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End of the road Stars' great playoff ride ends with 4-1 loss to Red Wings Monday, May 19, 2008 What was a great playoff ride for the Dallas Stars hit the end of the road Monday night. The Detroit Red Wings, who rolled out a gem of a performance, struck early and often to beat the Stars 4-1 and take the Western Conference Final 4-2. The loss ended a memorable run for the Stars, who knocked off the defending Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks, defeated Stanley Cup favorite San Jose with a series clinching game that went four overtimes, and rallied to make a series of the Western Conference Final after dropping the first three games to the Red Wings. "I'm definitely proud of this team," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "Nobody gave us a chance right from the get go. ... I am very proud of our whole group. The effort was phenomenal. It's frustrating losing. It's disappointing losing. I can look at those guys - starting with Brenden Morrow - and say they left everything on the ice." The Red Wings finally got the secondary scoring they needed as Kris Draper and Dallas Drake chipped in first period goals. Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg also scored for the Red Wings. Chris Osgood made 28 saves, including 15 in the third period when the Stars desperarately tried to climb back in the game. "We were quiet before the game, the calm before the storm. We knew what we had to do," Osgood said of the team's mood after having lost the last two games in the series. "We were a bit off our game the last two games, but give Dallas credit. They played us hard." Up next for the Red Wings is a date with the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Final, which will open Saturday in Detroit. "It's a great feeling to be back in the Finals again," said Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom, whose team will be back in the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2002. Stephane Robidas scored the lone goal for the Stars, who got a 25-save performance from goalie Marty Turco. Robidas' goal came on the power play, but the Stars were down 4-0 in the third period at that point and had missed on their first six chances in the game and had given up a shorthanded goal to Zetterberg. The Stars ended up 3-30 on the power play in the series. The Red Wings struck three times in the first period period to quiet the crowd at the American Airlines Center and take control of the game. "They had a real hard focus around our net on the first three goals," said Tippett. "When you are trailing you are chasing the game. That's where we were, chasing the game most of the game." Draper opened the scoring when he crashed the net and had a Drake shot go off his face and past Turco at the 3:45 of the mark. "If I've got to score like that every game this time of year I'll take it," said Draper, who left the game right after he scored to get stitched up. After Dallas missed on its first power play chance of the game, the Red Wings got their first chance with the man-advantage and cashed in when Pavel Datsyuk got to the rebound of Nicklas Lidstrom shot and roofed it over Turco at the 11:41 mark. The Red Wings struck less than five minutes later when defenseman Brett Lebda carried the puck down the right wing into the Dallas zone, backhanded the puck on net and Drake hacked it past Turco at 16:45. The Stars had four power play chances in the second period, but Detroit scored a shorthanded goal on the first one to extend its lead to 4-0. Zetterberg picked off a Brenden Morrow pass as the Detroit blue line, skated in on a breakaway and beat Turco at the 3:11 mark. The Stars weren't able to cash in on their next three power play chances in the period, and the Red Wings took a 4-0 lead into the third period. The Stars struck on the power play 2:33 into the third period when Robidas took a pass from Mike Ribeiro and scored off a one-timer from the left faceoff circle. The Stars kept up the pressure in the third but Osgood was sharp, making great saves on Ribeiro, Trevor Daley and Niklas Hagman to keep the Stars from getting another score and gaining any more momentum.
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