Garret Craig

The Dallas Stars avoided being swept by the Detroit Red Wings Wednesday night as they beat the Wings 3-1 thanks to some biased “new era” NHL refereeing (Yes, I’m still trying to get over it). But an unbiased read into the statistics says that the Wings will finish up the Stars on Saturday at the Joe.

I’ll start with something that seems to be on everybody’s list already; Marty Turco. His career numbers against the Red Wings are far less than good, 3-13-5. To make things worse, the majority of his problems have been at Joe Louis Arena, where he is 0-9-2 with a goals against average well over 3.

Then comes Playoff history. The Dallas Stars have gone 0-3 in their franchises’ attempts to come back from a 3-0 playoff deficit, however, after game four, they are 3-1 in their attempts to avoid being swept, which they did Wednesday night.

When leading a playoff series 3-1, the Detroit Red Wings have a 14-2 series record and an 8-8 Game 5 record. The Stars, when trailing a series 3-1, are 0-8 in their comeback attempts and 4-4 Game 5 record.

The Stars and Wings may both be .500 in this situation going into the game Saturday, but if you factor in Turco’s struggles, it’s going to be tough for the Stars to even keep this close.

I’ll take the Red Wings, in game 5, 3-2 in OT.

The Red Wings kept up their momentum from Colorado last Thursday into the Joe tonight, as they handled the Dallas Stars with ease winning 4-1 and taking a 1-0 series lead.

Penalties killed the Stars in Game 1, as Detroit went 3 for 7 with the advantage (stats were skewed by two Dallas penalties in the final minute). Dallas was 0 for 4 with the man advantage.

Johan Franzen remains hot, recording the game winning goal at 15:34 of the first period which gave the Red Wings a 2-0 lead.

Chris Osgood refused to slow down, stopping 20 of the 21 shots he faced–plenty of which were quality scoring chances. Meanwhile, Marty Turco stopped 27 of 31 shots as he continues his win-less drought at the Joe Louis Arena.

The Red Wings win streak continues to 7, while Chris Osgood remains unbeaten in his 7 starts. Detroit also has not dropped a contest at home in 6 games. They will try to continue all of these streaks Saturday night as they try to extend their lead to 2-0 at the JLA.