#LGRW Final: High-volume Stars offense powers past Red Wings, 7-3

DETROIT -- The Dallas Stars have several players with Michigan ties on their roster, and those Michigan players made their presence felt in a big way against the Detroit Red Wings Thursday night, leading the undefeated Stars to a 7-3 win over the Wings at the American Airlines Center.

Hancock, Michigan native Tanner Kero earned two assists, former University of Michigan center Andrew Cogliano scored his first goal of the season and former Flint Firebirds forward Ty Dellandrea earned his first NHL goal and assist to help the Stars improve to 4-0-0, while the Red Wings fell to 2-5-1 on the season.
Detroit went 1-for-7 on the power play in the game, but didn't convert until the third period, and Wings coach Jeff Blashill said his team needs to do a better job of executing when it has opportunities.
"You get 12 minutes of power-play time, you've got to score, and you've got to score earlier than that," Blashill said. "We have good entries, we're in great spots and then we give pucks away. When we're in the zone, we're not executing. We've got to find a way. Those guys have got to pick their games up."

Pavelski's goal came on an odd-man rush after Red Wings defenseman Patrik Nemeth and the referee got their skates tied up, allowing Pavelski to one-time Kero's pass top shelf to beat Wings goalie Jonathan Bernier to grab a 1-0 lead 11:36 into the game.
The Red Wings were hoping to test Stars rookie goalie Jake Oettinger early and often--as Oettinger made his first career NHL start--but Detroit was unable to mount much offensive momentum, only managing five shots and one scoring chance in the first period.
The second period was balanced to start, but the Stars struck again on Cogliano's goal, which came on a loose-puck rebound 7:56 into the second frame, giving Dallas a two-goal advantage
The Wings answered, though, as Valtteri Filppula found a rebound of his own and scored his first goal of the season to bring the score to 2-1. Filppula's goal was assisted by Troy Stecher and Anthony Mantha at 11:59 of the second.

But Dallas extended its lead again less than three minutes later as Mantha and Stars forward Justin Dowling were tangled up in the defensive zone and Mantha inadvertently crashed into Bernier, allowing Denis Gurianov to score an unassisted goal with 5:15 left in the second period.
The hit on Bernier forced him to leave the game with an upper-body injury, which pressed Thomas Greiss into unexpected duty between the pipes.
Greiss made six saves, but also couldn't catch a break, allowing a goal by Stars defenseman Jamie Oleksiak on a bouncing puck that changed directions twice, giving Dallas a 4-1 lead 4:18 into the third period.
The Wings didn't give up, though, as Tyler Bertuzzi scored his fourth goal of the season (his third power-play goal) 7:26 into the third period and Danny DeKeyser scored his first goal of the season with 6:56 remaining in regulation, cutting the lead to 4-3.

But Dallas exploded with three goals (one empty-net goal) in the final 5:08 of regulation on tallies from Dellandrea, Dowling and John Klingberg to put the game out of reach.
Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin was proud of the way his team fought, but said Detroit put itself in too many bad positions and created a hole it couldn't dig out of.
"Not a good enough start," Larkin said. "If there's a positive, we worked our way back into the game. The power play wasn't good enough, but then we got one, made it 4-3 there and it got away from us.
"It's the Western Conference champs over there. I think we were in it, but again, we just let it slip away. We can't keep letting two points slip away here. Every game is important, being against our own division."
The Red Wings return home to Little Caesars Arena Saturday night to face the 3-0-1 Florida Panthers in the first of a back-to-back weekend series. Puck drop for the series opener is at 7 p.m.