Five for Fighting

No goal

Daniel Cleary and the rest of the Wings thought they had a goal on this one, and so did we when we first saw it.

But upon further review, the black object they kept circling on the broadcat was the blade of a stick, not the puck. The puck never crossed, and the Stars can wipe their brow on that one.

Darryl Sydor, however, is in the box for delay of game.

Red Wings get one

Ah, it's officially power-play night at the old Joe!

Marian Hossa gets a deft little deflection on Brian Rafalski's shot from the blue line, and the Red Wings end the shutout bid at the 4:06 mark of the second period.

Krys Barch just came back, and he's right into the penalty box with he and Aaron Downey going at it for roughing. Nicklas Grossman also in there with a crosschecking call. So Wingies on the power play again. Stars don't want to start doing this.

Stars up 4-0

Loui Eriksson holds, holds, holds, then slips it past an out-of-position Ty Conklin, and the Stars are now up 4-0 just two minutes into the second period. That's three power-play goals on four opportunities for the usually lackluster road power play.

Once again... huh. Great work by Darryl Sydor, by the way, to even keep this in the zone at the time. Assists from James Neal and Mike Modano.

Barch out for now

Krys Barch took that bloody little high-sticking from Chris Chelios in the first period, and he's still in the locker room getting a little dental work done. His return is questionable.

Conklin in for Osgood

Now there's something we don't see very often up here, eh? Chris Osgood allowed three goals on 11 shots in the first, so he's gone.

Ty Conklin now in goal.

Ott given first goal

Upon further review, Steve Ott was credited with deflecting Brad Richards' shot on that first power play. The goal now reads Ott from Richards and Mike Ribeiro, at 10:15.

Um, uh, er, uh...

Mark it down, kids... it's not often that I am at a loss for words. But the Stars are stunning me with what they've done here in the first period.

Very, very nice. The Stars had great support in front of Marty Turco; they're just bottling things up, not allowing many second chances for the Wings. We're all familiar with what the Wings do with those. And the Wings have gotten into some penalty trouble... like I said, stunning that the Stars hit paydirt on their first two power-play chances, considering how forgettable their road PP is. But they're sticking with the game that's worked against Florida and Atlanta, and so far it's paying off.

Now I'm guessing the Wings are going to come out a bit angry and motivated in the second period, hmmm? I'm also wondering if Chris Osgood is going to be back in net.

Conner scores

Chris Conner, a native of nearby Livonia, makes it a 3-0 game with 1:28 remaining here in the first period. Mike Modano, oh yeah, another Livonia boy, won the faceoff and quickly snapped it to Conner, who just as quickly snapped it high on Chris Osgood.

Well, we're used to seeing someone lead 3-0 at this point, just usually not the Stars...

Make it 2-0

Well, there shouldn't be any flack about Brad Richards' play tonight. The Stars get their second power-play goal in as many opportunities, and Richards is the one feeding a pretty open Jere Lehtinen, who came down the slot for the goal and the 2-0 advantage. Steve Ott got the second assist, at 11:32.

Stars are finishing up their third power play. Not going to get anything on this one, but hard to complain after going 2 for 2 to start.

Stars score

Brad Richards gets the Stars' rare road power-play goal, and the Stars are up 1-0 in the building of demises past.

Richards fired this from the blue line, and it looked to hit something or someone (probably defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom) and got past Chris Osgood at 10:15. Mike Ribeiro and Jere Lehtinen on the assists.