Monday, December 30, 2002
Red Wings 2, Stars 2
The Detroit Red Wings and Dallas Stars feel as if they're looking in a mirror whenever they play each other."The resemblance is striking -- look at the stats and the numbers," Stars coach Dave Tippett said.The Western Conference division leaders played to their fourth tie in as many games, in their last regular-season meeting."Four ties -- they're probably just as happy as we are with them," said Detroit's Brett Hull, who won a Stanley Cup with Dallas in 1999.The season series is a deadlock, and the overall series is close, too, with Dallas holding an 88-86-33-1 lead.Tomas Holmstrom scored two goals and the Red Wings stretched their unbeaten streak to eight. Holmstrom scored early in each of the first two periods to give Detroit leads, only to have Dallas tie it by both intermissions."It was pretty much the same as the other games -- both teams had their chances," Detroit's Chris Chelios said. "It was a very good road game for us."Detroit is 5-0-3 in its last eight, including a 1-1 tie at home against the Stars on Dec. 19. The Red Wings are the first NHL team to 50 points, one more than Eastern Conference leader Ottawa and Vancouver, the other Western Conference division leader.The other two games between the Stars and Red Wings ended in 3-3 ties.Detroit outshot Dallas 29-28, the extra shot coming for the defending Stanley Cup champs in the overtime period."They are champions still, and we are trying to play to their level," Tippett said. "These are good tests for our teams."Jere Lehtinen's power-play goal tied it 1-1 with 4:13 left in the first, and Brenden Morrow made it 2-2 with 14:34 remaining in the second for the Stars, who have 48 points."This is a building block for us. When we play the best teams, we usually play well," Morrow said. "We want to stay in position and hopefully meet this team again."
Flames 4, Mighty Ducks 2
At Calgary, Alberta, Oleg Saprykin scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period as Darryl Sutter won in his coaching debut with the Flames.Stephane Yelle, Martin Gelinas and Chris Drury also scored for the Flames, who had their highest scoring output since Nov. 4 -- a span of 25 games.Sutter, who started the season as San Jose's coach but was fired Dec. 1, was hired Saturday to succeed the fired Greg Gilbert.Petr Sykora and Patrick Kjellberg scored for Anaheim, which has lost four of its last five.
Avalanche 6, Kings 1
At Denver, Peter Forsberg had his fifth career three-goal game as Colorado ended a two-game losing streak.Forsberg scored twice on the power play for his first hat trick since March 3, 1999. Dean McAmmond had a goal and two assists, Radim Vrbata and Alex Tanguay also scored and Milan Hejduk had three assists for Colorado.
Ziggy Palffy scored his first goal in five games for Los Angeles, which lost its fourth straight road game.
Lightning 5, Rangers 3
At Tampa, Fla., Dave Andreychuk scored a pair of power-play goals for the Lightning.Ruslan Fedotenko, Martin St. Louis and Fredrik Modin also scored for the Southeast Division-leading Lightning, who had four power-play goals.Bobby Holik, Joel Bouchard and Eric Lindros scored for New York, 2-8-1-1 in its last 12.