Dallas 3 – Red Wings 1. Phew!

This game was by no means a blow out and the Wings will be forgiven for believing they should have had at least one more goal awarded, such is the nature of poor officiating in most NHL games at the moment.

With the game at a 2-1 Dallas lead at the start of the third, Brad May picked up a juicy rebound in front of Stars goalie Alex Auld and fired in a backhand that at first glance, Auld seemed to stop. Replays clearly show however that the puck squeezed in between Auld’s trailing skate and the near side post and came to a stop over the goal line.

The whistle was blown as though Auld had stopped the puck and sent for review. Not once. Twice.

It was apparently a no goal due to the ref having blown the whistle. Trouble is, he’d blown it a good two seconds AFTER the puck had crossed the line.

These calls can make or break games and while it was a massive let off for Dallas, the Wings will be feeling rightly aggrieved to have had that goal snubbed and it WAS  a goal. No question about it.

Two points in the bag though against a team which – prior to this game – had been on electrifying pace and form, Henrik Zetterberg (who scored again last night) in particular who made the NHL’s first star of the week caused Dallas a few scares last night. Pavel Datsyuk and Dan Cleary also had prime opportunities to score in front of Alex Auld who – it has to be said – played really well and continued to prove himself a valuable asset in backup to this Stars roster.

Stephane Robidas and Henrik Zetterberg

share a moment at the Joe Louis Arena November 18th.

The penalty kill units also seem to be pulling in the right direction. After the first handful of games this season, Dallas had been a woeful penalty killing team, languishing in the bottom three for the category for what felt like an eternity. Thanks to the effort last night however in killing all four of Detroits man advantages, Dallas have now killed a total 17 penalties over the last 5 games. Much, much better.

Now our problem lies in what’s going to happen next.

The way we’ve played this season, we have beaten some significant teams only to go on and lose to strugglers while we kick, fling and scream for any kind of consistency.

We played San Jose at the tank and beat them on a shootout – our only shootout win of the season on the 5th attempt – only to go and lose 3-2 at Phoenix two days later. This win against Detroit – for Stars fans – is big. It’s huge. Massive. Tonight though we host the Columbus Blue Jackets who aren’t scared of getting their noses dirty if they need to and never back away from a scrappy game. Is this going to be another loss straight after a significant win?

Personally; I don’t think so.

I like Columbus. They have a great fluidity in their top line, their defense can be punishing. Their coaching is by no means questionable (respect the Hitch!) and their fans are as loyal as they come. I just really fancy my boys to come out all guns blazing though in this one and finally get the ball rolling on a little consistency (which by the way, is a word slowly starting to irritate me) and the start of a decent little win streak.

So finally from last night, desperately hard luck on the Red Wings but they will get the benefit of bad calls down the line as every team in the league will. It was a massive two points for Dallas though which in all honesty, nobody expected us to pick up. Great job. Let’s just hope it’s the start of something good for this team.