Red Wings Waste Good Power Play Night in Loss to Dallas Stars

DETROIT -The Detroit Red Wings didn’t need to drill down deep to get to the bottom of a 5-4 loss to Dallas Stars.

“When you get three power-play goals usually on any given night you should find a way to win,” Detroit forward David Perron said in an explanation of what happened in this game.

The Red Wings wasted a 3-for-4 night on the power play by giving up four even-strength goals in the second period. The Red Wings led 2-1 after one period and found themselves down 5-2 going into the third. The fact that they rallied to make it close late in the third was no consolation.

“Twenty minutes today cost us the game,” said Alex DeBrincat who had a goal and an assist for Detroit. “… We’ll learn from it, come back Thursday (against Philadelphia) and win that one.”

The poor period comes at a time when the Red Wings are playing their best hockey of the season. Their defensive coverage has improved during their 8-2-1 run. It’s difficult to know why they were embarrassingly sloppy for 20 minutes.

“That was the difference in the game and probably a little credit to (the Stars),” Coach Derek Lalonde said. “But it was on us. Some missed tracks, a couple of turnovers. Some of those things we’ve been kind of eliminating out of our game came back to us in the second against a team that’s simply too good. A little disappointing in that anytime you go three-for-three on your power play and feel like you probably won two periods, to get outplayed that much for 20 minutes feels like a missed opportunity.”

Goalie Switch

If the Red Wings want to avoid missing the playoffs for an eighth consecutive season, they can’t afford to play as poorly as they did in the second period against Dallas.

Lalonde pulled goalie Alex Lyon for the third period and replaced him with James Reimer to give the team a spark.

“A little breather for Alex,” Lalonde said. “We’ve asked a ton of him, a lot of him. Unfortunately, we left him out to dry in the second. And yes, I thought it would give a little spark to the group to give Reimer some looks.

It seemed to work because Detroit outscored Dallas 2-0 in third. The Red Wings actually netted three goals in that third period. But Christian Fischer had one lost to a video-review offside call.

“Unfortunate offside on Fish,” Lalonde said. ” With how everything’s been going our way in the past 10-12 games, it would’ve been easy for us to quit in the third. I think that’s a very good sign for our guys to give that push and give us a chance at the end against a really good team.”

DeBrincat, Perron and Dylan Larkin had the power play goals. J.T. Compher had the even-strength goal.

“The people got their monies worth tonight,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said.  “It was like three games in one. Every period was a different story. I obviously loved our second period, and I liked our third until we took that penalty. The momentum shifted quick, because they can score in a hurry because they get so much speed off the rush.”