Detroit Red Wings take on the Dallas Stars live on Tuesday night in NHL action at 7:30 PM ET
The early part of the lockout-shortened season has been good for some teams, but awful for others. The Detroit Red Wings and the Dallas Stars have struggled over the early part of the schedule, but each team has won two games and will be looking to gain some momentum as they faceoff at Joe Louis Arena in Michigan on Tuesday night.
Last season the Dallas Stars missed the playoffs after finishing 10th in the Western Conference, but will be looking to attack the top of the Pacific division after losing their last game 2-1 to Columbus. The team has already defeated the Red Wings in Detroit last week and will look to replicate that performance.
The Stars won two of their first three games before playing Detroit, winning 2-1 last Tuesday behind two goals from Michael Ryder, who is leading the squad in goals. It was the first win in the last four tries against Detroit. The game was almost a shutout, but Dallas allowed Damien Brunner to score his first NHL goal with four seconds remaining.
"We got away from the game plan and we started turning pucks over," coach Glen Gulutzan said. "Instead of them losing momentum from all the penalty kills, we gave it to them with the turnovers at the blue line."
The Stars were unable to take any momentum from that game, going 0-2-1 over the next three contests. The team has done an excellent job of penalty-killing on the road early in the year and continued that against Columbus, killing all seven shorthanded shifts. The team ranks 13th in the league with an 82.9 kill percentage and been solid in front of the net, allowing just 2.3 goals per game.
Dallas has gone 14 for 14 on the road in penalty killing in the early season and they will have an excellent matchup against the Red Wings, who are just two of 26 on power plays this year, ranking 27th in the NHL. In the last matchup, Dallas killed off all four Detroit penalties.
The Blue Jackets game saw the Stars debut of Jamie Benn, who agreed to a five-year, $26.25 million deal Thursday. The 23-year-old is a key for Dallas this season and has scored at least 20 goals over the past three years. In his last six games against the Red Wings he has recorded scored twice and recorded seven assists.
Detroit will be looking to rebound after a tough 2-1 overtime loss to the Choago Blackhawks, who have been the top team early in the season. The Red Wings have been injured during the early stretch, with Darren Helm (back), Mikael Samuelsson (groin), Ian White (quadriceps) and Carlo Colaiacovo (shoulder) likely missing time on Tuesday.
The Red Wings will try to play aggressive to counter those injuries and also to end their first-period scoreless drought, which has lasted the entire season.
"You always want to get that first goal and grab hold of the momentum," forward Drew Miller told the team's website. "I think we're getting opportunities. I think if we work a little bit harder, maybe a little smarter, we're going to get those chances and they'll go in for us."
Detroit's leading scorer Pavel Datsyuk has struggled against Dallas recently and hasn't scored a goal in the past six contests, but has added six assists. The Red Wings will rely heavily on captain Henrik Zetterberg, while Dallas hopes to get Jaromir Jagr back after dealing with a back injury.
