The Detroit Red Wings began the Western Conference Finals the same way they finished the semifinals – in dominating fashion. Detroit used three power play goals and excellent goaltending by Chris Osgood to beat the Dallas Stars 4-1 and take a 1-0 series lead.

Coming into Game 1, the Dallas power play was the best of the remaining four teams, but it was Detroit’s power play that controlled the game. Detroit scored three power play goals and didn’t allow Dallas to convert on any of their four power play chances.

Dallas was hampered by costly turnovers throughout the entire game. It wasn’t just a few select players, but it was the entire team from Mike Ribeiro to Marty Turco making the turnovers. Detroit was able to take advantage; even though they didn’t score on all, they did get plenty of valuable scoring chances.

Detroit got on the scoreboard first in the opening frame while on a five-on-three power play. Nicklas Lidstrom’s shot from the top of the left face-off circle banged off the pipe right to Brian Rafalski, who then held the puck for a second before firing it past Turco for the power play goal.

The Red Wings weren’t done on the power play in the first period. Johan Franzen redirected a Niklas Kronwall shot that went five-hole past Turco to give the Red Wings a 2-0 lead. Dallas’ penalty killing, which had been so reliable in the playoffs, was now failing them. Dallas was unable to get anything going offensively as Detroit’s defense only allowed four shots on goal.

Dallas needed to come out in the second period and play a smart 20 minutes of hockey, hoping not to fall behind by a bigger margin. The physical play that began in the first, continued in the second. However, it was Detroit that came out with the offense to start the period that continued their momentum.

Henrik Zetterberg came close to putting Detroit up by three early in the second when he skated behind the Stars net and had Turco down, but Turco was quick enough to get his stick in front of the goal line to deny Zetterberg’s opportunity. Dallas gained control of the puck and skated up the ice; Niklas Hagman eventually got a breakaway, but Osgood was there to make the save.

Detroit scored its third power play goal of the night when Tomas Holmstrom deflected a Lidstrom shot off his right knee that beat Turco high-side. Replays showed that Holmstrom was in the goal creased and appeared to interfere with Turco; therefore, the goal should have been disallowed and Holmstrom called for goaltender interference. Instead, the goal stood and Detroit was now up 3-0.

Now in a big three goal hole, the Stars just needed to play smart hockey the rest of the way and not allow Detroit to get any quality chances. If Dallas could get the next goal of the game, they could shift the momentum to their side. If Detroit got the next goal of the game, it would be almost impossible for the Stars to come back from a four goal deficit.

Valtteri Filppula gave the Red Wings a four goal lead after taking a pass from Mikael Samuelsson and split between the defensemen to skate in alone on Turco. Filppula’s shot trickled by Turco, but it had enough power to get past Turco and put Detroit up 4-0. Dallas was now in panic mode and needed to figure things out before the game got turned ugly; if it already wasn’t ugly enough. Dallas sustained its best offensive attack late in the second period when they controlled most of the final three and half minutes in Detroit’s zone. The offensive attack eventually resulted in Brenden Morrow scoring Dallas’ first goal of the game, but it was already too late against a skilled team like Detroit.

Dallas’ best bet in the third period was to hope for some lucky bounces and excellent defense if they had any chance of a recovery. The lucky bounces didn’t come, but the defense stepped up for something to build on for game 2. The third period was just a back-and-forth period with neither team getting many quality chances.

Detroit controlled the entire game behind stellar goaltending from Osgood; Osgood stopped 20 of 21 shots. Like Nashville and Colorado, the Stars are going to have trouble winning in Detroit; as Detroit is now 6-0 at home in the playoffs. Dallas will need to get Detroit on the run in Game 2, and need to execute their power play chances if they hope not to go down 2-0 before heading home.