Time to finish out the season series against the Stars. Wings look to build off a thumping they gave Dallas on Thursday while Dallas is looking to stay in control of their own playoff destiny.

Khudobin vs. Bernier. Let’s go.

First Period.

Svechnikov-Rasmussen-Gagner has a good shift early backed by Hronek and Cholowski. Following that, we got about four whistles from Bernier holding the puck after a number of Dallas floaters with traffic nearby.

Filppula feeds Zadina for a cross-ice to Stecher that just misses (followed by a Vrana shot that also just misses).

Not much flow going into this game and then 9:38 into the period, Troy Stecher has a pass blocked by Andrew Cogliano in the Wings’ zone and he reacts by tripping up his man, giving Dallas the first power play chance of the game.  Bernier makes a great glove save just as the penalty expires and Stecher walks free.

Detroit takes the next penalty a couple minutes later, pushing into the Wings’ zone and creating havoc in front of Bernier. Hronek sits for holding the stick of Blake Comeau.  Aside from Jamie Benn missing a chance for the near-side top corner from in-close, this one is less-dangerous than the first. Some good PK work by DeKeyser on this one.

The Wings try to put pressure on, but we all clench our cornholes when he simply forgets a puck behind his own net and gifts Dallas another point-blank shooting opportunity that Bernier has to bail him out of.

All goes according to plan though, as an aggressive Dallas pinch leaves a counterattack up ice with Evgeny Svechnikov joined by Dennis Cholowski. Svech feeds Dennis and the lil’ menace snipes it top corner to make it 1-0 Detroit.

What a SNIPE by Dennis Cholowski for his 1st goal of the season! #LGRW pic.twitter.com/La76IW52yR

— Ryan Hana (@RyanHanaWWP) April 24, 2021

The pace picks up from here with rushes headed both ways. As per usual, Dallas shoots it more though.

The Score: 1-0 Wings
The Shots: 21-3 Stars
Standout Players: Zadina, Bernier, Gagner, DeKeyser, Cholowski, Svechnikov
Sit-in Players: Stecher, Hronek
The Period All Summed up: Probably don’t want to count on scoring more when getting outshot 7-to-1.

Second Period

This one starts off with a little bit of nastiness. Jason Dickinson pastes Troy Stecher in the numbers; somebody says mean things to Jason Robertson. Bad day to be a Jason I guess.

Less than two minutes in, Sam Gagner takes a penalty for holding the stick on Dickinson. It’s not a bad call. I guess I’m just happy to see the refs taking care of the truly dangerous stuff. Dallas’ power play is as dangerous as it has been this game, but Bernier holds strong and his defense clears the crease in time.

We go into the first TV timeout with the shots 30-3.

Just about halfway through the period, Marc Staal hands the Stars a great scoring chance and then does a real good job scrawling to deny them the finish on a net-front scrum. About a minute later the puck leaves the Wings’ zone and the shot differential is even worse.  We head into the 2nd timeout at 36-3.

Detroit gets their first shot of the period at 11:55. Even more surprising, it’s Val Filppula.

14:07 in, Evgeny Svechnikov heads to the box for hooking to prevent a Robertson break.  Detroit gets their 5th shot on goal shorthanded but Dallas keeps piling pressure on Bernier to no avail.

At some point, Detroit adds a sixth shot on goal. Maybe I’ll recap all the shots individually for Detroit in the third period.

The Score: 1-0 Detroit
The Shots: 41-6 Dallas
Standout Players: Bernier
Sit-in Players: Staal, Pretty much everybody
The Period All Summed up: I can’t really describe this game. This is something I’m kind of glad that I experienced but don’t ever want to do again

Third Period

Detroit gets a power play to start the period with Jason Dickinson sitting for holding. The Wings get one shot, but the dangerous chance comes from Roope Hintz hitting the post on a feed from Cogliano as the penalty was winding down.

Detroit’s luck runs out at 3:52. Another puck off a post and this time Dallas wins the battle in front. Lindstrom ties up his man taking his own stick out of the play and Panik loses the race to Mark Pysyk’s stick and it’s a 1-1 tie.

PYSYK TIES IT! 🌟 #GoStars@mpysyk03 | @DallasStars pic.twitter.com/201BgXKJGW

— Bally Sports Southwest (@BallySportsSW) April 25, 2021

The game settles to a grind from here. Halfway through the frame, Namestnikov gets mad in a net-front scrum again. I was starting to worry it wouldn’t happen so this is a relief.

Still a grind into the third TV timeout. Dallas playing to score and the Wings are just wearing down. The passes aren’t as good and the first few steps out of the zone are just a little too slow to build anything.

As time starts wearing down, Detroit is able to mount a bit of pressure but no real high danger chances to speak of going into the last 90 seconds.

The Wings hold the Stars without a shot for the last five minutes and we head to OT.

The Score: 1-1
The Shots: 51-17 Stars
Standout Players: Bernier, Staal
Sit-in Players: Panik, Lindstrom, Hronek
The Period All Summed up: Get Bernier an IV

Overtime

Detroit gets the puck off the draw with Zadina-Filppula-Hronek, but Zadina loses an edge in the zone and has to go back to Filppula to back out of the zone. Hronek takes a pass by the bench and loses the puck momentarily before having a backhand cross-ice pass attempt blocked sending Dallas in on a 2-on-1. Hronek goes down to block the shot, but Benn snipes it past Bernier’s blocker.

Dallas wins it 2-1 in OT.

Wrapping Up

Detroit got better than the result the played to in this one. Bernier deserved better than this though.

There’s no need to diminish the shot total because it tells a good part of the story, but the Stars were definitely shooting high-quantity in this one and the Wings did a good job reacting to a lot of the shots from the outside and boxing out guys in front of Bernier. That only one of those garbage scramble goals got scored was  a small miracle.

This was one of those games by Filip Hronek that we wanted him to have grown out of. They’re becoming rarer but this was a game full of more mistakes than usual. On the other side, Marc Staal made one huge glaring error but otherwise played solid. Biega was as invisible as a 7th D-man is. DeKeyser and Lindstrom played well together.

For the forwards, it was hard to get anything going and I’m not sure why Rasmussen wasn’t centering Zadina and Vrana like he was on Thursday. Filppula was ok but I thought Rasmussen had good chemistry.

It really felt like Detroit’s energy line simply ran out of it. Adam Erne had no legs left late in the third.

Bye Dallas