The Stars managed to eke this one out, which wasn't looking likely after that first period. Yes, I know the Stars were doing better things in this game, even from the start, but when you're down 3-1 to this team, the chances of a happy ending are very, very, very unlikely.
So credit them for pulling it out. But now that they've shown what they can play like, why is it so hard to do this every game? Why does it take them getting down in the first period (again) to wake up and fly right? And is this the best lesson this team could've gotten with the second half of the season beginning on Thursday? Methinks so.
Anyway, some quotes:
Tippett: "I like the way our guys hung in there. Grossman's goal was a big one for us. It gave us life going in (to the second period) and we felt like we were going to stay hard, be aggressive and throw pucks at the net and good things would happen. Our last play, we wanted to be aggressive and we had two defensemen in the crease."
Trevor Daley, one of those D-men in the crease late: "They were a big two points, but we’re still chasing so there’s still a lot of work to do. We went up there (to Detroit) and were real disappointed, and we responded tonight like the team we are. Hopefully we take something out of it."
Krys Barch: "We didn’t want to go back to that." (referring to the Detroit debacle) "We recognized the situation and this time of year every point counts. You can’t underestimate desperation."
And the desperation factor is going to remain through the final 41 games. Good end to the first 41, indeed, but they need a lot more of what we saw Monday night to keep moving up here.
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