With Adam Almquist scoring his very first NHL goal against the Dallas Stars on Thursday, and the first line playing out of their minds, one would might think that the Red Wings come out with a win. But Hockeytown fans have to think again.Mike Babcock is anything but pleased with his teams’ lack of consistency, along with a lack of collecting points where they should be collected.

Babcock, who has coached the Red Wings since July 15, 2005, has definitely seen better play from his team. A typical Wings move is to have strength at their second and third line to give its first line a bit of a break.

“(Pavel) and (Zetterberg) I thought today were outstanding,” Babcock said. “But if we’re going to be successful, we need more than (Datsyuk and Zetterberg) generating offense.”

A 4-3 loss does not necessarily tell the full story of this game. Hockey is a game of inches and that is what it came down to in this classic battle. The Stars capitalized on two juicy opportunities that ultimately turned into the game-tying and game-winning goals by Cody Eakin and Peverley.

The Stars tied the game with 1:10 left in the third period.

“That was a huge goal,” Peverley said. “That really got us going, put us in reach.”

Rich Peverley then went on to get the game-winning goal in overtime with 20 seconds remaining until a shootout. And the Wings slipped to the Stars, 4-3.

“The bottom line is that of the last eight points available at home, we’ve gotten three of them,” coach Mike Babcock said. “We have to do better than that.”

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Information from the Detroit Red Wings was used in this report.

For more information on the Detroit Red Wings and NHL hockey from analysts and journalists at Michigan State University – tune into Octopi Hockeytown podcasts and embrace the Spartan debate at www.impact89fm.org/sports

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Austin Goodman is the host of Octopi Hockeytown for Impact Sports.

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Scoring Summary:

1st Period:

No Scoring.

2nd Period:

DET – 7:44 – T. Bertuzzi (Slap) (H. Zetterberg, P. Datsyuk)

DET – 14:50 – A. Almquist (Snap) (H. Zetterberg, T. Bertuzzi)

DAL – 19:39 – S. Horcoff (Wrist) (R. Whitney, A. Chiasson)

3rd Period:

DAL – 4:04 – J. Benn (Backhand) (Unassisted)

DET – 11:34 – P. Datsyuk (snap) (H. Zetterberg, J. Kindl)

DAL – 18:50 (PPG) – C. Eakin (snap) (S. Gonchar, T. Daley)

Overtime:

DAL – 4:41 – R. Peverley (snap) (V. Nichushkin, A. Goligoski)

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Three Stars:

1st: Jamie Benn (1G, +1, 2 shots, 24:32 TOI)

2nd: Cody Eakin (1G, -1, 3 shots, 19:06 TOI)

3rd: Henrik Zetterberg (3A, +3, 2 shots, 22:16 TOI)

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