When Jiri Hudler broke away to score the go-ahead goal midway through the second period for the Red Wings, Detroit coach Mike Babcock said he thought to himself that it was all over.
Babcock's surprisingly candid admission about what proved to be the winner was an allusion to Game 3 against the Dallas Stars. He could have just as easily been referring to the Western Conference finals because the best-of-7 series was probably over before it even started.
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| Dallas' Marty Turco has pulled the puck out of his net 11 times in three games. (Getty Images) |
Really, do the Stars need to suffer any more?
"They're causing us to do things we don't want to do," Stars center Brad Richards said. "That's what they're good at."
Actually, Detroit is good at quite a bit, everything from producing offense to playing defense to controlling the puck to responding physically when necessary. Plus, goaltender Chris Osgood has been an unsung hero. Truth is there are just no flaws in the game being played now by the Red Wings. They have won nine in a row even though they have missed leading playoff goal scorer Johan Franzen in the past two games.
"It shows we have a lot of depth," Zetterberg said. "We've got four lines that really can play in all situations and the longer the game goes, the more advantage for us."
Thing is the Red Wings really don't need any extra edge against a Stars team that came home bending and is now broken. The Stars try to convince themselves of the validity of clichés like taking things one game at a time and nothing being over until it's over. Unfortunately, there have been only two NHL teams in history that won after being down 3-0. Those comebacks came 33 years apart with the last one occurring in 1975.
It doesn't look good and the tone in the locker room after Game 3 made it clear that Dallas knows its back is up against the wall ... or boards.
"Right now, it's hard to have any mindset, we're pretty disappointed," Richards said. "We're still in the series, and we'll go from there and try to win a game. But obviously, right now, I'm not going to lie to you, it's very disappointing."
To their credit, the Stars looked better at home Monday than in either of the first two games in Detroit. They showed some real energy at the start, scored twice to equal their total goals in the series, allowed Detroit 21 shots, registered 47 hits and for the first time weren't dominated in the faceoff circle.
But once again their power play was dismal, going 0-for-5 (1-for-15 in the series), they only managed four shots in the third period, which began with them down a goal, and goalie Marty Turco came up small.
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That's one of the biggest problems. Turco was brilliant in the first two rounds, but he came into the series with a miserable lifetime record against the Red Wings and appears to have let them take up permanent residence inside his head. In fact one might argue that his next big save against Detroit will be his first.
But even that won't be enough to make a difference. Maybe the Stars can muster up enough pride to avoid getting swept at home Wednesday, but all that would do is delay the inevitable against a team that looks all but unstoppable at the moment.
"You can't get three games back in one so we just have to focus on tomorrow," Stars veteran Mike Modano said. "That's what we're gearing ourselves for (Game 4) just to try to make this thing interesting.
"We've responded before where we've come up with great efforts. But it is a tough situation."
More like an impossible one.
