red Wings netminder Chris Osgood made 17 saves in his first start since a 2-1 overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues on January 26.

"We've done that a few times this year," Osgood said of Detroit's comeback. "Being down 1-0, you're only a shot away. I thought we stuck to our gameplan very good tonight, and we didn't take any unnecessary gambles."

Mike Ribeiro scored the lone goal and Smith made 29 saves for Dallas.

Ribeiro gave the Stars a 1-0 lead at 6:34 of the first period on the power play when he redirected Jussi Jokinen's pass at the corner of the crease past Osgood.

"We played well for awhile, and Smitty played one of his best games, but they kept coming at us and they kept us on our heels," Ribeiro said. "We have to bounce back and be ready to play on Sunday."

"They (the Red Wings) are a talented bunch," Dallas center Stu Barnes said. "We felt we won the second (period), but in the third, we just didn't attack. That's the nature of their talent. They don't need much to make plays. But we need to attack more and not just play for the 1-0 win."

The Stars host the San Jose Sharks on Sunday. Dallas trails San Jose by three points in the Pacific Division.