Rare power-play goal not enough for Red Wings

Dallas — On a night they actually scored a road power-play goal — and Gustav Nyquist scored it — the Red Wings … still lost.

Despite those two rare occurences Thursday the Red Wings lost 5-2 to the Dallas Stars, ending a long and difficult road trip.

The Red Wings ended a stretch during which they played 9 of 10 games on the road (an 11th game at Carolina was postponed because of poor ice conditions), going 3-5-2.

They’ve won only once in the last six games (1-3-2), unable to gain ground in the Atlantic Division standings.

BOX SCORE: Stars 5, Red Wings 2

In fact, they’ve fallen into last place, with the teams ahead of them slowly drifting away from them.

“We need to find a way to get points and win games,” defenseman Xavier Ouellet said.

After an impressive first period, the Red Wings allowed three straight Dallas goals in the second, watching a 2-1 lead become a 4-2 deficit.

Nyquist and Henrik Zetterberg scored first-period goals for the Red Wings, while Lauri Korpikoski, Brett Ritchie, John Klingberg, Stephen Johns and Patrick Eaves (empty net) answered for Dallas.

“We got away from what was allowing us success in the first period,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “That was playing in the offensive zone, getting pucks to the net and kind of grinding on them a little bit.

“It became too much of an up-and-down game at times and they ground us in our defensive zone.

“We have to be tighter defensively.”

The first-period power-play goal by Nyquist was only the Red Wings’ third all season on the road on 63 power plays — a span of 18 road games — and first since Thomas Vanek scored in New York, against the Rangers, on Oct. 19.

And for Nyquist, who scored his fifth goal during the two-man Red Wings advantage at 14:09 while converting a pass from Vanek, it ended a stretch of 21 games without a goal.

“It was relief personally, but we lost the game so it really doesn’t matter,” Nyquist said.

Blashill felt the power play gave the Red Wings a spark, and it appeared to as Nyquist then set up Zetterberg for a goal just 1:33 later, giving the Red Wings a 2-1 lead.

“Once we scored that power-play goal, we started playing well,” Blashill said. “We had enough chances on the power play today that when you look at it, it was a successful night.

“But we have to be tighter defensively. We cannot continue to give up this many goals and expect to win. We have to get tighter defensively.”

But the Stars broke free in the middle period.

Ritchie tied it 2-2 at 3:31, deflecting Radek Faksa’s shot after Tomas Tatar failed to clear the puck, putting it on Faksa’s stick near the boards.

Klingberg gave Dallas a 3-2 lead at 15:53, putting in a rebound after the Red Wings appeared to let down after Mrazek stopped a Devin Shore drive to the net.

“I just know the puck was there and we either have to clear the puck out or stop and make sure we battle better than that,” Blashill said.

Johns capped the onslaught 49 seconds after Klingberg scored, lifting a shot that Jonathan Ericsson redirected off his stick as he turned, past Mrazek.

“(Out of) a thousand times, maybe it hits (like that) once or twice,” Mrazek said. “Maybe. Maybe. It was frustrating but nothing you can do there.”

But it wasn’t Mrazek as much as it was the Red Wings simply getting away from their game plan.

“A little stubborn,” Zetterberg said of the middle 20 minutes. “Instead of getting the puck down (deep), we tried to make the cute play

“We know we’re shooting ourselves in the foot and we can’t do that if we want to get points every night.”

ted.kulfan@detroitnews.com

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