DALLAS, Texas -- Pavel Datsyuk's first career hat trick helped carry the Detroit Red Wings to a 5-2 win over the Dallas Stars Monday night, giving Detroit a 3-0 lead in the Western Conference Finals matchup and putting them one win from their fifth Stanley Cup Finals appearance since 1995.
Clutch goals by Jiri Hudler and Henrik Zetterberg completed the scoring for the Red Wings, who were without leading goal-scorer Johan Franzen for the second game in a row.
Datsyuk's first goal of the game got the scoring started at 9:27 of the first period.
With the teams skating four-on-four, the Red Wings broke into the Dallas zone on a three-on-two rush. Brian Rafalski helped draw a defender so Zetterberg could send a pass across to Datsyuk. Datsyuk cut to the middle and went to the backhand, whipping a shot off the post and in behind Stars goalie Marty Turco.
Dallas would capitalize on a long shift with heavy pressure in the Detroit zone five minutes later.
Trapped in their own end and scrambling, the Wings couldn't prevent Mike Modano from sending a pass from low in the corner out to Nicklas Grossman for a one-timer past Chris Osgood, tying the game with 4:47 remaining in the period.
Datsyuk put Detroit back out in front just 37 seconds later from the top of the crease, tipping a centering attempt by Tomas Holmstrom between Turco's pads for his second of the night.
A lucky bounce pulled the Stars back into a tie with a Brad Richards shot from down low bouncing off of defenseman Brad Stuart and past Osgood at 3:47 of the second period.
With 8:06 left in the period, Hudler's breakaway goal put Detroit back in front. A stretch pass by Niklas Kronwall left Hudler all alone with Turco before he put a backhander over the goalie's shoulder.
Zetterberg scored shorthanded just 1:38 into the third period, turning Richards - a forward covering the point on the power play - inside-out on a rush into the Dallas zone, then outwaiting Turco to throw a shot into the net.
With 2:41 left in the game, Datsyuk completed his hat trick. Zetterberg went into a group of four Stars and came out with the puck, sending a cross-ice pass to Datsyuk in the slot for a one-timer past Turco.
Osgood stopped 16 of the 18 shots he faced on the night. Turco made 16 saves on 21 shots against.
Neither team scored a power play goal. The Red Wings had two chances with the extra attacker and the Stars had six.
Detroit will look to close out the series in Game Four on Wednesday.
Notes: The Stars were without Jere Lehtinen, Stu Barnes and Philippe Boucher.
With no suspensions in the way, it looks like the rosters for both Detroit and Dallas will remain pretty much the same for tonight's Game Three.
Reports are that the ice should be bad, with temperatures above 80 expected for the day.
This is a virtual must-win for Dallas, which makes it one for the Wings 'cause they don't want to let the Stars back into this series.
Quiet day today, not a lot of pre-game notes.
Jere Lehtinen didn't skate for Dallas, he'll be a game-time decision.
And that's all I've got. No news on Franzen's tests from today.
This is another game where I'll only be checking in sporadically. TV is downstairs and until I get my laptop back the computer is upstairs.
Ten minutes before puck-drop, no major updates.
Edit: And as I say that I see that Jere Lehtinen is not on the ice for pregame. MacLeod surmises he's out for the game.
Missed the first part. But Daysyuk scored, so that's good.
Nooooo! You could see it coming from a mile off. It was more like a power play than even strength.
Yesss! Suck on that! 2 for Datsyuk!
I'm really wanting to choke the Versus guys. Steve Ott spends 30 seconds whacking at Holmstrom and it's just good PK.
Not good for the Wings when they have to rely on the transition game for scoring. Shows that puck control isn't working as well.
And now they've got a penalty to kill to start the second. I'd say that's not anything we haven't seen 10 times this series so it's a weak call but I've given up on the officials. And there are people all over saying this is biased in favor of Detroit. If it was, that Dallas goal wouldn't have counted as Morrow lay on the ice holding Lebda's stick.
And there are people all over saying this is biased in favor of Detroit. If it was, that Dallas goal wouldn't have counted as Morrow lay on the ice holding Lebda's stick.
This is horrible officiating! D: Worse then last time's. What about Hudler's "hooking". Holding, yeah, I saw, but hooking? It looked like he was getting hooked, himself! But I saw that too, and when I said something my dad scoffed. =/ Shows what the other sports leagues do to your mind!
But yay for Datsyuk. 
I'm happy. Or as he says, 'eppy'. XD
This is survival. They're hanging on.
sh*t! This isn't good.
What was all that sh*t about UFC? f*ck off! The Wings are actually getting on the puck a bit now.
HUDDLERRR!!!! On the backhand!
Really weird period.
Wings could use a break like the one the Stars got but I won't complain while they hold the lead.
Great composure by Hudler, nearly lost the puck, knew someone was coming, but still held on and beat Turco. And a really smart pass by Kronwall.
Theoretically, the Wings have two power plays in hand on the Stars right now. I wouldn't mind having four more minutes of advantage coming up, help kill that clock at the very least. I don't think the Wings are being that much more undisciplined than Dallas so we'll see how it comes out.
This'll be a tough, tough period. Felt like the Stars were burning out a little bit for part of the second but can't count on that to continue. This is pretty much do or die for them now.
Zetterberg on th penalty kill!!! come on!!!
I can't believe they didn't call Ott on the hit on Datsyuk. What bullsh*t.
HAT TRICK!!!!!!! I just threw my imaginary hat! YAYYYYY!
Wow Dasyuk! Hat-trick. That must be it now.
Pavel Datsyuk was impressive? NO SIR, Pavel Datsyuk IS impressive!
Anyone else think the Stars arena announcer sounds like a ghost? XD
Wooohooo!
That was a nice little bit of smackdown there.
I'm not feeling nervous tonight.
And it's over. 3-0, I can't beleive it could be two sweeps in a row, not that they need to win the next game as long as they win game 5.
Wings have been making great passes all series long, it's got them out of trouble a bunch of times. Whats the latest on Franzen?!? Dallas should be tough to knock out. Dallas is trying to be too cute with the puck, passing a lot and not shooting at the net. This is fun to watch. I must say that Datsyuk makes Turco look silly as does Zetterberg, its like they know they own certain goalies.
NOTE: As I was adding this reply i thought I saw a glimpse of somebody saying "two sweeps in a row..." shame on whoever says stuff like that beforehand. I'll stop there and pretend I didn't see it.
NOTE: As I was adding this reply i thought I saw a glimpse of somebody saying "two sweeps in a row..." shame on whoever says stuff like that beforehand. I'll stop there and pretend I didn't see it.
I didn't mean it like that, it's just a fact it could happen, but Im not expecting it to happen. It doesn't even need to happen. I said it could be, not it will be.
I have this odd zen-like feeling this morning. Too bad I had to come to work or it'd be a great day.
Over at A2Y, Bill has a surprisingly-good piece posted. A couple highlights.
This series ended the minute Doc Emerick finished this sentence, “Richards is back on defense.” A blink of an eye later, even quicker, and Zetterberg had twisted him, flashed to his left, deked and roofed it.
Let’s get this out of the way real quick. That performance last night, on horrible ice that’s been terrible for more than a decade but no one in Gary’s league office seems to care, was the best I’ve ever seen from a Red Wing playoff team. But you can’t view it as a single game to have that perspective. If you do, you’re not giving Mike Babcock the credit he deserves.
I'm not as cocky as him, there's still one more win to get against Dallas, but I'm feeling good today.
Over at A2Y, Bill has a surprisingly-good piece posted.
Surprisingly good? I'll take that Yzerfan...
Over at A2Y, Bill has a surprisingly-good piece posted.
Surprisingly good? I'll take that Yzerfan...
Not meant to be a knock, I was just surprised not to see any of that trademark sophomoric humor. Changed the tone of the post a bit.
Last night was one of the better defensive games I have seen the Wings play. Don't get me wrong, they had some luck on their side with Morrow's wide open shot that he missed.
For about six minutes in the 2nd period Dallas could not get the puck into the Detroit zone. If they did, it was only for about a second before it was either pushed out to the neutral zone or back into their end.
Now we have a firm choke hold on the Stars with one more game left in Dallas before returning to the Joe.
Looking forward to our fifth Stanley Cup appearance since 1995.
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