DET vs DAL

Dallas Stars captain Brenden Morrow picked an interesting time to criticize referee Bill McCreary.

Speaking on his weekly radio show Thursday on KTCK-The Ticket in Dallas, Morrow was asked about some controversial calls in the Stars' Western Conference finals series with the Detroit Red Wings.

Morrow referenced Pavel Datsyuk's disallowed goal in Game 4 and the controversial call on Tomas Holmstrom for being in the crease on that play, and then said that both teams have had to deal with tough calls. He went back to Game 1 and said Holmstrom clearly was in the crease and on top of Stars goalie Marty Turco when he tipped in a goal for a 3-0 lead, and added that call could have changed the series had the goal been properly disallowed.

Then, co-host Dan McDowell said that he also felt there was a bad call on rookie defenceman Mark Fistric for roughing that gave the Red Wings a 5-on-3 power play just four minutes into the game. Morrow then said he felt McCreary 'made up' that call to 'even the score' with Fistric. The inference was that Fistric, a 21-year-old rookie, had somehow either had words or shown up McCreary in Game 5 of the first round against Anaheim, but the charges were pretty serious.

"That was a very phantom call,'' Morrow said. "I think that was just a little payback for something that happened in the Anaheim series between Fisty and McCreary. That's just my opinion, but I think that's something that was made up. I think there was a little grudge between referee and player where he felt he wanted to even up the score. You never want to see those things.''

McCreary officiated Game 5 against Anaheim - a 5-2 Stars loss - and Fistric was called for roughing and interference in separate incidents. McCreary's only other playoff game involving the Stars was Game 1 against Detroit.

That is until Game 5 of the WCF Saturday. Of course, McCreary will referee that game, as well.

Morrow declined to expand on his comment when given the opportunity, and several others also declined comment, including Stars coach Dave Tippett, Stars co-general manager Les Jackson and NHL spokesperson Frank Brown.

Fistric will not be a factor as he is out of the lineup with mono. But the comment mixes into what should be a serious boiler of emotions at Joe Louis Arena. The in-the-crease call will be front and centre for the NHL, as the Red Wings have stated they believe referee Kelly Sutherland was wrong for making his call in Game 4 and that they will return to the front of the net with gusto. Meanwhile, NHL officials have staunchly defended Sutherland and said that NHL players cannot break a plane that rises up above the crease in a 'cylinder' if they are interfering with the goalie. The contention is that while Holmstrom's skates were not in the crease and interfering, his butt was.

NHL Senior VP of Hockey Operations Mike Murphy says the rule is open to a referee's discretion and is not open to video review. In the opinion of Sutherland, Holmstrom impeded Turco.

"When we put this rule in, the referees were going to make a judgment on the ice. Their judgment was going to be quick. They would get one quick look at it," Murphy said on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada Radio show on Thursday. "And I think if you go back and watch the replay again, you'll see the referee is taking clear notice of Holmstrom and watching the whole play very closely to get the right call made."

The interesting thing is that the rule is written so loosely that it is open to a wide variety of definitions. The league's precedent will tell you that hundreds of goals this season were scored with as much or more interference than Holmstrom was giving.

"If you live that close to the crease - and nobody is better at it than Tomas Holmstrom - there are going to be benefits along the way, but there are going to repercussions along the way," Murphy said. "This is one. The goal probably could have stood, but got taken down. I have absolutely no problem with it. I'll support the referee because this game is played fast. It's not played with four or five different replay angles. He's got my support.''

The Red Wings were defiant Friday in saying they were going back to the net.

"I mean, we're going to the net, and we're going to go there as hard as we can. Never got to the net enough last game," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "That's always been our focus as far as getting prepared in one area. That's what we try to do and we'll continue to do that.

"It's over with and done with now, though. We're moving on. But he's going right back to the spot. He did it right. Any way you look at it, they'll do a video this summer, they'll say, this is how to do it right. They'll have that clip on it."

J-Lo? Now way. How about T-Ho?

Tomas Holmstrom took the 'Butt-gate'' incident in stride Friday as he said he would have to go on a strict diet of Campbell's soup to lose weight and reduce the size of his formidable butt.

"I have to lose weight,'' he said. "Campbell's soup from now on.''

When advised of this situation, Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom laughed. "Maybe take just a half a step more outside the crease,'' he joked.

When told that Holmstrom now had the most famous butt this side of Jennifer Lopez, Kris Draper cracked, "But does he have it insured like she does?''

Red Wings look for secondary scoring

Johan Franzen continues to be sidelined by concussion-like symptoms. Since the leading goal scorer in the playoffs (12 goals in 11 games) was sidelined after Game 1, the Red Wings have gone 1-for-15 on the power play. What's more, the top line of Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom have been the driving force behind any offence that Detroit has produced in the past three games.

"You can't rely on that first line all the time,'' Lidstrom said. "You have to have other players step up. We had that in previous years, and in the first couple games, as well. You have to find ways to get more pucks to the net, create more scoring chances that way."

Stars look to help out Turco

Marty Turco gets a lot of heat for being 0-9-2 at Joe Louis Arena, but that discounts the fact that Dallas as a team is 5-14-5 against the Red Wings over the past five seasons and has only two wins at Joe Louis Arena in that span (with Johan Hedberg and Mike Smith in goal).

"If you look, our team hasn't been very good there. So it is all of the above," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "You can't pin all of those losses on Marty. Could he have been better in some games? Sure. But there are a lot of players that could have been better in some games."

"Well, if he's 0-9-2, my record can't be that great here, either," said Morrow. "There's a lot of us that play in front of Marty. I'm sure he'd like to get the monkey off his back. But the rest of us have to compete hard, play well in front of him and give him as much chance for the win as he's been giving us.''

Tippett said that Turco's win against Detroit in Game 4 in Dallas should give him some momentum.

"That's a game that he can build off,'' Tippett said. "You're playing at home, but you're playing Detroit … everybody makes a lot about he can't win against Detroit. He played very well and he won a game.

"He should be able to take that momentum into this game. That's what we're hoping for.''