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On the ropes: Stars down
0-3 in series after 5-2 loss to Tuesday, May 13, 2008 On Saturday the Stars felt they took a step forward in their series with the Detroit Red Wings despite a 2-1 loss. On Monday night Detroit pushed the Stars to the brink of elimination. Led by Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg the Red Wings soared past the Stars 5-2 at the American Airlines Center to take a 3-0 lead in the Western Conference Finals. The series deficit leaves the Stars in a hole that only two teams have ever overcome in Stanley Cup history, but the Stars vowed to fight on. "We've battled and been resilient all year and we're not changing a thing," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "We'll go to practice tomorrow and gear up for Game 4. We'll come in, compete our hardest and try to win a game." Said Stars center Brad Richards: "It's tough. I am not going to lie to you. It's tough to swallow. But tomorrow morning we're still in the series. It's going to happen again someday, someone is going to comeback from 3-0. We're going to say all the clichés, we're going to believe and we're not done." Datsyuk had three goals and Zetterberg had one goal and two assists for the Red Wings, who won their ninth straight playoff game. "We didn't have much answer for them tonight," Tippett said of the Red Wings' top two forwards. "I thought Datsyuk and Zetterberg were absolutely phenomenal," said Red Wings coach Mike Babcock. "I thought our 'D' was very good and Ozzie (Detroit goalie Chris Osgood) was good as well." Osgood stopped 16 of 18 shots to improve to 9-0 since taking over in Game 5 of the first round series against Nashville. "We're going to relish this in the room for a little while and then we'll prepare for Game 4," Osgood said. "We say we want to improve every game and we're going to try to do that again." The Stars were in the game for the first 30 minutes, but after Jiri Hudler scored at 11:54 of the second period, the Red Wings took control of the game. "I thought after we scored that third goal the game was over," said Babcock. "We had the puck in the third period and when they were on the power play we still had the puck." The Stars had three power play chances following Hudler's goal, but generated nothing and gave up a shorthanded goal to Zetterberg early in the third that was a big blow to the Stars comeback chances. "Once they got that short-handed goal in the third period, all we did was chase," said Tippett. Nicklas Grossman and Richards scored for the Stars, who were 0-6 on the power play and gave up a shorthanded goal in the game. Stars goalie Marty Turco gave up five goals on 21 shots. "I don't feel I've given our guys enough of a chance to win," Turco said. "But it's a seven-game series so we'll see what happens." The Stars came out with a good push early, getting some good chances and some close calls, including a Stephane Robidas shot that hit Detroit defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom and went off the crossbar. But the Red Wings scored first to take the lead at 9:27 of the first period. After Datsyuk broke up a Mike Ribeiro pass in the Detroit zone, the Red Wings headed the other way and Datsyuk took a pass from Henrik Zetterberg off the rush and beat Turco with a backhand shot. The Stars answered with a goal at 15:13 after they had the Red Wings pinned in their own zone for an extended time. After Detroit called a time out to rest players following an icing call, the Stars slipped out a line of Ribeiro, Brenden Morrow and Mike Modano and continued the pressure. It finally ended with a goal when Grossman took a pass from Modano and scored off a one-timer from the right circle. But just 37 seconds later the Red Wings had the lead back with a goal off the rush as Tomas Holmstrom sent a pass to the front of the net and Datsyuk backhanded it by Turco. "You feel like you've got a lot of momentum going your way and the next shift we go and give it right back," said Tippett. "Those are demoralizing." There was a lot of end-to-end action in the second period and each team scored once. Dallas had a couple of good chances on an early power play. Brenden Morrow had an open net, but the puck bounced over his stick and he never the got the shot off. Moments later Morrow tried to sent a pass to a wide open Mike Modano at the side of the net, but Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom made a nice play to break it up. The Stars tied it a short time later when Richards' shot from the corner bounced off Red Wings defenseman Brad Stuart's leg and past Osgood at the 3:47 mark. The Stars had a chance to take the lead on a nice chance to take the lead on a Richards blast from the left circle, but Osgood slid over to get a pad on the puck. Detroit got the lead back late in the second when Darren McCarty won a puck battle in his own end and got the puck to defenseman Niklas Kronwall, who then set up a breakaway by Hudler, left alone because of bad line change on the Stars' part, and the Wings forward beat Turco high with a backhand shot with 8:06 left in the second. The Stars got a power play early in the third when Holmstrom was penalized for goaltender interference, but it was Zetterberg who cashed in. He got to a loose puck and went one-on-one with Richards in the Dallas zone, got the Dallas center turned around and beat Turco with a wrist shot from the bottom of the left circle 1:38 into the third period. The Stars got another power play chance a short time later and Zetterberg got the best chance again, getting off a great chance from the slot but it was turned away by Turco. Zetterberg helped set up the final goal when he got to a loose puck along the boards and centered it to Datsyuk, who fired a shot past Turco with 2:41 left in the game.
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