Perhaps it’s fitting that the Dallas Stars kept Chris Osgood from gaining his 400th career win today, as the team has been a tough rival for the Detroit Red Wings for more than a decade.
It was clear that both teams really wanted this game, as the contest had a little bit of playoff intensity to it. The Red Wings were trying to bounce back from a tough loss on Saturday while the Stars dealt with less than a 24 hour turnaround after a bruising contest against the Blue Jackets.
Ultimately, Brenden Morrow (two goals) and Loui Eriksson (two assists and the overtime game winner) trumped a talented Red Wings team in Detroit.
The best news is that this game wasn’t decided by a shootout, though. It simply would have been wrong if such a tightly matched, entertaining bout would have been decided by a skills competition.
Detroit jumped to a 2-0 lead via goals by Patrick Eaves and Pavel Datsyuk, but Brad Richards and Morrow tied it up. Johan Franzen gave the Red Wings another lead, but Morrow tied it again late in the third.
Overtime featured some captivating hockey, as Mike Ribeiro forced the Red Wings to take a penalty. Despite spending most of those two minutes in Detroit’s zone, Dallas couldn’t make it happen. Luckily for Dallas, Eriksson cashed in on an odd man rush to earn his team the win.
Both goalies were pretty strong, even if they faced some nervous moments. Andrew Raycroft stopped 28 out of 31 shots while Chris Osgood put up nearly identical stats in the loss, making 28 out of 32 saves.
The Stars now have a reasonably solid four point lead in the Pacific Division with 43 points, which leaves them only one point behind the Red Wings (44 points) for the top spot in the West. Detroit is struggling a bit at the moment, losing two in a row and going 4-4-2 in their last 10.