by John Tranchina

Surely, lightning couldn't strike twice, especially in Hockeytown. But for the second time in three games, the Dallas Stars rebounded from a three-goal deficit in the third period, defeating the Detroit Red Wings 4-3 in a shootout Friday night at Joe Louis Arena.

Stars fans could certainly be forgiven for thinking they were not going to be able to repeat their 4-3 shootout victory performance from last Saturday night in Phoenix. After all, this wasn't the lowly Coyotes. This was the Red Wings, a team that had beaten the Stars in all three previous meetings this season, outscoring them 9-5, including 5-0 in those contests' third periods.


Also, Dominik Hasek was playing brilliantly in net for Detroit, looking like the Dominator of old for the first two periods, stopping 21 shots overall, including two Dallas breakaways among several outstanding saves.

But Dallas got big third period goals from captain Brenden Morrow, Mike Ribeiro and Philippe Boucher, and excellent goaltending from rookie Mike Smith in the third period and overtime to send the game to a shootout. Smith made 31 saves overall, including several big stops late in the third and in OT.

"Smitty made a couple big saves and kept us in it and had a great shootout," Stars coach Dave Tippett said.

"We started fore-checking better and we made them make mistakes," said Ribeiro, who also added an assist. "We still have to learn that in the playoffs it is better to play with the lead rather than chasing the game. However, it was a great comeback and we'll take the two points."

Sergei Zubov was the only player on either team to connect in the shootout, and Smith, participating in his first career shootout, watched Pavel Datsyuk ring a shot off the post, and then made saves on Dan Cleary and Todd Bertuzzi to secure the victory.

"This close to the playoffs it was important to show that we may have been down but we were never out," Smith said. "We have a lot of character guys in here and it was big to get the win. My heart was beating pretty fast after the overtime period and we came away with the win and it was a big confidence booster."

The win gives Dallas 100 points on the season, marking the eight time in the last 10 years the club has reached that plateau. That leaves the Stars four points behind Anaheim for the Pacific Division lead, and keeps them in fifth in the Western Conference standings, two points ahead of San Jose and Minnesota, and with five games left in the regular season, hold a game in hand on all of those clubs.

The Stars are now 9-1-1 in their last 11 contests and improved their record to 9-19-1 when trailing after two periods, including an NHL-best six wins when down by two or more.

"We were down 3-0 and we had some very good chances," Tippett said. "I thought their first two goals were odd goals, but we hung around and will definitely take the two points and move on."

Behind 3-0 after two periods for the second time in three games, the Stars took a lot longer to begin their comeback than they did in Phoenix last week.

Rookie Loui Eriksson had the Stars' first opportunity about three and a half minutes into the third, but Hasek was able to stop Eriksson's tricky wrist shot from the right sideboards.

Smith prevented the Stars from falling further behind with a nice save midway through the period on Bertuzzi's one-timer from the right side of the crease after a cross-ice pass from Datsyuk.

The Stars finally got on the board at 11:01 on a power play as Morrow connected for his 13th goal of the season. Ladislav Nagy had the puck in the left circle and found Morrow in the high slot. Morrow, with his back to the net, slid a weak backhander on goal, but Hasek seemed possibly screened and went down to stop in, but the puck slid under his outstretched arm and in. After all the spectacular saves he made throughout the game, it seemed like after getting beat on such an unlikely shot, Hasek lost his magic hold over the Stars and the force field came down.

"We got them on their heels after that first one," Morrow said. "We figured something out between the second and third. We looked at these two games with the Nashville game tomorrow as good tests for us. Smitty did his job and has been on the winning side a lot this season."

Dallas continued to press, but Hasek still had enough to make a good save on Jere Lehtinen's wrist shot from the slot with 5:25 left in regulation, and on Niklas Hagman's subsequent rebound attempt.

About 45 seconds later, Smith made a big save to keep the comeback hopes alive, denying Datsyuk's point-blank shot from the left circle.

With 3:37 left, Ribeiro led the rush into the Detroit zone, squeezing through the Red Wing defense and getting off a wrist shot, but Hasek turned it aside. With the Stars controlling the puck in the Detroit zone following that play, Ribeiro connected for his sixth goal in the last six games to pull Dallas to within one. Defenseman Nolan Baumgartner's wrist shot from the blue line was knocked down in front, but Eriksson managed to tap the loose puck over to an unguarded Ribeiro to the right of the crease, and Ribeiro slammed it home, just past a diving Hasek.

Just 47 seconds later, Boucher connected for his 19th goal of the season, tying the franchise record for goals in a season by a defenseman, to tie the game. After Dallas dumped the puck in the Detroit zone, Hasek declined to play it behind the net as it slid into the no-touch zone for goaltenders, and Halpern raced in to retrieve it unopposed. Setting up behind the Red Wing net, Halpern then fed it out front to a charging Boucher, whose one-timer from the right circle found its way through a screen and past Hasek with 2:42 to go.

Smith made a nice save on Datsyuk's backhander from the right circle just 30 seconds later to keep the game tied.

Dallas very nearly won it in regulation, but Ribeiro, who received a nice drop pass from Eriksson in the right circle, ripped a wrister from the slot that rang off the goalpost with 59 seconds remaining.

While seemingly having all the momentum as the third period expired, Dallas relied heavily on Smith in the overtime, as the Red Wings came out determined to end it, outshooting the Stars 8-0 in OT.

Smith made several outstanding saves, including one just 13 seconds in off a Kris Draper slap shot from point-blank range in the slot after a Dallas giveaway. He also denied Niklas Lidstrom's blast from the high slot midway through the five-minute extra period.

With 2:05 to go, Dallas got a fortuitous bounce as Detroit's Mikael Samuelsson ripped a slap shot off the rush inside the blue line that deflected off Dallas defenseman Mattias Norstrom's stick and then ricocheted off the crossbar before going out of play.

Smith denied Cleary's slap shot from the left face-off circle with 1:25 remaining in OT, and then made a better save on Draper's rebound chance in front.

Then, with 55 seconds left, Datsyuk made several dazzling moves in close, but Smith saved his point-blank wrist shot. The rebound lay loose in the crease for a second before Stars forward Jeff Halpern swept in and cleared it away, allowing Dallas to survive to the shootout.

Entering the second trailing 1-0, the Stars killed off the remaining seconds of a Detroit power play, then surrendered an even-strength goal just 1:08 into the period. Kirk Maltby launched a sneaky wrist shot from low along the right sideboards at a sharp angle, that zinged through a thick screen in front to beat Smith between the pads for a 2-0 lead.

The Stars responded by generating two glorious opportunities over the next five minutes or so, but were stymied by Hasek.

First, with five minutes gone in the period, Mike Modano, a native of nearby Livonia, Michigan, and Boucher raced into the Wings' zone on a 2-on-1 break. As Modano carried the puck into the right circle, he ripped a wicked wrist shot that beat Hasek but clanged off the far goalpost.

Then a minute and a half later, Zubov's long outlet pass from his own zone found Hagman at the Detroit blue line, and Hagman sped in on a breakaway. Hagman made the move to his backhand, but Hasek made a nice pad save.

The Stars continued to press, and while on a power play nine minutes into the period, Ribeiro carried into the Detroit zone, danced around Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios and in on Hasek, who stopped Ribeiro's in-close wrist shot.

Dallas kept up the offensive pressure but then Detroit's Kris Draper struck for a devastating goal with the clubs skating 4-on-4 with 5:28 left in the period. As the Stars gave up the puck in the Red Wings' zone, Mathieu Schneider fed Draper at center ice, and Draper raced in on a breakaway. After making a couple of moves, Draper managed to slide the puck around a fallen Smith to make it 3-0.

The Stars continued to battle despite the dire circumstances. With 2:48 to play in the second, defenseman Jon Klemm drilled a slap shot from the top of the right circle that pinged off the near goal post. The rebound came out to Eriksson, whose in-close shot was subsequently smothered by Hasek.

Hasek then turned aside Boucher's point-blank one-timer from the slot after he received a nice pass from behind the net from Ribeiro with just 22 seconds left.

Dallas rookie Joel Lundqvist, who was a healthy scratch the past two contests, made an impact on the game's very first shift, nailing Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronvall with a crushing check behind the Red Wings net just 24 seconds in. Kronvall stayed down for awhile and then was helped off the ice with a hip injury and did not return, forcing the Wings to play the entire game with just five blueliners.

Detroit struck first, as Bertuzzi connected for his first goal in his fifth game in a Red Wings sweater, after he was acquired at the trade deadline. As the Wings entered the Stars' zone on the rush, Datsyuk drew two defenders to him before whipping a sweet cross-ice backhand pass to Bertuzzi streaking down the slot. Bertuzzi attempted to slip a pass across the goal-mouth to Johan Franzen, but the puck deflected off of Zubov's stick, changed direction and flipped past Smith for the goal at 7:04.

Smith made a pair of outstanding saves on a Red Wings power play nine minutes into the period, first stopping Datsyuk's screened wrist shot from the left circle, then moments later flashing out a pad to deny Chelios' tricky wrister through a screen from the right circle.

About 30 seconds later, a long backhand pass from Zubov sprung Antti Miettinen on a breakaway. After a couple of fakes and moving backhand-to-forehand, Miettinen's short wrist shot was snagged by Hasek's glove.

That was the Stars only legitimate scoring chance of the first, as they were outshot 8-3 while having to kill off three penalties. It was the second consecutive game that Dallas managed just three shots in the first period, matching their season-low.

The Stars get right back on the job, traveling to Nashville for what is sure to be an intense battle Saturday against the Predators (7pm, FSN). Of course, it will be the first matchup between the clubs since the controversial March 17 contest in which Modano scored his 502nd and 503rd career goals to become the NHL's all-time American goal-scoring leader and Nashville's Jordin Tootoo knocked out Stephane Robidas with a sucker punch. Adding further drama to the occasion, Tootoo will return from his five-game suspension Saturday, while Robidas is still listed day-to-day with a concussion.

STARGAZING

# With the win, the Stars improved their record in the first game of back-to-back sets to 5-10-2 this season. Dallas has an outstanding 11-3-1 mark in the second leg.

# Ribeiro, with a goal and an assist, is on fire, with eight points (three goals, five assists) in the last three games and 11 (six goals, five assists) in the last six. He now leads the club with 56 points on the season.

# Boucher returned to the lineup after missing the last game to be with his family in Quebec following the passing of his father Jean-Claude, who waged a lengthy battle with cancer. His game-tying goal gives him a career-high 19 on the season, matching the franchise record set by Brad Maxwell in 1983-84.

# Morrow's goal was his third in his seventh game since returning from a long-term wrist injury. It gives him five points (two goals, three assists) in his last three games.

# Baumgartner registered an assist for the second consecutive game, in just his fifth contest in a Stars jersey.

# Nagy's assist on Morrow's goal gives him seven points (one goal, six assists) in his last six games after he had compiled just four (three goals, one assist) in his first 14 games with the Stars.

# Eriksson earned an assist, his third straight game with a point. In those contests, he has five points (two goals, three assists), following a three-game stretch where he sat out as a healthy scratch. Before that, Eriksson had posted just four assists in his previous 27 games.

# Halpern's primary assist on Boucher's game-tying goal was just his second point in 18 games.

# Smith got the start in place of Marty Turco, who played college hockey at the nearby University of Michigan. In 15 career games against Detroit, Turco has compiled a 1-8-5 record, although his goals-against average in those outings is a respectable 2.91.

# The Stars' power play unit, which is now ranked seventh in the NHL, connected for the eighth consecutive game. They are 12-for-51 over that span, a stellar 23.5 % conversion rate, and that doesn't include two goals that went in within a second after a penalty expired.

# Dallas has now scored in the third period in 12 straight contests, outscoring their opponents 24-10 in those third periods, including an unreal 15-3 over the last seven outings.

# The Red Wings, one point ahead of Nashville for first in the Central Division and the Western Conference, still have a stellar 31-1-3 record when leading after two periods.

Nice!