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Red Wings-Stars Preview

Jan 15, 2010 - 5:32 PM By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN STATS Senior Writer

Detroit (24-16-6) at Dallas (19-17-11), 2:00 p.m. EDT

The Dallas Stars are happy to be home, and are probably happy to see the Detroit Red Wings at the American Airlines Center.

The Stars look to recover from another dismal road trip and snap a three-game slide Saturday when they try to win their fifth straight at home against the Red Wings.

Dallas (19-17-11) completed a 0-3 trip with a 5-3 loss at Montreal on Thursday. The Stars have lost nine straight on the road for their longest such skid since moving to Texas in 1993.

The Stars took solace in being tied heading into the third period after trailing after two in their previous five road games. Mike Modano scored his 550th goal.

"We were better," coach Marc Crawford said. "For our team, I thought our effort was pretty good tonight. When you get effort and you get people battling it's not too long after that that you start to build some belief in what you're doing.

"I'm a believer in the hockey gods. Sometimes when you're in a bad spell they don't let you get out of it easy, they want to see you do it a couple of times. So we've got to build on the effort we had tonight."

Dallas has won four straight at home against Detroit (24-16-6) and two of three meetings this season. The Stars have won five of their last seven home games overall, beginning with a 4-3 victory over the Red Wings on Dec. 19 as James Neal and Karlis Skrastins each scored twice.

Jimmy Howard dropped to 1-3 with a 2.28 goals-against average in four career starts against the Stars. Since that effort, Howard has made a career-high 10 straight starts and gone 6-3-1 with a 1.79 GAA.

Howard made 37 saves Thursday in a 3-1 victory over Carolina. He bounced back after allowing three goals on 20 shots before being pulled two nights earlier in a 6-0 loss to the Islanders.

"He's playing well, he's feeling good right now and he's helping his team win," coach Mike Babcock said. "And that's what it's all about at this level."

Detroit finally broke through with two power-play goals Thursday after converting 2 of 45 chances over its previous 14 games. Nicklas Lidstrom had one for his first goal since Oct. 8.

"It's nice to see one finally go in," Lidstrom said. "I've been taking a lot of shots, but they've missing the net, got blocked or the goalies have been saving them. I think it was more important that we got it on the power play. We needed some momentum on the power play."

Howard also got help with the return of defenseman Jonathan Ericsson, who missed the previous 12 games with a bruised knee cap. Detroit has been getting healthier, although it is still without forwards Johan Franzen (knee), Jason Williams (broken leg) and Tomas Holmstrom (broken foot) and defenseman Niklas Kronwall (knee).

Neal leads Dallas with 19 goals, but has just one in his last 10 games.