Tonight the Detroit Red Wings will head to Dallas to take on the Stars in game 3 of their playoff series.  Detroit won the first two games of the series convincingly, 4-1 and 2-1.  The Stars find themselves in a deep home and will have to find a way to dig themselves out of it.  This is the first time that the Stars have been to a conference final since back in 2000.   Dallas is used to returning home with a 2-0 lead in the series, as they did in both their first two series.  This is not the case against the top seeded Red Wings.  Detroit has other plans, as they look to go 3-0 and win for the ninth straight time in the playoffs, which would be their new postseason record.  Currently Montreal holds the longest win streak in the playoffs, at 11 wins.

Dallas continues to struggle against the mighty Red Wings.  Marty Turco is horrible against the Wings in his career.  He sports a record of 2-10-5 against Detroit and holds a 2.88 goals against average with a .897 save percentage.  He is going to have to change this fast if the Stars want to have any hope of making this a series.  Dallas is just 1-4 in their last five playoffs games.  This is not a good trend to hold going deeper into the NHL playoffs.  Currently Oddsmakers at Sportsbook.com have the Stars at even money heading into tonight’s action.

The Red Wings continue to dominate this year’s postseason and look unstoppable.  They had the best record in the entire NHL.  Another record they hold is that they allow the fewest shots on goal in the playoffs.  This key stat, backed by the tremendous goaltending of Chris Osgood makes it almost impossible for the Stars to score goals.  They only have 2 goals in 2 games against Detroit.  They will need much more then that if they want to be successful.  A bright spot for Dallas is the Wings injuries.  One of the big blows for Detroit is their leading scorer in the playoffs, Johan Franzen is going to miss his second straight game with concussion-like symptoms.  He has 11 postseason goals and has posted an amazing two hat tricks in this years playoffs.  The 28 year old centerman has 26 goals in his last 26 games, dating back to the regular season.  There is no doubt that Detroit will miss him, but I think they will be able to do fine without him.

View NHL Betting Odds at OnlineSportsHandicapping.com before you bet on the NHL Playoffs at Sportsbook.com

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