Dallas Stars: Strong second period helps push the Stars by Detroit

The Dallas Stars defeated the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday night 5-1. Alexander Radulov tallied two goals to help improve the Stars to 3-2 in their past five games.

It felt like Saturday night couldn’t come quickly enough for the Dallas Stars.

Just about 24 hours earlier, Stars’ CEO Jim Lites had some strong remarks on how Stars’ forwards Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin had been playing so far this season.

After Saturday’s morning skate, the two superstars issued their responses on Lites’ remarks to the media.

"“Jamie [Benn] and I hear the message,” Seguin told Stars Inside Edge Mark Stepneski. “I need to understand that I need to be better, Jamie understands that he needs to be better, and we need to lead this team to be better.”"

Benn echoed similar messages on the issue.

"“I think everyone looks at the numbers and that’s the easiest thing to look at,” Benn told Stepneski. “The point production isn’t where it could be or was, so it’s easy to point to that.”"

When further asked about his motivation to succeed, the captain mentioned his focus on the team.

"“I don’t play for [Lites],” Benn said to Stepneski. “I play for every player in this room, the coaching staff. I come to the rink and, like I said, I am proud to be a Dallas Star and I am proud to go out every night and battle with these guys in games. I really put my teammates first."

So when 7:00 p.m. rolled around on Saturday night, the Stars knew that they had to seize the opportunity—especially against a struggling Red Wings team, who had come into the game riding a two-game losing streak.

However, the first period was somewhat uneventful. The Stars added some pressure in the final few minutes of the opening 20 minutes but were unable to find the back of the net. Dallas led Detroit in shots at the end of the first 17 to seven.

Next came the second period.

And the opening of the floodgates followed.

“I’d say the first ten minutes we were discombobulated,” Stars Head Coach Jim Montgomery said to the media following the game. “I thought the last eight minutes [of the first period] led into the second period.”

Blake Comeau was able to score the first goal of the game just over five minutes into the middle period to give the Stars a 1-0 lead.

Radek Faksa and Taylor Fedun were credited with the assists on Comeau’s tally.

Exactly six minutes after the opening goal, Alexander Radulov rifled a shot from the right faceoff circle to double Dallas’ lead to two. Seguin had the second assist on Radulov’s second goal.

A few minutes later, the Stars found themselves on a power-play thanks to a hooking penalty on Red Wings’ defenseman Jonathan Ericsson.

On the power-play, Radulov was able to jam home a loose puck in front of the net to give Dallas a three-goal lead with under six minutes to go in the second period.

The third period was also fruitful for the Stars, as Tyler Pitlick was able to score off a wrist shot just 34 seconds into the final period of play to lengthen Dallas’ lead to four.

Pitlick, who also scored in Dallas’ 2-0 win against Nashville, has three points in the past four games.

Stars’ forward Jason Spezza followed Pitclick’s lead with a monstrous slap shot 2:20 into the third to score Dallas’ final goal of the game.

Red Wings’ forward Dylan Larkin scored shortly after Spezza to make the score 5-1. Detroit scored another goal after Larkins’ but it was waved off due to goaltender interference.

Final Score

The Dallas Stars will host the Montreal Canadiens on Monday night for their final game in 2018. Montreal is 3-2 in their last five games, with their most recent contest being a 5-6 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

They were riding a three-game win streak before their loss on Saturday night.

• Published on 12/30/2018 at 14:01 PM
• Last updated at 12/30/2018 at 13:41 PM