| The Stars' level of play on Saturday was nowhere
near what was in Thursday's game against the New York
Rangers, but on Saturday the Stars got a lot better
result. They got a win, which for a team that has been
struggling as of late, that should be a confidence boost
going into next week's back-to-back games with the
Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks.
"These are two big points for us,"
Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "Our goal coming in was
to get two points and we did. It didn't matter how we
got them."
They got it the hard way. They blew a two-goal lead,
fell behind in the third period and then had to rally to
tie and get to the shootout, where it is almost a given
that they will come away with the extra point.
"When we needed that extra push to get what we wanted
out of the game, it was there. And that's something we
can build off of," Morrow said. "It was a good
character-building game for us. We're a team that's kind
of treading water right now, scrapping and clawing and
finding ways to win."
And right now that is the mode this team is in - just
finding ways to win.
On Saturday the Stars, who were outplayed badly at
times, got something they didn't have Thursday and have
been missing a lot recently.
They finally got some scoring beyond two goals and
they got some offense at even strength. The Kings played
a disciplined game which meant the Stars power play
chances limited to just three for the game. Those two
even strength goals in the first period by Philippe
Boucher and Stu Barnes turned about to be huge.
The power play, which has been carrying the offensive
load, did strike and it scored a big goal late in the
third to tie the game.
The Stars got a solid game out of Marty Turco,
stopped 33 shots in regulation and overtime. He came up
big in the second period when the Kings were all over
the Stars.
The Kings, who came into the second period down 2-0,
were all over the Stars and could have tied or
taken the lead. But Turco limited the damage and the
Stars still held a 2-1 lead at the end of two periods.
"Whatever they said to each other between the first
and second periods, they turned it on," Morrow
said. "Their intensity was raised and ours didn't raise
with it. They took it to us and had the momentum. I
think parts of the game they wanted more than we did,
but we turned it around and Marty made some big saves."
Turco came up with a couple of big stops on Dustin
Brown and Alexander Frolov in the shootout and he got a
little help from the post in stopping Anze Kopitar.
The Stars got another solid game and yet another goal
from Boucher. Sergei Zubov chipped in two more assists.
Trevor Daley had a superb game on the blue line for
Dallas.
The Jeff Halpern line, which featured Barnes and Loui
Eriksson on the wings, was very good, especially early
in the game.
Overall, it wasn't pretty but it was two points. And
for a team that has been playing .500 hockey for the
past several weeks, those are big points.
Now they have a few days to get ready for a pair of
measuring stick games in Anaheim and San Jose on
Wednesday and Thursday. |
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