Postgame notes and quotes
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page
Here are some postgame notes and quotes from Stars PR.
The Bottom Line:
The
Stats and Stuff:
·
· Overall, the Stars are 7-4-0 in their last 11 games.
· Marty Turco stopped all 34 shots he faced tonight in earning his third shutout of the season. Over the last three games, he has stopped 98-of-101 shots (97.0%) with a 1.01 goals-against-average (GAA). Over his last 10 HOME starts, Turco has a 93.0 save percentage and a 2.21 GAA.
· James Neal potted his team-leading 23rd goal of the season to go along with his 19th assist of the season. He has three points in his last three games (2-1-3).
· Loui Eriksson picked up his third assist in as many games as well as his team-leading second short handed goal of the season (third of his career). The three-game assist-streak ties his season-high and is one game shy of his career-high.
· Jamie Benn recorded his first multi-goal game of his career and third multi-point game of the season. He has three goals in the last three games (3-0-3) and five in the last 10 games (5-0-5).
· Brad Richards had his 45th assist of the season. He has points in the last three games (2-1-3) and has earned a point in 22 of his 27 games at AAC this season.
· Brenden Morrow earned his 17th assist of the season and fourth in his last five games (0-4-4).
· Steve Ott collected his 12th assist of the season and 10th point in his last 13 games (4-6-10).
· Karlis Skrastins gathered his ninth assist of the season and second in his last three games.
· Matt Niskanen was credited with his 11th assist of the season.
· THREE STARS OF THE GAME: 1) Jamie Benn, 2) Marty Turco, 3) James Neal
Brenden Morrow:
(On Benn)
"He was in good spots to get open looks at the net and he put them in the back
of the net when he had the chance."
(On Turco)
"He was strong, he made some real big saves. The guys did a good job of cleaning
up in front of him and when it did get by, he was athletic enough to reach
behind and make that second save."
James Neal:
(On setting a tone and getting a good start)
"Phoenix has played us tough all year, so we knew what we were up against, and
we came out and were physical right off the bat, and put a lot of shots on
Bryzgalov."
"Everything we got our sticks on - we wanted to put bodies to the net and shoot
it. We did that, and we were physical. It was a good start."
(On getting all aspects of the team game going)
"Everybody was plugging away, and that's our depth. We need that if we're going
to make a big run here for the playoffs. So, it was good to see tonight and a
good way to finish off at home."
(On his goal and Eriksson's shorthanded goal)
"Loui hit me backdoor. It was kind of an open net, so it was nice. And then Loui
got the jump on the penalty kill there, and I found him. When he gets a chance
like that, he's going to bury it."
Marty Turco:
(On how well he is seeing the puck)
"I'm seeing it pretty good. It just helps to have good balance and to be able to
move well. That always aids my patience - that allows me to stand in there and
wait to see the puck and react accordingly and not get ahead of myself. But that
coincides hugely with our guys blocking shots that I can't see and giving me the
ability to see pucks, and them cleaning out rebounds like they did numerous
times tonight. So it's always been a work in progress, and a team effort, and
those guys gave me a huge chance. And when we score four goals, I like our
odds."
(On his technique, if he worked on anything in particular in the time off, and
what's coming up)
"Once the body moves, in a way, less is more at times. Just move only in the
ways that you need to. And that just gives me that much more control. Up goes
the patience, up goes the confidence. But the body actually feels a lot better.
It was nice to work on some things while I wasn't playing, but a couple of games
really doesn't do it for me. We are out of the playoffs, we're scratching and
clawing on the road, and we've got three huge ones coming up and a huge one in
Chicago. I can't say how big it is to go in there, a tough game, to collect
points, but we have to. We're just in that position so we're going to have to be
just as good, if not better, and we're going to have to do like we did tonight."
Marc
Crawford
(On tonight's game)
We had a strong game tonight. We haven't had a lot of games where we're really
comfortable coming into the third period. We did a lot of things that we needed
to do. We knew they were a team that this was their third in four nights with
travel, and you've got to make it a hard game. The last time we played them we
didn't get off to the good start. Tonight I thought we were better, and we did
things that made it difficult on them. We outhit them by more than 2-1 in the
first period, and there were a lot of good purposeful hits that I think
demonstrated we were determined to play a real strong game. Oftentimes that's
the attitude and the emotional characteristic you want to show in a game where
you know the other team is fatigued.
(On Turco's last three games)
He's played very well in the last three. Probably the biggest thing he needed
was a break; he didn't want it to be as long as he got it, but all you can do in
those types of situations is prepare for your next outing. We've got a day off
tomorrow, so hopefully he'll get a good rest tomorrow, practice on Monday.
Definitely he's feeling good about himself right now. You can see it in his body
language, you can see it in the way he moves the puck, and it couldn't come at a
better time for us.
Dave
Tippett:
(On tonight's game)
"When the players are coming back the bench and the look on their face is
"really I'm trying," but nothing's happening, that's probably a good indication.
We knew we were going to be low on energy tonight, and this is two times in a
week when you've got to turn around like this. That being said, you've got to
get in these games and find ways to win."
"Last night's game, you could tell after the game, it took a huge toll on us.
That was a hard, hard game, went in to overtime, late, late travel. You've got a
fresh team sitting here. You know they're going to come hard at you. What you're
hoping to do is make sure you get some saves and make sure you capitalize on
some opportunities and we didn't get that done tonight."
(On Bryzgalov)
Well, you're looking for some saves there, but we also didn't score any goals to
help him either. It's a two way street there. Our whole group looked tired
without a doubt.
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