Final
Red Wings hope to rebound in Dallas
Jan 4, 2014 - 4:12 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - After coming up short in front of over 100,000 fans in the Winter Classic, the Detroit Red Wings aim to rebound at the start of their road trip that begins with a clash against the Dallas Stars on Saturday night.The Red Wings faced off against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Michigan Stadium on Wednesday and earned a point with a 3-2 shootout victory that was played in front of a backdrop of 105,491 fans and a constant snowfall.
In the end, Toronto's Tyler Bozak secured the win when he fired a low shot past the stick side of Jimmy Howard, handing Detroit its third loss in four games.
Daniel Alfredsson and Justin Abdelkader contributed two goals and Brenden Smith had two assists for the Red Wings, who fell to 3-6-3 in their past 12 games.
Howard ended with 24 saves.
"It was better than I ever thought it would be," said Abdelkader. "The snow coming down the whole game, it was awesome. I couldn't think of a way that the experience could have been better."
A win may have been better and now the Red Wings will try to rebound in the first of five straight on the road.
The Stars, meanwhile, play the final contest of a five-game homestand and had their seven-game point streak snapped with Thursday's 6-4 setback to the Montreal Canadiens.
Dallas got goals 47 seconds apart from Tyler Seguin and Brenden Dillon in the third period to tie the game, but the Habs went back in front at the 10:39 mark before sealing the outcome with an empty-net goal.
"You know it wasn't very good. Sloppy, execution wasn't very good at times," said Dallas head coach Lindy Ruff. "And then we found a way to battle back and then we didn't defend very well."
Valeri Nichushkin and Jamie Benn added goals, with Benn running his point streak to five straight games (4 goals, 3 assists). Kari Lehtonen yielded five goals on 27 shots.
Dallas had gone 5-0-2 in its previous seven despite battling a flu bug that kept Ray Whitney out a second straight game and sidelined Shawn Horcoff on Thursday night.
The Stars hope to be at full strength when they try to snap a four-game series home losing streak to the Red Wings.
Detroit has won six of the past eight encounters overall, but lost the first of two meetings with Dallas this season with a 4-3 overtime setback at home on Nov. 7.
Rich Peverley had the game-winning goal for the Stars with 18.5 seconds left after teammate Cody Eakin had tied the game with 70 seconds to go in regulation.
Lehtonen made 26 saves, improving to 5-6-0 with a 3.20 goals against average in his career versus the Red Wings, while Howard's 24 saves weren't enough as he dropped to 6-5-2 lifetime against the Stars with a 2.30 GAA.
- DETROIT: 5
DALLAS: 1
Final
Jan 4 10:44 PM - DETROIT: 4
DALLAS: 1
End of 2nd
Jan 4 9:49 PM - DETROIT: 3
DALLAS: 1
End of 1st
Jan 4 8:46 PM - DETROIT: 0
DALLAS: 0
1st Period - 20:00
Jan 4 8:08 PM
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