DETROIT _ The Detroit Red Wings measured poorly against the Dallas Stars.
The Wings had penalty trouble and scoring trouble on Tuesday at Little Caesars Arena, leading to a 4-2 defeat.
It began well enough when Trevor Daley scored in the opening minute and hinted at a possibly good outcome when Andreas Athanasiou scored his 10th goal of the season in the second period, but the Stars took advantage of power plays, with Jason Spezza scoring twice while Luke Witkowski was in the penalty box.
Outshot, 23-10, after two periods (13-4 in the second alone), the Wings weren't able to get out of their zone with speed, and rarely mounted much in the way of an attack. Martin Hanzal made it 4-2 midway through the third period. Jimmy Howard was pulled with around 4 minutes to go in regulation. Final shots were 26-15.
Daley scored 44 seconds after the first puck drop. Tyler Bertuzzi got the puck from Danny DeKeyser and carried it behind the net. Ben Bishop slid over too far, enabling Bertuzzi to go behind the net and find Daley for a near-open net and a 1-0 lead. It was short-lived, however.
The start soured for the Wings when Witkowski was called for elbowing at 6:56 of the first period. At 7:50, Dominic Turgeon accidentally sent the puck over the glass, earning a delay of game penalty that left the Wings two skaters short for 1:06 (and regular penalty killers Darren Helm, Justin Abdelkader and Luke Glendening all sidelined by injuries). The Stars converted with 2 seconds left in the Witkowski penalty when Spezza tipped in John Klingberg's slap shot.
The Wings didn't have much going in the second period, when Athanasiou showed what a game-changer he can be. Bertuzzi fed the puck to Athanasiou, who scored on a breakaway, decking to his forehand at the last second. That made it 2-2 at 11:43. Bertuzzi has two straight multi-point games.
Stephen Johns slammed Turgeon into the boards. Johns dropped his gloves first when seeing Witkowski coming after him. The two were too tangled up to land much in the way of punches, but the fight fired up fans. The Wings ended up shorthanded as Witkowski got tapped for a roughing penalty on top of the fighting major. Frans Nielsen and Athanasiou created a two-on-none scoring chance shorthanded but Nielsen hit a goal post. Spezza made the Wings pay, striking on the power play to make it 3-2 at 14:08.
