Stars rally, down Ducks in shootout

Friday, January 06, 2006

Another night, third period rally for the Dallas Stars. After falling behind 3-0 after one period and being down 3-1 after two, the Dallas Stars rallied to beat the Anaheim Mighty Ducks 4-3 in a shootout Friday night at the American Airlines Center.

Antti Miettinen, who started the Stars rally in the second period with a breakaway goal, scored the game-winner in the sudden death portion of the shootout. Brenden Morrow scored two goals for the Stars, including a key shorthanded goal early in the third period. .

Johan Hedberg, who took over for Marty Turco after the first period, stopped all 16 shots he in faced in regulation and overtime, and turned away three of four saves in the shootout.

Turco was pulled after allowing three goals on ten shots the day after signing a four-year, $22.8 million contract extension with the Stars.

"For Marty, you work a lifetime for a contract like this," Stars defenseman Philippe Boucher told the Associated Press. "Marty's bailed us out so many times this year. It was the least we could do, to work hard and get this game."

The win was the second straight for the Stars and the second straight game in which they had rallied to win when trailing after two periods.  Dallas also improved to 4-0 in shootouts this season.

The Ducks had a two-game winning streak snapped and dropped to 1-4 in shootouts.

"It's unacceptable," Ducks goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere told the AP. "We had a great first period, I thought, and we just let them come back in the game and we can't do that. ... We were all guilty of letting up in the game. If we want to be a contender, we can't do that."

Just 53 into the game things got a little rough when Stars forward Steve Ott nailed Anaheim's Zenon Konopka with a hit in the neutral zone. That set off a scrum and the end result was Bill Guerin getting an instigator and a game misconduct.

After the two teams played four-on-four for four minutes, the Ducks ended up with a minute of penalty play time and cashed in with a goal.

Andy McDonald fired the puck towards the goal from the left faceoff circle, Teemu Selanne missed the deflection but the puck beat Turco to the far side at the 5:35 mark.

Less than a minute-and-a-half later the Ducks struck again. After the Stars failed to clear the zone, Samuel Pahlsson beat Turco with a shot from just beyond the top of the right faceoff circle at 7:00 of the first.

The Ducks made it a 3-0 game with another power play goal at the 14:00 mark when Selanne knocked home the rebound of a Francois Beauchemin shot from the point.

Hedberg took over for Turco in the second period and had to make a nice stop on Joffrey Lupul just 19 seconds into the period.

The Stars finally got on the scoreboard when Ott set up Miettinen on a breakaway and the Stars forward beat Giguere top shelf with a backhand shot.

That put some jump into the Stars, who put some good pressure on the Ducks but couldn't another puck past Giguere in the second.

The Ducks came close to extending their lead when Travis Moen hit a post on a rebound attempt. Hedberg came up big when he denied Todd Marchant on a breakaway with a poke check.

The Ducks went on a four minute power play with 28 seconds left in the second period when Dallas defenseman Trevor Daley was given a double minor for high sticking.

But it was the Stars who made the most of the situation when Morrow scored on a shorthanded breakaway at 1:35 of the third period to make it a 3-2 game.

Hedberg came up with a big save later in the period when he poke checked the puck away from Anaheim's Marchant on an Anaheim two-on-one break.

At 13:36 of the third Morrow got the equalizer when scored off a rebound after he Stu Barnes, Jason Arnott, Sergei Zubov and Boucher had kept the Ducks pinned down in their own end.

The Ducks outshot the Stars 3-1 in overtime, but neither team scored setting the stage for the shootout.

After Jussi Jokinen scored for the Stars and McDonald for the Ducks, the shootout was 1-1 after both teams had gone through three shooters.

It then moved on to the sudden death portion. Hedberg made a sliding pad save on Selanne on the Ducks' first attempt. Miettinen then took his turn and beat Giguere five-hold to give the Stars the 4-3 win.

Game Notes: Sergei Zubov got an assist on Brenden Morrow's second goal for his 413th point as a Star, tying him with Craig Hartsburg for the all-time franchise lead in defenseman points. Defenseman Philippe Boucher was back in the lineup after being out of the lineup with a broken finger.

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