DALLAS – For the 22nd consecutive season, the Stanley Cup playoffs will begin with the Detroit Red Wings in the field.
It wasn't easy. It took a season-long, season-ending four-game winning streak, and it came down to the final period of the final game.
But, the Red Wings extended the longest active postseason streak in the four major sports with a 3-0 victory over the Dallas Stars Saturday night at the American Airlines Center.
The Red Wings (24-16-8), with 56 points, finished as the seventh seed in the Western Conference and will face the Anaheim Ducks in the first round of the playoffs. The series will start Tuesday or Wednesday. Games 1 and 2 will be at Anaheim.
The Red Wings' best players stepped up big-time in their most important game.
Henrik Zetterberg scored a pair of goals and added an assist. He had two goals and seven assists during this four-game streak.
Pavel Datsyuk picked up three assists. He has two goals and six assists in the past four games.
Jimmy Howard, making his 15th consecutive start, made 17 saves for his fifth shutout of the season – his third in the past seven games – and the 16th of his career.
Howard has allowed only eight goals in the past seven games.
The Red Wings won the season series from the Ducks 2-1. The visiting team won each game. Anaheim prevailed 5-2 in Detroit on Feb. 15 in the only game Datsyuk missed all season. The Red Wings won back-to-back games in Anaheim on March 22-24 (5-1 and 2-1).
The Red Wings dominated territorially through two periods, outshooting the Stars 26-13, but were clinging to a 1-0 lead at the start of the third and faced with a penalty kill.
Zetterberg, however, scored on a shorthanded breakaway at 1:57 to make it 2-0. Zetterberg then made a nice pass to Jonathan Ericsson, who fired in a hard wrist shot from the slot at 6:30 to make it 3-0.
That pretty much sealed the outcome.
The Stars started backup goalie Richard Bachman instead of Kari Lehtonen.
The second period was scoreless, but both clubs had power-play opportunities. The Red Wings failed to apply much pressure during a four-minute power play, after Ryan Garbutt high-sticked Gustav Nyquist in the face at 15:01, drawing blood.
Nyquist got stitched up and returned in the third period.
A fast-paced first period saw the Red Wings outshoot the Stars 18-9, as both clubs registered several scoring chances.
Detroit led 1-0 on Zetterberg's 10th goal of the season. His centering pass to Justin Abdelkader deflected in off the skate of defenseman Alex Goligoski.
Hard work and persistence in the offensive zone by the Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Abdelkader line paid off.