(CP)
Friday, May 9, 2008

DETROIT—The memory of their demise in the NHL’s Western Conference final a year ago continues to spur the Detroit Red Wings on to greater things this spring.
“We’ve got a group that wants to win bad and we’re determined,” says coach Mike Babcock. “We’ve been here before and never got the job done.

“We’d like to take the next step.”
The Red Wings are determined they won’t let the Dallas Stars do to them what the Anaheim Ducks did in the 2007 conference final, and they trounced the visiting Stars 4-1 in the opener to drive the point home last night.
It was their seventh-straight win.
As if they didn’t already have enough offensive weapons, the Wings turned what had been an ordinary post-season power play into a flame-thrower by connecting three times in their first five extra-man chances.
Power-play goals by Brian Rafalski and Johan Franzen put them up 2-0 in the first period, and a power-play goal by Tomas Holmstrom plus an even-strength goal by Valtteri Filpulla made it 4-0 before Brenden Morrow replied late in the second period.
The Red Wings hadn’t played in a week, but showed no signs of rust in the teams’ first post-season meeting in 10 years.
“We got rested up and, if anything, you get eager to play again,” said winning goalie Chris Osgood. “We missed playing. We wanted to start playing again.”
Osgood improved to 7-0 since replacing Dominik Hasek in the first round. Marty Turco, winless in 10 career regular-season starts in Joe Louis Arena, was a loser again.
“We did a good job of getting pucks on Marty, making things difficult for him,” said Osgood. “It’s hard to play goal against our team because we shoot pucks from everywhere and we get guys in front of the goalie.
“We do have flashy players, but tonight we scored by going to the net and getting guys in front of the goalie.”
Babcock suggested the Stars had an emotional letdown after going four overtimes in eliminating San Jose on Sunday, and disappointed coach Dave Tippett seemed to agree.
“That’s a game that wasn’t even close to the games we played in the playoffs,” he said. “There’s some fatigue from the last game.
“Whatever the reason, we didn’t play close to our capability,” he added. “We just didn’t skate, didn’t get to the level we needed to be at.
“Give the Red Wings all the credit in the world. They did what they had to do to win. We’re going to have to be much better.”
Babcock is sure the Stars will be better in Game 2 tomorrow.
“Their legs will be back and the series will be on,” he remarked. “They’ve got a real good team.
“There’s no question that the next game they’ll be back and rolling.”
The Red Wings had a two-man advantage when captain Nick Lidstrom smashed a shot off a post. The carom went all the way out to near the blueline, where Rafalski slapped a long shot that sailed over Turco at 4:28.
“It was surprising it came all the way back that far from the post,” said Rafalski. “Guys were scrambling around and I saw Turco was down, so I was trying to go high and it got in.”
Franzen deflected down a high Niklas Kronvall shot and sent the puck skittering past Turco’s feet at 15:34 after Toby Petersen had been nabbed for holding.
Franzen’s 12th goal of the post-season—in his team’s 11th game—tied the club playoff record of five-consecutive games with a goal.
The 6’3” Swede shares it with Gordie Howe, who went five in a row in 1949 and 1964, and with Ted Lindsay, who had a similar streak in 1952.
The Eastern Conference final opens tonight with Philadelphia visiting Pittsburgh.