DETROIT -– Marty Turco should have been the only story of this game.
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| Marty Turco deserves a hug after his solid performance in Detroit. (Getty Images) |
Turco was the best player on the ice for the second game in a row as the Stars, who were on the verge of being swept only a few days ago, continued their improbable comeback attempt, cutting the Red Wings series lead to 3-2. And if that weren't enough, Turco managed to stare down the boogeyman that has haunted him in Detroit by winning for the first time in 12 starts as a pro at Joe Louis Arena.
In other words, it was the kind of effort that under most circumstances would deserve singular attention. But these weren't normal circumstances. Not when you have a veteran Detroit team that played well enough to win yet ended up clipping its own wings with mindless mistakes.
Two of them as a matter of fact, both of them the same, both of them the kind that teams at this level, at this stage of the season shouldn't make. That's why it's fair to say the Stars didn't win this game as much as they didn't lose it. Detroit again had serious advantages in the faceoff circle, in total shots on goal, even in blocked shots but it was all for naught because of a couple of ugly line changes that led directly to Dallas goals.
"We have to be smarter," said Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom.
A little more focused would probably help, too. Detroit was on its heels from the beginning of the game against a Dallas team that pressed the attack quickly and dominated the first several minutes of play. The visitors had several good scoring chances, failing to connect only because Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood had a pretty good opening of his own, but in fact, they were setting the tone for the afternoon.
"I thought we were actually a little uptight at the start of the game," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "I didn't think we executed at the start at all. We didn't come out of our zone with speed like we normally do."
Still the game was scoreless until near the midway point of the first period when the Stars caught Detroit shorthanded because defenseman Brett Ledba couldn't get into the play fast enough at the end of Brad Stuart's shift. That left Nicklas Kronwall alone to deal with three onrushing Stars who engineered a couple of neat passes before Trevor Daley finished the play with a wicked wrist shot from the top of the faceoff circle.
If that first goal wasn't an ominous sign of things to come, it should have been. The Stars are the NHL's only team that didn't lose in regulation this season when scoring first -- which tells you Dallas can play the shutdown game as well as anyone.
Even so, the Red Wings managed to draw even before the first period on Jiri Hudler's goal off a scramble toward the end of a power play, but Dallas needed less than seven minutes in the second period to take advantage of another Red Wings breakdown and regain the lead.
This time it was veteran Detroit defenseman Chris Chelios who was clumsily heading to the bench, giving Turco an opportunity to catch the speedy Joel Lundqvist on the fly with a tape-to-tape pass. Lundqvist broke into the Red Wings zone and fired a quick shot to beat Osgood for the goal that gave the Stars a lead they would protect the rest of the way.
"When they're making changes, there's always going to be seams," Turco said. "But more than anything, it's just the opportunity to grab pucks and make plays."
For Turco, it was also an opportunity for redemption. Turco answered a lot of questions about himself in the playoffs this spring by beating Anaheim and San Jose in the first two rounds, but his critics found new ammunition in this series because of the problems he's had in Detroit since leaving the University of Michigan. No more.
"It's been a long time, but it's something that I never thought that wouldn't happen in my career," Turco said. "It feels good, but I feel more good about the situation we were in, the environment we were in and the fact we were able to overcome it. It's still a huge challenge that only got fractionally better."
True enough, although the old adage is that it isn't really a series until a team loses a game at home. Now Detroit has and suddenly, this is most definitely a series.
"No one wanted to go back to Dallas, but we've been determined all year and we've responded well," Babcock said. "You know I don't think anybody thought when we started this series that it was going to be easy."
