Dallas Stars @ Detroit Red Wings 3-5 - 12/04

The Detroit Red Wings and Dallas Stars entered their game Thursday wanting to play better defensively. Detroit actually did it. Darren Helm scored two goals, and Stephen Weiss had a goal and two assists to help the Red Wings to a 5-2 win against the Stars at Joe Louis Arena. Detroit had given up 23 goals in its past seven games, but was 5-2-0 in that span, including a 4-3 loss to the Florida Panthers. Pavel Datsyuk and Kyle Quincey each had a goal and an assist for Detroit. Riley Sheahan and Tomas Tatar each had two assists. Goalie Jimmy Howard made 21 saves. It was Howard's 164th NHL win, passing Harry Lumley for third in Red Wings history. Colton Sceviour and Tyler Seguin scored for Dallas, which lost its fourth straight, a span in which it has allowed 20 goals. Goalie Jussi Rynnas, in his second NHL start, made 24 saves. Helm scored 3:58 into the game when his shot from along the goal line to Rynnas' left deflected in off him and into the net. Sceviour tied it 15 seconds later with his first of the season when he put Jordie Benn's cross-ice pass into the empty side of the net. Weiss gave the Red Wings the lead with 8:46 left in the first period. He put the puck into the empty side of the net from the bottom of the right circle after taking a pass from Riley Sheahan. Weiss' fourth goal completed the play.
Datsyuk made it 3-1 on a power-play goal with 1:09 left in the first period. He whipped in a backhand from the inside edge of the left circle after taking Weiss' pass off his skate. It was Datsyuk's 11th goal. Seguin pulled the Stars within 3-2 by scoring a power-play goal with 5:34 left in the second period. Seguin's NHL-leading 19th goal came on a shot from the point in the middle of the ice that changed direction off the skate of Red Wings left wing Joakim Andersson.
The goal came 43 seconds after Rynnas stopped Helm on a shorthanded breakaway. An apparent goal by Dallas defenseman Trevor Daley 7:08 into the second period was waved off after a review because it was ruled Daley batted the puck into the net with his arm as he lay on the ice to Howard's left. Quincey scored his first goal of the season 7:39 into the third period, to restore Detroit's two-goal lead. Helm scored his second of the night with 6:53 left.

Stars Quotes

Tyler Seguin: "Lost a lot of battles out there. They won the battles for the pucks. I don't see any of (the four losses) being our goalies' fault.”
Jussi Rynnas: “That was, for sure, my fault”
Lindy Ruff: "It's been about the same old song where we're right there at the third, but can't push through."

Wings Quotes

Stephen Weiss: "Huge just to get back at it, get back and get a big two points. We obviously weren’t happy with the way we played against Florida. You get into a little bit of a lull, but I thought we did a real good job tonight at getting back to where we want to be. I've never played with [Sheahan] before but he’s just a real smart player, good at both ends, and obviously, on my goal, one heck of a pass by him. We’ll take those ones every night."
Mike Babcock: "I thought we were prepared to play. We wanted a bounce-back after the way we played the other night. We weren’t very happy leaving the rink the other night about our work ethic, our compete and preparation. Tonight I thought we were good in all aspects. I thought we had some good games from guys, and in the end we won the game."
Darren Helm: "It was a weird goal, weird point of the game, getting that quick one right after us. I was hoping we’d find some momentum after that goal."