DET 4 goals, 3 on the PP; DAL 1 goal on a wretched turnover.  Ozzie was brilliant when he had to be, which wasn’t too often.  Turco looked, well he looked like Turco always looks against DET.  DET outshot DAL by a 3 to 2 margin.  DET also won 63% of the faceoffs.

Mule pots his 5th game winner in the playoffs, and becomes the NHL leading scorer in the playoffs.  He also ties the immortal Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay by scoring in his fifth straight playoff game.

DET is faster than DAL, or, according to the MSM, DAL had tired legs (I’m not buying that until they prove otherwise).  Fil flew past two DAL “D” for his goal.  Helm was flying all night.  DAL played two series against defensive minded, grinding type teams; DET is definitely not one of those.  Except for a couple of shifts by DAL, DET controlled most of the game.  DET also gave as good as they received in the hit department.

But it is only game one, time will tell.

Numbers here, MSM in replies:

Box Score from TSN.ca

FINAL 1 2 3 T

Dallas 0 1 0 1
Detroit 2 2 0 4

Stars:
1: Tomas Holmstrom, 2: Nicklas Lidstrom, 3: Niklas Kronwall

SHOTS 1 2 3 T
Dallas 4 11 6 21
Detroit 12 13 6 31

SCORING SUMMARY from TSN.ca:

1st Period
Time Team Player (Assists) Score
4:28 Detroit Brian Rafalski (Nicklas Lidstrom, Tomas Holmstrom) (PP) 1-0 (Detroit)
15:34 Detroit Johan Franzen (Niklas Kronwall, Jiri Hudler) (PP) 2-0 (Detroit)

2nd Period
Time Team Player (Assists) Score
6:40 Detroit Tomas Holmstrom (Nicklas Lidstrom, Henrik Zetterberg) (PP) 3-0 (Detroit)
15:37 Detroit Valtteri Filppula (Mikael Samuelsson, Niklas Kronwall) 4-0 (Detroit)
18:53 Dallas Brenden Morrow (Steve Ott) 4-1 (Detroit)

3rd Period
Time Team Player (Assists) Score
No Scoring. 

DETROIT SKATERS
Player SOG G A PPG SHG PTS +/- PIM TOI SHF FOW FOL SG
Tomas Holmstrom 1 1 1 1 0 2 0 2 16:28 24 0 0 0
Niklas Kronwall 1 0 2 0 0 2 0 2 21:05 27 0 0 0
Nicklas Lidstrom 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 2 22:29 28 0 0 0
Valtteri Filppula 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 13:39 20 9 3 0
Johan Franzen 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 15:57 25 1 2 0
Jiri Hudler 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 8:27 13 0 0 0
Brian Rafalski 2 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 23:00 27 0 0 0
Mikael Samuelsson 2 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 15:52 22 0 0 0
Henrik Zetterberg 7 0 1 0 0 1 0 2 19:33 27 12 5 0
Chris Chelios 1 0 0 0 0 0 -1 0 17:39 23 0 0 0
Daniel Cleary 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 16:20 25 4 0 0
Pavel Datsyuk 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 21:27 28 0 2 0
Dallas Drake 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 14:18 21 0 0 0
Kris Draper 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 15:40 24 9 6 0
Darren Helm 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8:38 11 0 3 0
Brett Lebda 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 14:41 19 0 0 0
Kirk Maltby 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7:11 11 0 0 0
Chris Osgood 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 60:00 0 0 0 0
Brad Stuart 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 19:36 25 0 0 0

DETROIT GOALIES
Player W-L-OTL GA SA SV SV% TOI
Chris Osgood 7-0-0 1 21 20 0.952 60:00

DALLAS SKATERS
Player SOG G A PPG SHG PTS +/- PIM TOI SHF FOW FOL SG
Brenden Morrow 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 20:47 24 0 0 0
Steve Ott 3 0 1 0 0 1 1 2 10:48 17 4 2 0
Trevor Daley 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 19:49 22 0 0 0
Loui Eriksson 0 0 0 0 0 0 -1 0 16:59 18 0 0 0
Mark Fistric 0 0 0 0 0 0 -1 2 14:59 22 0 0 0
Nicklas Grossman 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 17:00 25 0 0 0
Niklas Hagman 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10:58 18 0 0 0
Jere Lehtinen 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 17:11 21 0 0 0
Joel Lundqvist 1 0 0 0 0 0 -1 0 14:36 17 0 0 0
Antti Miettinen 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11:29 16 0 0 0
Mike Modano 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 14:44 22 3 7 0
Mattias Norstrom 0 0 0 0 0 0 -1 2 18:26 24 0 0 0
Toby Petersen 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 10:15 15 4 4 0
Mike Ribeiro 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 19:00 19 5 10 0
Brad Richards 5 0 0 0 0 0 -1 0 20:15 22 5 12 0
Stephane Robidas 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 19:23 27 0 0 0
Marty Turco 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 59:55 0 0 0 0
Brad Winchester 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 9:04 10 0 0 0
Sergei Zubov 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 26:24 28 0 0 0

DALLAS GOALIES
Player W-L-OTL GA SA SV SV% TOI
Marty Turco 8-5-0 4 31 27 0.871 59:55

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If you are really a masochist, then you are probably able to tolerate the TSN.ca panel discusing last nights game.  Warning, every excuse in the world why DAL lost is included.  None of the panel seems capable of giving the Wings any credit for their game.

The Dallas MSM spin on the game.  First from Mike Heika at the Dallas Morning News:

The grocery list of things the Stars needed to do to beat the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday was lengthy.

What was stunning, however, was just how few items they were able to check off in a 4-1 loss to Detroit in Game 1 of the best-of-7 Western Conference finals.

Control the puck and keep it out of the hands of the Red Wings’ talented forwards? Nope. Detroit out-shot the Stars, 31-21, and won 63 percent of the face-offs.

Skate hard and keep the Red Wings off of the power play? Negative. Detroit scored on 3-of-7 man advantages.

Get a stand-on-your head performance from goalie Marty Turco? Not so much. Turco stopped 27 shots, but allowed four goals and saw his record at Joe Louis Arena drop to 0-8-2.

Stars coach Dave Tippett gave Turco a free pass on the game, and Turco said he felt that his performances in Detroit are more a part of the Red Wings’ dominance than any ghosts he might have circling in his head.

“I personally don’t think there’s much correlation,” Turco said.

No, the correlation is that the Stars have struggled to beat the Red Wings when one of the best teams in the NHL for the past decade plays its best hockey – and that happened again at a crucial time in the playoffs.

The Stars trail a series for the first time this postseason.

“It is different – we don’t have the lead,” Stars captain Brenden Morrow said. “But our goal was to come in here and steal one, and that’s still up for grabs.”

The two teams meet Saturday in Game 2, and the Stars say they have to be much better.

“That’s a game that wasn’t even close to the games we played in the playoffs,” Tippett said. “Give the Red Wings all the credit in the world. They did what they had to do to win. But we’re going to have to be much better.”

Detroit quickly forced a 5-on-3 power play four minutes into the game. Mattias Norstrom was called for hooking, and rookie defenseman Mark Fistric took a roughing call against Tomas Holmstrom, who was trying to set up camp in front of Turco.

Detroit scored nine seconds into the ensuing two-man advantage and never looked back.

“If you give those guys chances, they capitalize,” defenseman Stephane Robidas said.

Brian Rafalski scored through a Holmstrom screen that was inches in front of Turco for the first goal. Johan Franzen tipped a puck that was inches in front of Turco for the second goal. And Holmstrom was backing over Turco when he tipped a shot for the third goal.

Tippett complained that Holmstrom was illegally in the crease on the third goal.

“We were told that if there’s going to be a player in the blue paint, it’s no goal,” Tippett said. “Obviously, that didn’t happen.”

And while that third goal appeared to be a back-breaker, the Stars say they were nowhere close to where they needed to be from the opening drop of the puck.

“We’ve got to worry about bringing our level up,” center Brad Richards said. “If we don’t get to that third-round level of the Stanley Cup playoffs, then you can throw the X’s and O’s out. This time of year, it’s all about competing.”

Turco said he and his teammates have to simply work harder to change a terrible trend.

“The challenge is to go earn that confidence we had, and go earn a win,” Turco said. “We didn’t in any way earn the chance to be successful tonight.”

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A good sound-bite (or since it is printed, “word-bite”?)From the hyphenated writer at the Dallas Morning News, Jean-Jacque Taylor:

If the Stars, the team that played with bravado and arrogance in the first two rounds of the playoffs don’t show up in a hurry, the Western Conference finals will end in four games.

No doubt.

You know it. I know it. Even the players know it, though they certainly aren’t going to admit it.

The Stars played Game 1 as though they were afraid of the moment. Perhaps they spent too much time reading press clippings about Detroit’s omnipotence. Maybe they’re still emotionally hung over after their draining four-overtime win against San Jose on Sunday that propelled them into this series.

Whatever the reason, Dallas had better correct its issues quickly because the Red Wings have no concept of mercy.

Detroit 4, Dallas 1.

And the score could’ve been much worse.

Please, spare me all of the whiny e-mails about the officiating. Yes, the officials should’ve waved off Tomas Holmstrom’s goal, which made it 3-0, since he was clearly in the crease.

But let’s be real, would it have really mattered? Nope. The Stars still would’ve been smoked.

Besides, good teams overcome bad calls. Detroit finished with three power-plays goals. Guess what? They earned each of them.

The more aggressive team always gets the benefit of the doubt from the officials. It has been that way, no matter the sport, since the beginning of time – and it’s never, ever going to change.

Even when the teams were at even strength, Detroit dominated much of the play with a puck-possession style that forced the Stars to chase the Red Wings. Actually, the Stars spent so much time in their own zone during the first two periods, no one should’ve been surprised they were popped for five penalties.

“You can’t stand around and watch the puck,” Brenden Morrow said.

Now, Dave Tippett must spend the next 48 hours making sure all of the confidence the Stars established in beating Anaheim and San Jose doesn’t fade just because the Red Wings spanked the Stars.

He better start with Marty Turco.

More from the Dallas MSM, Brandon George at the Dallas Morning News:

The Detroit Red Wings were the best regular-season team in the NHL.

They don’t need any help.

But the Stars gave them plenty Thursday night in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals at Joe Louis Arena.

The Stars said over and over coming into this series that they couldn’t take penalties against the favored Red Wings. But Dallas came out in the first period and was called for four penalties that led to two power-play goals in the Red Wings’ 4-1 victory.

“You can’t do it. You can’t expect to win. It just took away our life and our momentum,” Stars center Brad Richards said. “You don’t say that when you’re sitting there, but now you look back at the game and that’s where the game turned, and they took over and we never really got back in the game after that.”

Detroit’s first three goals came on the power play. The last of them came on, Tomas Holmstrom’s tip-in off a Nicklas Lidstrom shot from the left slot at 6:40 of the second period. That goal came after Stars center Mike Ribeiro was called for hooking Detroit’s Dallas Drake.

The Red Wings didn’t waste time capitalizing on the Stars’ mistakes. When back-to-back penalties early in the first period gave Detroit a 5-on-3 advantage, Brian Rafalski scored for the Red Wings 12 seconds later. Rafalski fired in a rebound of a Lidstrom miss on a shot from the top of the circle that clanged off the right post.

Holmstrom’s second-period goal came 26 seconds into the Red Wings’ power play.

Captain Brenden Morrow said the Stars “just sort of stood around and watched” too much.

All told, the Stars committed seven penalties. Four were stick penalties – three hooking and one slashing.

“We just didn’t move our feet. It’s that simple,” Morrow said. “A lot of those sticks calls are easy to make. We knew that coming in.

“They’re a good puck-possession team. They’re going to have the puck the majority of the game, but we need to move our feet and check with our legs. Tonight, too often, we did it with our sticks and were guilty and sent to the penalty box.”

The Red Wings’ get-it-and-rip-it approach with the puck from the point worked all night. The Stars, meanwhile, were passive on offense. Detroit outshot Dallas, 31-21, and the Stars were 0-for-4 on the power play.

“Special teams are going to be big, and we didn’t create much on our power play,” Ribeiro said. “Discipline is going to be a factor, and we need to get better at it.”

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Priceless article by Jim Reeves at the Fort Worth Star Telegram:

Stephen King couldn’t have written a more horrifying script than the one the Dallas Stars penned for themselves Thursday night at The Joe.

Every murderous boogeyman hidden in the Stars’ closet, every venomous monster lurking under the bed, every hideous ogre they’ve ever dreamed about in the depths of their darkest night came to life here in Game 1 of their Western Conference finals series with the Detroit Red Wings.

This is the fire-breathing dragon the Stars must slay, the only one left between them and another shot at the exalted Stanley Cup.

They’ll never get that chance if they can’t play better than this. 

The Red Wings embarrassed the Stars 4-1, dominating the game almost from the moment the first octopus splattered on the ice during the national anthem to the final horn. . .

This was not the same Stars team which out-gritted, out-worked and ultimately out-lasted the tough Anaheim Ducks or San Jose Sharks in the first two rounds of the playoffs. This Dallas team was nervous, jittery and soft.

“We looked like we were lacking a little emotion or jump that we’ve been having,” Turco said. “This team’s resiliency has been the biggest factor for us to be at this point in the playoffs.”

No resiliency this time. The Stars didn’t just lose to the Wings, they capitulated. They allowed the Wings to do what they always do to the Stars here: play the role of schoolyard bully.

Don’t for a minute believe the stat sheet that showed the Stars and Wings virtually even (31-30 Wings) in the hits department. The ones that counted were all delivered by the Wings.

The Stars validated every fear their fans had coming into this series.

Turco just can’t beat the Wings: True.

Mike Modano never plays well in his home state of Michigan: True.

The Stars turn to Jell-O at the sight of Detroit’s red jerseys: True.

To be fair, Turco had little chance. He can’t stop what he can’t see, and with either Johan Franzen or Tomas Holmstrom, each of whom deflected in a goal, sitting on his lap in the crease, he couldn’t see much. The only even-strength goal he allowed was the last one, and it came on a Steve Ott turnover followed by a breakaway wrist-shot by Valtteri Filppula.

“We’ve done a great job of blocking [shots] and dictating where we want them to come from, and that just wasn’t the case tonight,” Turco said. “They didn’t do anything we didn’t expect as far as traffic.”

Maybe, but the Wings’ third goal should have been waved off—Holmstrom was backing into the crease and goalie interference should have been called—but the Stars aren’t going to get that call here.

“It was more the team in front of him tonight than it was Marty,” Tippett said in defense of Turco.

That said, throw Turco into the same miserable stewpot as the rest of the Stars. For the Stars to have a chance in this series, he has to be as outstanding as he was in the first two rounds, and he clearly wasn’t.

Eric Duhatschek, one of the premier hockey writers, offers his take on last nights tile, from the Globe and Mail:

On the theory that you can’t stop what you can’t see, the Detroit Red Wings fell back on a simple, well-worn plan to get under the skin of Dallas Stars goaltender Marty Turco last night.

They turned to Tomas Holmstrom, a.k.a. the Hitman, and Johan Franzen, known as the Mule, to crowd Turco, back into him and otherwise camp out in his goal crease whenever the opportunity arose — which came often during the opening game of the NHL’s Western Conference final.

The Red Wings got five power-play chances in the first 30 minutes and made three of them count as they rolled to an easy 4-1 victory over the visiting Stars and a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven playoff series, which will continue here tomorrow.

The first three Red Wings goals were scored in virtually identical fashion — with Turco getting a clear view of either Holmstrom or Franzen’s backside. 

Holmstrom has done this for ages, better than almost anyone else in the NHL. Franzen is comparatively new to the act, although with a playoff-leading 12 goals, this is clearly his breakout time as an NHL pest.

Holmstrom and Franzen each scored once on a tip-in, and the other power-play goal came off Brian Rafalski’s stick — a screened shot through traffic on an early two-man advantage that set the tone for the tightly called game.

“They didn’t do anything we didn’t expect as far as traffic or getting pucks through,” said Turco, who wasn’t happy with Holmstrom’s presence in the crease on the pivotal third goal, which effectively put the game out of reach.

“We were told that we have the ability to move within the blue [ice in front of the net]. We like to have our hands out in front of us. I wasn’t able to do that, because [Holmstrom] was coming backwards at us. It’s not necessarily a penalty, but if you ask me, those ones should be waved off.”

Valtteri Filppula scored the game’s first even-strength goal 15 minutes 37 seconds into the second period on a well-executed three-man passing play to put matters well out of reach.

Brenden Morrow broke Chris Osgood’s shutout attempt with 1:07 to go in the second period, scoring his eighth goal of the postseason.

Special teams have been a decisive factor in these playoffs, with nine of the 16 teams operating above 20-per-cent efficiency, something only four teams out of 30 managed in the regular season. Detroit was ninth of the nine, but its ability to crank up the power play was never really in doubt.

Franzen, who continues to have the hottest scoring hand in the playoffs, was asked whether he learned anything from watching fellow Swede Holmstrom over the years. Franzen smiled and said, “I got my own style.”

He paused for effect before adding: “No, I try to play similar to him: Be close to the goalie and try to read what he’s going to do and where is he looking, try to get an arm up [to screen him].

“When the pucks go in, the confidence comes. Plus, the shots have to be good from the defencemen. They’ve really been giving me good shots. It’s easy for me to tip in on my forehand.”

Stars head coach Dave Tippett didn’t like the roughing penalty against rookie defenceman Mark Fistric that put his team down two men early in the game (he called it a “harsh” call). Like Turco, he also thought Holmstrom’s goal should have been disallowed, but he didn’t use either as an excuse in a game which Detroit dominated in every category.

“We have to get skating,” Tippett said. “Before you can talk about tactics or anything else, we’ve got to get our legs moving. We did a lot of standing in that game tonight, and that’s the bottom line.

“Whether it was fatigue or whatever the reason, we weren’t at the level we needed to be at.”

The refereeing tandem of Bill McCreary and Kevin Pollock signalled they were going to call it tight only 1:11 in, when Niklas Kronwall was flagged for hooking Loui Eriksson. The Red Wings killed that penalty without incident, the best save coming when Osgood blocked a Brad Richards backhander with his shoulder.

Mattias Norstrom was next in the penalty parade, dinged for hooking Filppula at 3:45. And when Fistric joined him 24 seconds later on a questionable roughing call, it was only a matter of time before Rafalski connected for the opening goal.

It stayed that way until Stars forward Toby Peterson went off for holding at the 13:56 mark, setting the stage for Franzen’s goal, his fifth with the man advantage in these playoffs. This time, Kronwall was at the point, drifting backwards along the blueline until he found a shooting lane and putting a slap shot towards the net that Franzen redirected past Turco.

From that moment on, the Stars goaltender had to listen to endless chants of “Tur-cooooo, Tur-cooooo” from the less-than-capacity crowd, most of whom were decked out in red T-shirts handed out as part of a promotion for a local tire store. The shirts’ caption read, Make ‘em see Stars — which, on this night anyway, proved singularly prophetic.

“It looked like we lacked a little of the emotion or jump that we’ve been having in previous series,” Turco said. “But this team’s resiliency has been the biggest factor to be at this point in the playoffs.

“It’s discouraging. With some of the calls, you see us not moving our feet on the penalties. They’ve got a great power play and some skill and they made some good plays. You’re not always going to stop it but I know we’ll be better in Game 2.”

A good write-up from the CBC.ca:

The Detroit Red Wings proved potent on the power play and pestered netminder Marty Turco to perfection in winning the opener of their playoff series with the Dallas Stars on Thursday night.

Tomas Holmstrom repeatedly crowded the crease and was rewarded with one goal and one assist as the host Red Wings beat the Stars 4-1 in Game 1 of the Western Conference final at Joe Louis Arena.

“Turco has been on fire in the playoffs,” Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock said. “We cannot let him have space.

“We have to be right there to back him in. If we can do that, we can be successful in the series.”

Brian Rafalski, Johan Franzen and Valtteri Filppula scored the other goals, Nicklas Lidstrom and Niklas Kronvall each had two assists and Chris Osgood posted 20 saves as the top-ranked Red Wings seemed unaffected by a week-long layoff.

“They were scared, just like the coaches, that they would not be ready,” Babcock said. “A little fear never hurt anybody.” “We had to engage right from the get-go,” he explained. “We knew if we didn’t, they would be all over us.

“I think any time you have won a big series like they have and you have played the overtimes like they did and the emotion, sometimes it is hard to get going right away. I thought we were able to jump on them early.”

Detroit is seeking to return to the Stanley Cup final for the first time since winning it all in 2002.

“It has been a balanced scoring and strong team defence,” Lidstrom said. “I think it is very comparable to some of the teams we had back in the 1990s.”

“I’m not worried about how the Red Wings played, I’m worried about how we played,” Stars head coach Dave Tippett said. “That is a game that wasn’t even close to the games we played in the playoffs.”

Brenden Morrow completed the scoring with the lone goal for the fifth-seeded Stars, who yielded three goals on Detroit’s first five power-play opportunities.

“I think we had a good two or three shifts to start the game,” he said. “But then, the ice got tilted the other way.”

“We lacked a little emotion or jump we had in the other series,” Turco said.

Turco turned aside 27 of 31 shots, but he remains winless in 10 visits to Detroit (0-8-2).

“We want to take a lot of shots,” Lidstrom said. “But we want to create a lot of traffic in front, too.” Rafalski opened the scoring with a power-play goal on a shot from the point less than 4 1/2 minutes into the contest, with Holmstrom parked at the top of the crease to screen Turco.

It was Rafalski’s second goal of the playoffs, and came with defencemen Mark Fistric (roughing) and Mattias Norstrum (hooking) in the penalty box.

“We hung him [Turco] out to dry with the 5-on-3 early,” Morrow said.

“We didn’t get the speed up,” Stars forward Brad Richards said. “That is why we took penalties.”

Franchise records for Franzen

Franzen outmuscled Stars defenceman Trevor Daley in the crease long enough to make it 2-0, tipping Kronvall’s slapshot from the point for a power-play marker with 4:26 left in the first period.

Franzen has scored in five straight playoff games — netting 10 goals over that span — to equal the franchise record set by Gordie Howe in 1949 and matched by Ted Lindsay in 1952.

Howe repeated the feat in 1964.

“I don’t want to be mentioned with them,” Franzen said of the Hall of Famers. “I still want to look at myself as a hard worker out there.”

Franzen tops the Red Wings in these playoffs with a franchise-record 12 goals — seven shy of the NHL record shared by Reggie Leach and Jari Kurri — and he is riding a remarkable streak with 27 goals in 27 games dating back to the regular season.

“I don’t think about those records right now,” he said. “Maybe I will look back on it after the season or when I quit playing.”

Detroit potted a third power-play goal 6:40 into the second period as Lidstrom’s wrist shot from the faceoff circle grazed Holmstrom’s right leg as he pushed Turco deep into the crease.

“When they’re in the blue paint [crease], our goaltender is supposed to have the ability to do his job,” Tippett said. “On the third goal, that obviously was not the case.”

“It was a penalty, if you ask me,” Turco said. “Those ones should be waved off.

“But he certainly is willing to pay the price. He did and he got rewarded for it.”

Mikael Samuelsson then sprung Filppula, who burst between Fistric and Norstrom and beat Turco to the stick side for his third at the 15:37 mark.

“We cannot sit around and watch,” Morrow said. “We have got to initiate, play our style.”

“We have got to get in the shooting lanes, not let those shots get through. We have got to do better on the penalty kill.”

Morrow’s team-high eighth, on a rebound, spoiled Osgood’s shutout bid with 67 seconds left in the period.

Steve Ott, who notched the assist, rang a shot off the left post on a breakaway in the waning minutes.

“We know what we did wrong,” Stars forward Mike Ribeiro said. “We will fix that and be better next game.”

“There is no question that, the next game, they will be back and rolling,” Babcock said.

Detroit has never lost a playoff series to Dallas, winning the three previous meetings, including the 1998 conference final in six games.

The best-of-seven series resumes Saturday (CBC, 7 p.m. ET).

Michael Farber has a good write up on Kronwall following game 1, at Sports Illustrated:

Niklas Kronwall comes equipped with a booming shot, extraordinary hockey sense and nimble feet, but if the Detroit Red Wings defenseman were completely tricked out, he would come with license plates.

Kronwall cranked Antti Miettinen so hard in the Red Wings’ 4-1 victory in Game 1 of the Western Conference final Thursday, the stunned Stars winger lost two consonants and a vowel. The Stars best chance of defeating Detroit involved throwing their weight around, getting in on the forecheck against the Red Wings defensemen like Nicklas Lidstrom, Brian Rafalski and Kronwall, bottling them up in their own zone. . .

On a night when so much occurred—Franzen scoring his playoff-high 12th goal, the Red Wings throwing the puck around on the power play like the Harlem Globetrotters, Dallas goalie Marty Turco failing to win at Joe Louis Arena as a pro—it is Detroit’s eagerness to engage in battles that stood out. In the playoffs last year, the dandy Wings were the punching bag, surviving the second-round series against San Jose before being mauled by Anaheim. If the Red Wings are going to thrive, they can’t be bystanders.

Kronwall—who had a pair of assists, starting the play on the Red Wings’ only even-strength goal by with a surgical pass to Mikael Samuelsson from his own zone—is part of the solution. He is the big game hunter. After all, in the Stanley Cup playoffs, it’s the law of the jungle.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ross McKeon at Yahoo Sports offers his take:

“. . . Surprisingly, both Tippett and some players made mention of carryover effects from the Game 6 clincher against San Jose, a game that needed 69:03 of overtime to decide.

And facing a team such as the Wings, regardless of potential rust in their game, was just a bad matchup from the start. If Detroit is on its game, the Wings are going to skate hard, force mistakes with their pressure and basically play keep away with the puck. They did just that.

Tippett pointed to faceoff stats and taking penalties because players were behind, in addition to citing a less than stellar effort. . .

Despite winning for the seventh straight time in this postseason, and by a combined score of 30-11 no less, Detroit coach Mike Babcock and Lidstrom agreed complacency and overconfidence are the furthest thing from the team’s mind.

“I think scared is more the word,” Babcock said. “We’ve been here before and never got the job done. People don’t understand how hard it is to win and just how hard it is to be right here.

“We’d like to take the next step, but we know it’s going to be a huge battle,” he added. “Those wins that you have in the past don’t count for nothing. We have one right now, and we’ve got to find a way to get three more. . .”

When you think of Detroit, physical play isn’t at the top of the list. But that was another point of emphasis Thursday night.

Defensemen Niklas Kronwall and Brad Stuart led the hit parade, but Babcock is looking for much more.

“We’re going to have to be more physical up front,” he said. “We feel this series will get faster and faster.”

The Red Wings figure to hold up their end of the deal, but the Stars need to respond. It makes perfect sense they’ll come out better in Game 2, but Detroit doesn’t suffer a lot of letdowns. Dallas will have to come out a lot better and maybe have to deal with some adversity along the way.

Kevin Greenstein at Inside Hockey offers his thoughts on the 1st game of the WCF, and a dire prediction for Stars fan; from Foxsports.com:

Why the Red Wings won: As has been the case throughout the playoffs, puck possession was the key for the Wings. By playing keep-away for much of the game, the team was able to tire out the Stars and draw numerous power plays.

From there, the talent kicked in. With Nicklas Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski backing the Wings’ lethal power play — and with Tomas Holmstrom and Johan Franzen tirelessly crashing the Stars’ crease — Marty Turco had no chance. One point-blank shot from Rafalski on a 5-on-3 advantage and two power play tip-ins by Franzen and Holmstrom gave the Wings a commanding 3-0 lead. When Valtteri Filppula split the seam and broke in alone on Turco to put Detroit up 4-0, the game was effectively over.

Why the Stars lost: Giving the Wings seven power plays (including two 5-on-3 opportunities) certainly didn’t help. Neither did the Stars’ concerning propensity to give the puck away. But the biggest problem for Dallas was their inability to generate high-quality scoring chances against Chris Osgood. In four power play opportunities, only five Stars shots reached the net, a trend that absolutely must change if Dallas is to have a prayer against their tremendously skilled opponent.

Key moment: Just over four minutes into the game, with Mattias Norstom already in the penalty box, Mark Fistric took a foolish roughing penalty, giving Detroit a 5-on-3 edge. Nine seconds later, Rafalski scored the series-opening goal, sending the Joe Louis Arena crowd into a frenzy of excitement. From that point forward, the Wings controlled the pace of play and maintained all of the positive momentum.

What’s next: For the Wings, more of the same excellence. For the Stars, better play around the net when shorthanded. None of the four Wings goals were remotely Turco’s fault, so there’s no reason for the Stars to lose confidence in him. Instead, they need to do a better job of keeping his crease clear — on all three power play goals, he was completely screened. If Holmstrom and Franzen remain able to easily lay claim to the Stars’ most vulnerable real estate, this series will end in the Wings’ favor in four easy games.

Western Conference Final By The Numbers:

* Detroit improved to 6-0 at home in this year’s playoffs.
* Detroit’s Chris Osgood is the second goaltender in the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs to win each of his first seven decisions, following Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre Fleury. The record is held by Montreal’s Gump Worsley, who went 11-0 with one non-decision in 12 appearances in 1968.
* The Red Wings scored three power-play goals against Dallas in Game 1; in four regular-season games against the Stars, they were 1-for-15.
* The Red Wings won 60 percent of the faceoffs (35 of 56). Henrik Zetterberg won 12 of 17 and Valtteri Filppula won 9 of 12.
* The Stars’ franchise has lost its past nine postseason games at Joe Louis Arena, dating back to the 1992 playoffs.
* Dallas goaltender Marty Turco is now 0-8-2 at Joe Louis Arena in his NHL career.

Coach Babcock’s off-day presser, courtesy of Paul:

Q. Coach, over the last couple of months you’ve witnessed firsthand the love affair they have with Darren McCarty. When you have to make a decision to take him out of the lineup, how do you avoid the heart strings pulling at you and focus on it being a business decision?

COACH MIKE BABCOCK: I never thought about it like that. It’s just about winning. It’s not about Darren. It’s not about me. It’s about the Detroit Red Wings. So none of that stuff comes into play.

Q. We just talked to him. He seems to have taken it well. Based on, I don’t know if you’ve talked to him, how he’s taken the decision, but what do you anticipate from him, I guess is where I’m going?

COACH BABCOCK: I don’t think like you do, obviously. This is about our team and we’re about winning. And you make a decision. You hope it’s the right decision. You don’t always know.

And at this time I’m going the same way for tomorrow’s game. It doesn’t mean Mac’s not important. It doesn’t mean he’s not part of the team. It just means that we felt this was the best decision. So we got to hold, Aaron Downey played for our team all year long. It’s about the team. And pro sports is always like that, the toughest part sometimes is when it’s you, it’s hard on you individually.

But the best pros handle it well and help their team and empower their team to be better. And Mac is like that. I don’t have any concern at all.

Q. Mike, can you talk about the way Dallas was physical in the third period. I’m assuming they’re going to play again like that in Game 2. How are you guys going to deal with their physicality coming up tomorrow night?

COACH BABCOCK: Well, the game was over. So you control around. But I mean, that’s not how they’re going to win. If they’re going to win, it’s going to be because they play well.

So to me, I’m not concerned about that one bit. I think that our power play answered any kind of questions. If you want to fool around, then all the power to us.

Q. Because of injuries, we haven’t seen Kronwall a lot in the playoffs in the past. This playoffs he really seems to have exploded. Can you talk about his development and what he’s done out there with his hits?

COACH BABCOCK: Well, the opportunity for him to get to play is obviously why we’re talking about him. I think if you would have got to see him last year at playoff time, you would have been then, too. He’s been a real good player since he’s come over here.

He’s had a lot of freak accidents that have led to serious injuries. He’s been able to recover, and obviously he’s a real important part of our team. I noted today him and Rafalski and Lidstrom are leading the NHL backends, Robidas is next in scoring.

So he has that to mention, but obviously the physical one. And the physical one is a real positive part of the game, because it allows you to slow other forwards down a bit.

Q. Can you talk about how good Johan Franzen has been playing. He keeps going and going and being really productive.

COACH MIKE BABCOCK: I don’t think anybody would have said, including Johan, if you said he would be leading the National Hockey League in scoring today, that people would have bet on that. And yet in saying that he’s been excellent. He had another great tip last night.

I didn’t think their line was as dominant as it was in some of the games last series, but they’re playing against real good players. And I thought Dallas did a good job trying to keep us away from their net. Yet he was a presence net?front, and he’s strong and he can be physical. He’s a good player for us.

Q. A lot of talk coming into this series was about Dallas’s depth down the middle. Can you talk about how you really controlled the faceoff circle last night?

COACH MIKE BABCOCK: Depth down the middle isn’t about the faceoff circle. Last night it went our way. They’ve got to put their stick down first on the road. And so sometimes it’s an advantage to home team.

But you want to have possession as much as you can. They have good faceoff people. I don’t expect that to continue, yet it’s something we take a lot of pride in. I think we were the best in the league this year and want to continue to do that.

They have real good players down the middle, though. I don’t know of any team, probably, that can go one, two, three like they can. But we like ours, too.

We don’t think we’re any slouch there. And the play of Helm has really solidified our middle. He’s so quick. And you add him with obviously the quickness of Draper and Filppula can flat out fly, and he’s not bad either.

Q. Do you keep your own faceoff stats, and I know you do, actually, but in what ways are they different? What are you looking for?

COACH MIKE BABCOCK: I sometimes wonder who is paying. So we just keep our own, at home and on the road. And sometimes fifty/fifties, you come and you look at the chart after you see you’re 37 percent in the first period, and you’re on the road. And Piet VanZant hands it to me and we’re 62 percent. There’s a little bit of variance there, sometimes.

Q. You’ve been in this game long enough. What do you expect from a team that’s probably not played as well as they thought they could in Game 1 and knows they’re going to still try to steal one here in Game 2 from you?

COACH MIKE BABCOCK: The big thing is we know we’re going to be better. We were off a little while. But we think we’ll be much quicker and harder to play against. That’s going to be our focus. Now, I read some of Tip’s comments and he was talking about his team skating, didn’t skate like they could. They’ve got a really good team.