Stars Beat The Wings In OT

Added on Dec 20, 2010 by J Merrill in

NHL

The Dallas Stars came back to beat the Detroit Red Wings to take a big step forward in the western conference standings. Loui Eriksson scored at 4:18 of overtime to give Dallas a 4-3 comeback victory over Detroit on Sunday in a game between the conference’s two top teams.

Coach Marc Crawford was proud of his team after two wins in two nights. They beat Columbus on Saturday 2-1. “We had a lot of reasons, a lot of excuses to pack it in … but our guys hung in there.” Eriksson scored on a wrist shot from the left circle for his 14th goal, he added about the goal, “I saw we were going to have a 3-on-1. Kronwall took the pass away so I knew I was going to shoot.”

Eriksson also had two assists, Brenden Morrow scored twice, Brad Richards added a goal and Andrew Raycroft stopped 28 shots to help Dallas pull within a point of conference-leading Detroit. “It was a hard-fought game. Especially playing back-to-back,” said Morrow, who played in his 700th game.

Chris Osgood made 28 saves in an unsuccessful bid for his 400th career victory. He said after the game, “For sure, I would have liked to done it, especially at home. But I’ve always said I don’t know when it’s going to happen. You can’t really plan it. Guys tried, but it didn’t work out. Only thing I can do is move on but for sure it’s disappointing. Only a few minutes left in the game and I was feeling real good. It’s unfortunate.” Pavel Datsyuk and Johan Franzen each had a goal and an assist and Patrick Eaves also scored for Detroit.

Morrow tied it with about 3 minutes left in regulation to get his 12^th goal of the season. After a turnover by Brian Rafalski deep in the Wings zone, Morrow beat Osgood with a backhander from the slot.”I saw a clear line to Todd Bertuzzi and their player had his stick up in the air and I didn’t see it,” Rafalski said.

“Great play by Jamie Benn to make that pass to Brenden Morrow,” Crawford said. Jamie Benn intercepted the pass in the left circle and set up Morrow. The Red Wings coach Mike Babcock also thought it was a great play, and gave credit where it was due. “There were 3:15 left and we had the puck in our zone for a period of time. We had multiple opportunities to execute and get it out and we didn’t,” he said. “You got to give them credit, they found away to bang it in the back of the net.”

The Detroit Red Wings have been having a rough December. They Wings are 3-4-2 in their past nine games. The Wings (20-8-4,44pts), who are 1st in Central Division, will face the Vancouver Cannucks on Wednesday. The Dallas Stars (20-10-3,43pts), who are now 1st in Pacific Division, will face the Montreal Canadiens.