Tomas Holmstrom's reputation as one of the best net-front players in hockey cost him and the Red Wings on Thursday night in a 4-1 loss to the Stars at Joe Luis Arena.
With the Wings trailing 2-0 early in the second period, Brian Rafalski appeared to score 9 seconds into a power play.
The goal was immediately waved off, but replays clearly showed that Holmstrom was not in the crease. He was called for incidental contact with goaltender Kari Lehtonen anyway.
"I didn't see it myself, but I think I was feet out," Holmstrom said. "It was a tough one. It would be a momentum changer for sure, too.
"It was a tough break for us. It should be allowed."
Holmstrom said he didn't know what more he could say about it. Lehtonen had plenty to say, though, during the next stoppage in play.
"Even the goalie come up to me and say, 'Hey, you got robbed on that one," Holmstrom said. "So what can you do?"
Holmstrom said he'd like those kinds of plays to be reviewed by the officials back in Toronto.
"Yeah, why not?" Holmstrom said. "So many goals get disallowed around the net. You gotta be sure. You can't just blow the whistle."
Holmstrom said "for sure" the game would have had a different outcome if that goal had counted.
"It was 2-1," Holmstrom said. "For sure. Hopefully we go into the third 2-1 and go from there. It's a big difference."
Krys Barch scored the only goal of the second period, giving the Stars a 3-0 advantage at 8:54 of the second.
"We just never were that good all night long," said Wings coach Mike Babcock. "Give (Dallas) credit. Their goalie was outstanding, made lots of key saves and gave them an opportunity."
Babcock said he thought Rafalski's power-play goal should have counted, "but it doesn't really matter what I think. I wasn't making that decision.
"That was a 2-1 game at that point. Maybe we get some momentum, but I don't think you can point fingers at anything except ourselves for tonight's outcome."
Mike Ribeiro opened the scoring for the Stars in the first period after Brenden Morrow's shot went off the stick of Brad Stuart and off to the right side of the ice. Ribeiro got the puck and fired it into an open net before Jimmy Howard could react.
The Stars went ahead 2-0 on a shorthanded goal by Loui Eriksson at 19:37 of the first period.
"They rimmed it around the board and (Niklas) Kronwall tried to keep it in," Babcock said. "We should have backed out, and they end up scoring a shorthanded goal for the key play in the game."
Despite having 10 shots, the Wings were 0-for-5 with the man advantage in the first two periods. They finally scored on a power play in the third, when Holmstrom netted a backhand after taking a pass from Pavel Datsyuk at 16:29.
Jamie Langenbrunner scored an empty net goal at 18:17 to put the Stars back up by three.
Contact GEORGE SIPPLE: 313-223-4796 or gsipple@freepress.com.
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