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Hagman, Turco propel Stars past reeling Red Wings

Feb 18, 2008 - 12:36 AM DALLAS (Ticker) -- The Dallas Stars and Detroit Red Wings are clearly the Western Conference's elite, but lately only one team is playing like it.

Niklas Hagman scored his league-leading eighth game-winning goal and Marty Turco stopped 28 shots as the Stars posted a 1-0 victory over the Western Conference-leading Red Wings on Sunday.

Turco stopped 11 shots in the first period, six in the second and 11 in the third to post his second shutout of the season and 32nd of his career.

"I got a good bounce to get the puck and I was able to bury it," Hagman said. "It was a huge win for us and I'm running out of words to describe how good our goalies have been."

"This is about winning and doing the right thing," Turco said. "You never know when that one key play is going to happen."

It was a rare win over the Red Wings for Turco, who had been 1-9-5 with a 2.98 goals-against average in 16 previous games against Detroit.

"They have been one team that has had my number," Turco said. "So it was satisfying to beat them today and now I'm focused on evening things up with them."

"I think a lot it (Turco's struggles) is made from the media end of it," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "It's good to see him (Turco) get results. It's certainly going to help him build momentum.

"They've been a top team all year, and you want to compete well against a top team."

Detroit, which has lost six straight (0-5-1) for the first time in 17 years, failed to clear a puck out of its own zone which led to Hagman's 21st tally of the season just 3:13 into the final period.

"I think enough is enough," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "We met yesterday and talked about it (the losing streak) and they (players) know. We're all in it together."

Defenseman Nicklas Grossman and Jere Lehtinen each fired slap shots that rookie Jimmy Howard stopped, but the second rebound went straight to Hagman on the right side and he fired it past the diving netminder.

"It (the puck) hit the brick of my glove and bounced out of it," said Howard, who finished with 30 saves.

Turco then made a several key saves in the final moments when Detroit had an extra attacker, including one point-blank stop on Kris Draper.

The Red Wings, who are second in the league with 195 goals, wasted a good performance by Howard.

"We had chances, we couldn't score," Red Wings left wing Tomas Holmstrom said. "When it goes bad, it goes bad."

With Dominik Hasek (hip flexor) sidelined and All-Star Chris Osgood struggling, Howard made his first start since December 13, 2005 - and the 23-year-old played extremely well.

Howard stopped 23 shots before Hagman's goal off a rebound gave Dallas its ninth win in the last 10 games. In the process, Hagman sent Detroit spiraling to a sixth straight loss for the first time since it lost seven straight from January 14-30, 1991.

"It's terrible, what can you say?" Holmstrom said. "We have to find a way to get out of this slump."

"A loss is a loss," Holmstrom said. "Howard gave us a chance to win but we came up short."