| It may be early, but in what could be a dogfight in
the Pacific Division every point will be important. And
on Sunday night the Stars go the extra one in an early
battle with Anaheim.
"It's going to be a tough division. It's probably the
toughest division in the Western and Eastern
Conference," Stars captain Brenden Morrow said. "Every
game is important and these are all important points."
In what was an early measuring stick game with
Anaheim the Stars fared well, especially through the
first two periods when they built a 3-1 lead.
They were particularly strong in the second, when
they held Anaheim without a shot on goal for almost 18
minutes while rattling off three straight goals.
They seemed to run out of gas in the third, which
isn't surprising as they played their third game in four
nights.
It was far from flawless, but their were plenty of
positives for the Stars.
The Stars did a lot of things right. They kept the
penalties to a minimum, putting the Ducks on the power
only four times.
And the penalty kill was superb again, especially in
the second period when they held Anaheim to no shots on
two power play chances. For the game they were a perfect
4-4 and came up with a big five-on-three kill late in
the first with the Ducks ahead 1-0.
The power play popped in a couple of goals again,
making it five goals with the man advantage in the last
two games and six power play goals in the last three.
The Stars' depth delivered again. Niklas Hagman
scored his second of the season. So did Antti Miettinen,
who led Dallas with nine shots on goal while playing
just 12:45 of ice time.
And Marty Turco came up with another solid effort,
stopping 33 of 36 shots. His best save of the night came
in the shootout when he made the stick save on Ryan
Shannon's slick spin move.
The Stars still look lethal in the shootout and that
those shootout points could be key when all is said and
done later in the season as teams jockey for playoff
position in the competitive Pacific Division and Western
Conference.
Overall, it was a good two points against a good
team. A good effort for a team that was playing its
third road game in four nights.
So now it is off to San Jose for the Stars. They'll
try to complete the sweep of the California road trip
and go for a 6-0-0 start, which would tie the best start
in franchise history. That mark was set ten seasons ago
in 1996-97.
"It's a nice thing to shoot for," Stars center Mike
Modano told the Associated Press. "You want to see how
far we can take a good start like this. So far, we've
found different ways to win games -- getting leads,
shootouts, coming from behind -- and that's good. You
just find ways to win games and worry about the X's and
O's later." |
Indicates Subscriber only
content