Stars ease past Red Wings, move back into tie for Central Division lead

DETROIT --Joe Pavelski got his 1,000th NHL point, and the Dallas Stars moved back into a tie for first place in the Central Division with a 6-1 win against the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Monday.

Pavelski reached the milestone when he gave Dallas a 5-0 lead at 3:37 of the second period. He has 448 goals and 552 assists in 1,248 NHL games.
"You try to play it down when it is happening, because it takes you off a game a little, but when it went in, it was a good moment," Pavelski said. "It meant something to see all my teammates coming off the bench. That's one of the special things about this game."

Roope Hintz had a goal and three assists for the Stars (45-21-14), who have won four straight and six of seven and moved back into a tie with the Colorado Avalanche for first place in the Central Division.
Jason Robertson had a goal and two assists, and Miro Heiskanen had two assists for Dallas. Jake Oettinger allowed one goal on 13 shots before Scott Wedgewood made seven saves in the third period with the Stars leading by five goals.
Dallas finishes the regular season with a home-and-home set that begins Wednesday at the St. Louis Blues.
"We did what we needed to do tonight, now we have to do it again against St. Louis," Stars coach Peter DeBoer said.
David Perron scored for the Red Wings (35-35-10), who have lost three in a row. Ville Husso allowed three goals on five shots before being replaced by Magnus Hellberg, who made 14 saves.
"We had them recording two scoring chances in the first period, and they scored three goals," Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said. "That's not all on our goalies. We gave them chances you can't give a team that's primed for a playoff run, but it is hard to get any momentum like that."
Hintz gave the Stars a 1-0 lead at 4:53 of the first period when he got free at the far edge of the crease and redirected a feed from Thomas Harley for his 36th goal.

Esa Lindell took Hintz's pass and scored with a long wrist shot from beyond the left face-off circle to make it 2-0 at 7:59.
Ty Dellandrea one-timed a feed from Max Domi at 12:10 to give the Red Wings a 3-0 lead.
Husso was pulled after the goal. He has lost his past three starts and has an .836 save percentage. Lalonde said Husso is healthy after missing two weeks with a lower-body injury.
"This is part of the process," Lalonde said. "He's not sharp right now, and the last few games are going to crush his numbers. But we think he's a potential No. 1 goalie for us, and we've seen flashes of that."
Robertson's power-play goal gave Dallas a 4-0 lead 55 seconds into the second period.

Pavelski made it 5-0 when he scored on a redirection of Miro Heiskanen's wrist shot from the point.
"What an accomplishment and what an appropriate goal for him to score," Stars coach Peter DeBoer said. "If you are going to have a traditional Joe Pavelski goal, that's what it would look like."
Jamie Benn redirected a shot from Colin Miller to make it 6-0 at 14:19.
David Perron scored off a feed from Dylan Larkin at 16:50 for the 6-1 final.
"I think, top to bottom, this is a game that everyone on our team would like back," Red Wings forward Andrew Copp said. "We've been doing a better job lately of starting games well, but this wasn't one of those nights."
NOTES:Pavelski is the fifth player selected in the seventh round of the NHL Draft or later to reach 1,000 points, joining Doug Gilmour (1,414), Luc Robitaille (1,394), Theo Fleury (1,088) and Dave Taylor (1,069). … Heiskanen's two assists give him 71 points (11 goals, 60 assists) this season, tying Sergei Zubov's franchise record for points for a defenseman. … It was Robertson's 33rd multipoint games this season, one shy of Dino Ciccarelli's franchise record set in 1981-82. … Larkin (32 goals, 47 assists) needs one point in the final two games for Detroit's first 80-point season since Henrik Zetterberg in 2010-11 (24 goals, 56 assists).