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DALLAS — On Monday night, in what otherwise ended as a forgettable 5-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings, the one brief shining moment for the Dallas Stars came midway through the first period, when they trapped the opposition's fourth line on the ice for an extended period.
It got so bad for Darren McCarty, Darren Helm and Jiri Hudler that they iced the puck, permitting Stars' coach Dave Tippett the opportunity to send out arguably his three best offensive forwards, Mike Ribiero, Mike Modano and Brenden Morrow. After what seemed like an endless cycle, McCarty eventually lost his man — defenceman Nicklas Grossman — and he eventually buried the puck behind goaltender Chris Osgood. It was a moment of complete domination; it brought the crowd back in the game and it threatened to shift the momentum — for exactly 37 seconds. That's how long it took the Red Wings, on Pavel Datsyuk's first of three goals, to retake the lead. From there, the Stars were never quite back in the game.
Redemption came from McCarty and his line-mates when Jiri Hudler scored the second-period go-ahead goal which stood up as the eventual winner.
"We had that marathon shift in the first period and got scored on," said McCarty. "They're good players and (he) blew the coverage, but obviously, it's good to get it back and get the game winner. That's what playoffs are all about — getting contributions from everybody.
Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Red Wings skates with the puck past Mike Ribeiro of the Dallas Stars during Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals at American Airlines Center in Dallas on Monday. (Chris tian Petersen/Getty Images)
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Two weeks ago, the Red Wings were in roughly the same situation against the Colorado Avalanche and completed the sweep with a resounding 8-2 victory.
"We don't take anything for granted," said McCarty, a member of three previous Red Wings' championship teams. "We've got to be hungry and we've got to be better than them. The great thing is, when we're in this position like this, it's scarier for us. Our senses are heightened. It's as if we say, 'OK, we've got to make sure we're going to do all the little things right. I've got to be better than the guy I'm playing against, I've got to be harder on him than he is on me. That Colorado game, even when it was 4-1 or 5-1, guys didn't let up.
"We were guilty earlier in the playoffs of getting a lead and letting teams come back. The same goes with series. We've got to put 'em away now. It's not going to be easy, but we've got to stick to our blueprint."
The Red Wings carry a nine-game winning streak into tonight's potentially deciding game of the Western Conference final. With a victory, they can advance to the Stanley Cup final for the first time since 2002.
Detroit's last defeat came in the opening round, on the road, against the Nashville Predators. Since then, they've switched to goaltender Chris Osgood and he's been in goal for all nine victories in this current stretch. McCarty said Osgood's play has been a relatively underrated factor in that run of success.
"Ozzie, the one thing with him is, he makes 16 saves Monday night, but he made five huge saves — on big one-timers, or fighting through traffic to see the puck. A lot of goalies, when they get a lot of shots, can be hot, but when they don't get a lot of shots, they have trouble making the saves at the key times.
"When we won the Cup in '98, everyone said, 'well, he had a great team in front of him.' Well, yeah he did, but the same thing happened — he made all the important saves. You can't win in this league, without great goaltending. It's impossible."
So it's all about getting the pieces of the puzzle just right?
"Exactly," answered McCarty. "The puzzle's got to have all the pieces fit together. Some teams come so close, but if they're missing one little piece - it could even be the smallest piece on the board - but if you don't have it, you don't get it."
For tonight's game, the Red Wings will be without Johan Franzen again, out with concussion-like symptoms. The Stars do not expect to have either Stu Barnes (concussion-like symptoms) or Jere Lehtinen (leg) available. Both Mike Modano and Brenden Morrow, who are banged up, were expected to play, according to coach Dave Tippett.
The Stars are only one-for-15 on the power play thus far in the series, after scoring 10 goals with the man advantage when they upset the Anaheim Ducks in the opening round.
According to Modano, that is just one of many areas in the game where Dallas needs to be better.
"Desperation, backs against the wall - doing what we can to kind of survive to see another day," is how Modano described tonight's challenge. "We've responded in those situations before in the past, where we've come up with great efforts. And all around, everybody is contributing. So we need everybody throughout the whole team. Special teams needs to be just something that can be a big factor for us, if we get that going."
Dallas did win four games in a row five different times this season, but is just 1-5 in its last six, after going up 3-0 on the San Jose Sharks in the second round. They have not played with the lead at all in this series.
Tippett, asked if the Stars were guilty of over-thinking things against the Red Wings, answered: "No, we're chasing games. What happened, the best part of our game through the playoffs was how well we've played together. We've been a strong, strong group.
"This series we ended up chasing games. We're behind a lot in games. What happens is players get the mind-set that they want to do more. They feel like they want to help out so much that they get individual. And when your strength is as a group and your individuals start trying to do more individually, it takes you out of that team concept.
"That's where we are. We've been chasing too many games, and it's led to some turnovers, led to some situations where we're not as strong as a group as we need to be. And that goes, starts with the goaltender, to our "D" pairs, to our forwards.
"The reason we had success is because all the parts of our game have been in place. And we've chased this series, and we've got away from that. If we're going to have a chance to win Game 4 and come back here, we have to play well as a group."
Red Wings' forward Dallas Drake figures they'll see a big push from the Stars early tonight. On a rainy day in Dallas, the challenge will be weathering the storm.
"It always seems, in your opponent's building, the team comes out real hard; the fans are behind them, they play with energy," said Drake. "So you've really got to play smart and get the puck deep and get the puck out and when you do that, you seem to settle down."
