Dallas Drops St. Louis, Advances to Conference Finals
Well, quite a lot has happened since the last column. An entire
series was finished, as a matter of fact. So let's just do this
thing.
Game One
Eddie Belfour started the series strong with a 23-save 3-0 shutout
of St. Louis. The Stars got their goals from Verbeek, Hull and
Modano. Dallas had 8 days to rest after the Edmonton series, but
showed no signs of rust as they dived right into a thinking-man's
chess match of a first period.
Pat Verbeek returned from a knee strain problem in fine form,
banging in a Nieuwendyk rebound past Fuhr at 2:29 of the first
period. Brett Hull slapped in a bomb just under a minute into the
second period. It was Hull's first goal of the postseason.
Play got physical towards the end of the game. Verbeek drew a
penalty by boarding Pierre Turgeon in response to an earlier
pestering of Belfour by the Blues. St. Louis had a 6-on-4
advantage, but failed to score. In fact, Modano sopped up some
gravy by scoring an empty-netter with seconds remaining.
Game Two
Both teams opened it up, and both coaches were having fits as the
teams traded rushes in what was a very entertaining game. The Stars
continued getting into trouble with the league. Pat Verbeek was
suspended one game for his hit on Turgeon the previous game, and
sat this one out.
This was also Derian Hatcher's much-anticipated return from the
monumental 7-game suspension for crunching Roenick. Hatcher wasted
no time in returning to his usual hard-checking self.
Jamie Langenbrunner opened up the scoring with his third goal of the
playoffs, a hard slapshot that eluded Grant Fuhr. It was reminiscent
of Langenbrunner's center-ice goal against Osgood during last year's
Dallas- Detroit series.
St. Louis took advantage of Dallas mistakes and scored the next two
goals for the 2-1 lead. Dallas got back some life after Mighty Joe
Nieuwendyk tied it up with his fourth goal of the playoffs 5
minutes into the second period.
Mike Keane was the benefactor of some nifty passing between Zubov
and Marshall and scored to give the Stars the 3-2 lead.
The Blues had all the answers as they scored the next two goals to
retake the lead into the locker room at the end of the second
period.
Dallas got the crucial tying goal to send it into overtime from the
hands of Jere Lehtinen. Brett Hull had sent in a shot on Fuhr, and
Modano was able to corral the rebound and pass it to Lehtinen.
During the overtime, Mighty Joe Nieuwendyk scored the game-winner
(again! This guy has a knack for netting the big ones). Zubov
assisted with the setup pass.
Game Three
St. Louis handed Dallas their first defeat of the playoff season.
The Stars had gotten off to a good start as Brett Hull scored his
second goal of the series just three minutes in.
The Blues tied it up early in the second period. St. Louis continued
to play strong on the puck, and the Stars seemed to be lacking in
some tenacity. For whatever reason, Dallas failed to establish their
trademark forecheck, and seemed to be more reactionary than
aggressive.
As a result, St. Louis scored again in the third when Derek Plante
was stripped of the puck. Jochen Hecht (who?) netted his first
career goal and shifted momentum clearly in the Blues' favor.
Darryl Sydor scored for Dallas to send it into overtime on a fluky
play where the puck bounced off several players before Sydor batted
it into the net at waist level.
Pavol Demitra sealed Dallas' coffin and put the capper on a great
night for his line as he scored the overtime game-winner.
Game Four
The Blues continued the home-team winning trend and beat Dallas
again in their third straight overtime game.
Mike Modano had been challenged by Hitchcock to elevate his play
after a poor showing in game three. Modano took it to heart and
came out with speed to net the first goal at the first minute mark
of the opening period.
St. Louis again pulled ahead by two goals as Hecht (again) and
Courtnall scored.
Dallas tied it up 40 seconds into the third when Jere Lehtinen
finished a breakout play started with hard work by Mikey Modano,
who clearly wanted to get back into the series.
The Stars thought they had pulled ahead until a Pat Verbeek goal was
called back because Jamie Langenbrunner had a skate in the crease.
Damn lame punk-ass crease rule!
It was no matter. Dallas was being outworked and St. Louis pulled
out the hard-fought win. The Stars defense was getting more rattled
as the game went on, and they began committing uncustomary mistakes
late, and on into the overtime.
Sergei Zubov had a brain cramp and attempted to pass across the ice
in his own zone to Joe Nieuwendyk, instead of taking the safe, open
lane up the boards. Instead of a 3-on-2 breakaway, the Stars were
handed defeat as Pierre Turgeon netted Zubov's gift pass past a
stunned Belfour.
The series was tied and all the pressure was put on Dallas to pull
off a strong home performance.
Game Five
Hitchcock responded to the two losses by once again throwing all the
line combinations out the door. The main priority was to bust up the
top line of Lehtinen-Modano-Hull. Hitchcock wanted to put a grinder
on this line to get the puck out of the boards and free Modano up to
look for the opening and wait for the pass.
As a result, the Stars opened the game with the following lines:
Lehtinen-Modano-Marshall
Sim-Nieuwendyk-Verbeek
Hogue-Keane-Hull
Langenbrunner-Carbonneau-Reid
Hitchcock was free to experiment all night since he got the benefit
of the last change for being at home. The changes worked for
awhile, and Modano continued his return into the series by setting
up the first goal. The Blues were on a power play, but lost the
puck and sent the Stars into their transition game.
Modano freaked Chris "I will crush you" [best spoke with a thick
Russian accent] Pronger and drew two Blues to him - holding the
puck just long enough to dish out a sweet pass straight to
Lehtinen, who chipped the gravy goal up high over the committed
Fuhr. Nice goal! A clutch play from a big-game player.
The Stars' power play finally came back to life after a pathetic
streak of ineptitude. To say that Dallas hadn't scored much on the
power play was like saying the punk-ass crease rule sucks - it was
a foregone conclusion. Hey, I'm just saying it was hard for the
Stars to punch in a PPG, you see.
Anyway, Mike Modano once again broke into the Blues zone, this time
with the advantage. Modano drew coverage to him and lifted a
pinpoint saucer pass straight to a closing-in Langenbrunner, who
swept the puck in quickly between the post and Fuhr's pad.
Dallas struck again on the power play in the second period. The
Stars were schooling the Blues with their puck movement, and
managed to keep it alive in the zone despite some furious pressure
from the St. Louis penalty-kill unit.
The puck was cycled down low, almost lost, but then recovered and
sent to Derian Hatcher at the point. Hatcher slapped in a bomb that
Mighty Joe Nieuwendyk deftly tipped past Fuhr.
Two PPGs and a shorty! It was a veritable special-teams scorefest!
Eddie Belfour had another spectacular game, and kept the Blues off
the board until midway through the second period. Except for
another Jochen Hecht goal (who is this guy?) that was called back,
it was pretty much all over except for the singing.
Game Six
Brett Hull wasn't very happy with being busted from the first line
during Game Five. He never let it show, and instead wound up being
a key player in Game Six.
Hitchcock started with some weird combinations again:
Lehtninen-Modano-Marshall
Hogue-Nieuwendyk-Verbeek (reunion of a previous second line)
Langenbrunner-Carbonneau-Reid
Marhsall-Plante-Keane
But, eventually Hitchcock caved in and reunited the power trio of
Lehtinen-Modano-Hull. Dallas was playing a tight game, and this
time was showing more foot speed and was definitely beating the
Blues to the loose pucks more than the previous two games at the
Kiel Center.
Al MacInnis made it interesting by finally beating Ed Belfour with
his blistering slapshot from the point. The Blues scored first for
the first time in the series. They also had that home-team thing
going for them.
The Blues held Dallas scoreless until the third period, when Derek
Plante redeemed himself for a few mistakes earlier in the series.
Dallas continued playing with confidence into the overtime. The
deciding goal came when none other than Brett Hull sent a hard shot
in on Fuhr, who once again left a rebound in the crease. Mike
Modano fought his way to the rebound and backhanded the puck into
Fuhr's pads, which initially stopped the puck but left just enough
exposed for Modano to switch back to the forehand and stuff it home
for good.
That was it! Dallas will advance to the conference finals!
Afterglow
The Stars adapted well to not having key players throughout the
series: Hatcher, Verbeek, Carbonneau, Chambers had all missed games
at one point or the other. Hitchcock also challenged Modano to
climb out of his funk and back into the series. Modano said the
long 7-8 day break between series threw off his game. Mikey Mo
obviously found it again somewhere along the way.
Dallas played mostly with five defenders and a rotating cast of
forwards. But as is their trademark, the Stars once again found a
way to win-even if it wasn't exactly pretty along the way.
In the end, St. Louis did play well enough to have won the series.
But Ed Belfour simply outplayed Grant Fuhr. Fuhr did let in some
questionable goals, and submarined an otherwise fine effort from
the BlueNotes. Belfour was sensational and showed no signs of
imploding as he did against Detroit last year.
Looking Ahead
Dallas will face Colorado for the conference finals. This time, the
Stars will be facing a team on a major roll. And, they will have a
much harder time getting pucks past St. Patrick than they did past
Grant Fuhr. If Belfour can duel with Roy goal-for-goal, then it
will come down to a question of skill.
There is an awful amount of dedicated skill on that Avalanche team.
But then again, Dallas has proven they can beat any team in the
league. Can the Stars do it enough times to best the red-hot Avs in
the series? Who knows. This is the time for Modano to seal his
superstar status and rise to the top. Hope Mo's up to the
challenge-it all may be riding on his shoulders this time.
Other Notes:
* Guy Carbonneau lost his father recently. Carbo came back with a
valiant effort despite his grief and a knee problem. Stars fans
have already assured Carbonneau is recognized for his outstanding
career, and magnificent playoff contributions - every time he
handles the puck in Reunion Arena he is welcomed by a thunderous
chant of GUUUYYY!! It's just a great sign of respect for a
remarkable breed of player, and it sounds great every time I hear
it. Some of the hard work is finally being recognized.
* Dallas has officially retired those ugly all-black road jerseys.
Buy 'em while they're hot!
* The defense is definitely missing Shawn Chambers, who proved just
how solid and reliable he is as a minutes workhorse when Hatcher
was suspended. Chambers has a knee problem, and could resume
playing for game one versus Colorado. He will bring more stability
to a defensive corps that is still a little shaky.
* The blueliners have stopped contributing on the offensive end as
they had done during the regular season. At one point, Dallas had
the highest-scoring defensive squad in the league. Dallas is going
to need that second wave of attack against Colorado.
* Sorry Detroit, no three-peat for you! HA!
* Bring on the Mighty Men with Feet on Their Shoulders! And, get
ready for hockey exciting enough to possibly pull even the jaded
and apathetic LCS Hockey Editor Michael Dell back into the hockey
fold. Geez, now that there would have to be some excitin' hockey!
* This is your chance, Dallas. Don't Bonk.
