Red Wings lose 6-3 in Dallas, winless streak at three games

Dallas — It's becoming difficult for the Red Wings to get a win.

The winless streak reached three games Monday, as the Dallas Stars defeated the Wings, 6-3.

Joe Veleno's power-play goal at 13:21 cut the Dallas lead to 4-3. But Michael Rasmussen's tripping penalty put Dallas back on the power play, and Joe Pavelski quickly regained the two-goal lead for Dallas, 5-3, 30 seconds after Veleno scored.

Miro Heiskanen clinched the outcome with an empty-net goal.

"I didn't mind our effort, real good from the effort standpoint," coach Derek Lalonde said. "We gave ourselves a chance, got within a goal there at the six-minute mark. Unfortunately we gave them one back on the power play."

Daniel Sprong and Jonatan Berggren added the Wings' goals, but it wasn't enough against a Dallas team that was smarting after an ugly loss at home Saturday to Vegas.

BOX SCORE: Stars 6, Red Wings 3

The Wings continued to struggle defensively, having now allowed 24 goals over their last five games.

"We played a little bit too much in the defensive zone," forward Andrew Copp said. "We were doing an OK job of ending plays but the next play we weren't there quick enough and they got a lot of second chances. We scored enough goals to win and did enough to create, but the penalty kill (Dallas had two power-play goals) let us down and we had too much defensive zone (time)."

Winning will be difficult for the Wings (14-9-4) after a sudden spate of injuries and a six-game suspension to David Perron announced Monday by the NHL department of player safety for Perron's cross-check to the face of Ottawa's Artem Zub.

Dylan Larkin, J.T. Compher and Klim Kostin were all put on injured reserve Monday, definitely cutting into the Wings' depth.

But it's going to start, said Lalonde, with playing better defense.

"It's going to be more about keeping it out of our net, too," Lalonde said. "We had some rhythm with our lines. We had some real good stretches of our five-on-five play. We're still a pretty competitive lineup and I don't know how many teams can say that in the league (with the players not in the lineup)."

Heiskanen (power play and empty net), Esa Lindell, Jason Robertson and Matt Duchene added the Stars' (16-8-3) goals.

Goaltender James Reimer stopped 29 shots for the Wings in his first start since Nov. 16. Jake Oettinger made 27 saves for the Stars.

The Wings were tied 1-1 Monday until Dallas broke the tie on Lindell's goal with under a second left on the clock. Lindell's shot from the top of slot beat Reimer and proved to be difficult to overcome.

"Any kind of goals in the end, he'll (Reimer) be the first to admit that's a tough one," Lalonde said. "Reimer battled extremely hard after that end-of-period goal, which was good on him. He gave us a chance of being within a goal late in the game. We needed everyone and he was part of that."

Robertson and Duchene scored 2:27 apart midway in the second period to extend the Dallas lead to 4-1, before Berggren, recalled Monday from Grand Rapids, got one back at 13:52, 22 seconds after Duchene scored, tapping in a rebound of Shayne Gostisbehere's (two assists Monday) shot.

The goal gave the Wings needed momentum.

"It's good to contribute with some offense," Berggren said. "That's my game, so it was nice. Really good play by Ghost, but when we didn't get the win, it's kind of boring after that."

tkulfan@detroitnews.com

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