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Harsh Reality for Red Wings in Dallas

NHL issues six-game suspension to Perron

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5 months ago

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Jonatan Berggren, Red Wings
Upon his recall from AHL Grand Rapids, Jonatan Berggren was a Red Wings goal scorer Monday at Dallas.

There was a lot to like about the effort put forth by the Detroit Red Wings Monday in Dallas. The final outcome was not among them.

A short-staffed bunch of Red Wings ultimately fell 6-3 to the Stars in the first of what figures to be a four-game stretch with the team missing three of their top forwards.

After Dallas was racing to a 4-1 lead, Detroit would battle back to narrow the gap to 4-2. Two late goals would lock away the 11th straight home-ice victory for the Stars over the Red Wings. Dallas is 8-0-3 at home Detroit since a 3-2 Red Wings overtime victory on February 29, 2016. Detroit hasn’t won in regulation time at Dallas since 2014.

“Not a bad effort all considering,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde told Bally Sports Detroit. “We gave ourselves a chance but obviously not enough tonight.”

Missing from the Detroit lineup were forwards Dylan Larkin, J.T. Compher and Klim Kostin, who are on injured reserve and David Perron, who is under NHL suspension. It was the third game out for Compher and the second for Kostin. Larkin, rendered unconscious when punched in the back of the head by Ottawa Senators forward Mathieu Joseph in Saturday’s 5-1 loss, was absent for his first game.

Red Wings Perron Handed Six-Game Sitdown

The NHL Department of Player Safety issued its ruling on Red Wings forward Perron earlier Monday. The end result was hash but certainly not unexpected.

Perron sat out the first of a six-game suspension on Monday for cross-checking Ottawa Senators defenseman Artem Zub in the face during Saturday’s game. Mistakenly believing it had been Zub who injured Larkin, Perron charged at the Ottawa defender with his stick raised in an unprovoked attack. Officials would issue a match penalty for intent to injury to the Detroit forward.

“Perron takes several strides toward Zub, and with sufficient time to engage Zub in a different manner, or at the very least ensure that this crosscheck is delivered directly to the body…,” stated the NHL Department of Player Safety in its ruling.

There is already speculation that the NHLPA will be appealing Perron’s suspension.

Griffins Unit Comes Through

Forwards Jonatan Berggren, Austin Czarnik and Zach Aston-Reese, recalled from the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins, played as Detroit’s fourth line. Berggren scored a goal.

“I’m confident in myself,” Berggren said. “I know that if I just play my game I will create chances.”

Berggren felt skating with familiar linemates was helping his cause.

I know those guys. We play with each other back in GR. They make it easy to play with them.

Defensive Play, Goaltending Hurt Red Wings

Bad decisions, poor puck management and turnovers in the defensive zone, along with some mediocre goaltending from James Reimer was what ultimately was dooming the Red Wings to failure.

“When you miss some details and you play against a real good team they will hurt you,” Berggren said.

It was 1-1 as the clock wound down on the first period when Detroit goalie James Reimer allowed a harmless-looking 40-foot wrist shot from Dallas defenseman Esa Lindell elude him and end up in the net with two-10ths of a second left in the frame.

In the third period, just 24 seconds afte Joe Veleno scored, narrowing the Dallas advantage to 4-3, Michael Rasmussen took a tripping penalty. The Stars would score on the ensuing power play.

“It killed us,” Lalonde said. “You could see when we scored in the second, we had a really good 4-5 minutes after that. Probably should’ve scored one or two then.

“I felt a goal could’ve given us some momentum. Unfortunately, the very next shift we took a penalty and they put it away on the power play.”

Minus Larkin, Detroit’s best man at the dot (), the Stars won 58.6% of all faceoffs.

“I think we’ve proven to ourselves that I think we gotta be pretty much on all the time,” Lalonde said. “Even more so probably now.

“I’m not gonna say we have to play perfect with what our current lineup is, but if we can clean up some of those turnovers, some of our D zone mistakes, we’ll have a better chance tomorrow (at St. Louis).”

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