"It was frustrating, we have to hit the net," Tippett said. "We had three or four chances and he didn’t even have to make a save."

He, of course, was Detroit goalie Chris Osgood, who faced 18 shots on the night. Eleven other shots intended for his net missed during the game.

"Tonight I thought Dallas had a lot of chances in the first," Osgood told CBC Sports. "They missed the net quite a bit tonight. More than they have in previous times I've played against them."

In the first period the Stars missed several good opportunities early in the game. Loui Eriksson had a good chance, but his backhand shot went wide. Toby Petersen had a great opportunity from the slot, but he fanned on his attempt. The Stars had a four-on-one break later and Steve Ott's attempt to finish off the rush went wide. Moments later a turnover in the neutral zone led to a goal by Detroit's Darren Helm and the Wings were up 1-0. The teams traded power play goals later in the period and it was 2-1 heading into the first intermission. It stayed that way to the end.

Ott was asked about the missed chances during the first intermission interview on the Stars radio network.

"You can't worry about what happened and all the missed chances," Ott said. "We've got to worry about how we are going to get the next goal, tie this game up and go from there."

That next goal never game. The Stars had four power play chances in the second period, including three in the first half of the period and then another one late in the frame. But they couldn't cash in on those, including one where Modano had a great chance but blasted a shot wide.

Their best chance in the third may be have been a hopeful spinning backhand shot by Mike Modano, but Osgood got his pad on that one. For the most part, though, the Red Wings were shutting down things pretty effectively.

"I thought we tried to keep them on the outside more and give them shots from the outside and take away the inside," Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom said. "I thought we were able to do that today."

Despite being outshot 34-18 in the game and coming up short on the scoreboard, the Stars were better in Game 2 than they were in Thursday's 4-1 loss. They gave up a power play goal on the Detroit's first chance, but the penalty kill came up with some big stops in the second period to keep it a one goal game.

Marty Turco turned in a solid game in net, stopping 32 of 34 shots, and gave the Stars a chance to win.

"We played a lot better," Turco said. "We've got no doubt we can win some hockey games at home. We're disappointed we're down 2-0, but it'll be a totally different atmosphere when we get home."

But the Stars are going to have to fin a way to generate some offense. They aren't going to win many games against the Red Wings by scoring one goal a night.  The offense has been hard to come by lately. The Stars haven't scored more than two goals in a game over their last six games.

"It's just getting that killer instinct, bearing down a little more," said Stars center Brad Richards. "If you look at those games we've played some good teams and we've got some wins out of that too. We've just got to find ways to win, it's not how many goals you get."

And they'll need to find a way Monday night in Dallas or they'll find themselves in an even bigger hole in this series.

• The Stars miss several chances early in the game. Just after Steve Ott shoots wide on a four-on-one break, the Stars turn over the puck in the neutral zone and Darren Helm scores to give Detroit the lead early in the first period.
   
• Trailing 2-1, the Stars had three power plays in the first half of the second period and another one late in the second, but couldn't cash in to tie the game.