Turco brilliant as Stars rally to down Caps in shootout
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page
The high scoring Washington Capitals put a season-high 52 shots on goal Monday night, but Stars goalie Marty Turco made sure they got nowhere near their season high in goals scored. Turco's career-high 49 saves were key as the Stars rallied from a 2-0 deficit to knock off the Capitals 4-3 in a shootout Monday night.
"It's huge. We needed a great goaltending performance tonight and Marty was absolutely terrific," said Stars coach Marc Crawford. "We loved the fact that he fought and fought and fought and got a payoff, even in the shootout."
Turco stopped four of five in the shootout, including chances by Alexander Ovechkin and Alexander Semin to help the Stars land the extra point.
"Hopefully this is something we can rally around," said Turco. "We started off this post-Olympics terrible and we need points. It doesn't matter who it is against. We go to Buffalo next and it's going to be a tough one. But we can use this one, which shows no matter what happens in games we can come out with a win."
The win snapped a three-game losing streak for the Stars and pulled them to within four points of eighth place Detroit in the Western Conference playoff race.
"Hopefully this group, and I believe it is, is smart enough to realize how big this win was, to come back like that against this team shows that we can not only play with anybody but win," said Turco.
Brad Richards, Trevor Daley and James Neal scored third period goals for the Stars, and Richards and Loui Eriksson tallied in the shootout. Eriksson got the shootout winner in the fifth round.
Washington set a franchise record with 42 shots through the first periods but Turco kept the Stars close, making 40 saves - including five on a Capitals five-on-three power play - to keep the Stars within 2-0 heading into the third.
"He was pretty good. It's not every day you fire 52 shots on him," said Washington coach Bruce Boudreau. "There were a lot of long ones but he made a lot of good saves, especially on the five-on-three. ... We've seen in the past what he can do what he's on top of his game and he was on top of his game tonight."
Said Richards: "It’s games like this when you run into a team with that much confidence and is that good in this building, I don’t mind saying he has to be our best player probably on those nights. We don’t have the talent to match up with them line for line, player for player so that’s when some nights it should be called 'goalie' not 'hockey.' "
In the final period, Turco's teammates got him some goals. The Stars cashed in on two power plays early in the third, getting goals from Richards and Daley to tie the game.
"We knew that we had a chance that if we go out and draw a penalty maybe or just get a goal early in the period we’d be back in the game and that’s what happened," said Richards.
Neal then scored off the rush to put the Stars up 3-2 with just over 12 minutes to go in the game. Washington's Alex Ovechkin scored late in the third to force overtime, where the Stars eventually prevailed in the shootout.
The loss ended a three-game winning streak for the Capitals and ended the team's franchise record 13-game home winning streak.
"I thought the entire team had a hiccup in the third period," said Boudreau. "Once they got the first one in, I knew it was going to be a dog fight."
The Stars wrap up their three-game road trip Wednesday night in Buffalo.
| Game Recap |
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The Capitals outshot the
Stars 19-5 in the first period and led 1-0 going into the first
intermission on a goal by defenseman Tom Poti, who took a pass
from David Steckel and scored from the slot 2:51 into the game.
The Stars had some good chances, with Brenden Morrow getting stopped early by Semyon Varlamov and Loui Eriksson having a couple of good chances later in the period. The Capitals outshot the Stars 23-11 in the second period, to run their shots advantage to 42-16 through two periods, and added a power play goal by Alex Ovechkin to extend their lead to 2-0. Ovechkin's goal came after Washington got a five-on-three power play for 1:25. With Karlis Skrastins in the box for hooking, Stephane Robidas threw the puck over the glass for a delay of game penalty to give Washington the two-man advantage. Washington didn't score on the five-on-three, but Ovechkin score off a shot from the top of the right circle with 15 seconds left on Robidas' minor to make it a 2-0 game at 14:37 of the second. The Stars rallied in the third, scoring three straight goals in the third to take a 3-2 lead. The first two came on their first two power plays. The first one came at 1:33 of the third when Brad Richards scored off a one-timer from the right circle to make it a 2-1 game. The second one came at the 4:46 mark when Trevor Daley scored on a shot from the left point. The Stars took the lead a little less than three minutes later when James Neal beat Varlamov with a shot from the left wing off the rush, making it 3-2 Dallas at the 7:53 mark of the third. But the Capitals tied it late in the game when Ovechkin broke in the Dallas zone, cut to the slot and ripped a shot past Turco with 3:16 remaining. Washington had all three shots in the overtime period, but Turco was perfect and Richards and Loui Eriksson tallied in the shootout for the Stars and Turco allowed only a goal by Nicklas Backstrom. |
| Quotable |
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“There was nothing but
optimism in this locker room. A two-goal game in the third
period, I don’t care who you’re playing, you’re going to have a
chance. We had our chances in the first couple [periods]. We
thought we deserved some power play chances and we got those
early and we converted. That was a huge lift for our bench to
get out there and get some chances to show a little bit of
emotion scoring goals. The guys played a heck of a third
period.” - Stars goalie Marty Turco "We were laughing because [the Capitals] are pulling out guys that are highlight reel guys and the only goal that beat him was a highlight reel goal so full value to him for having that much fight in this game. He gave us a chance to win.” - Stars coach Marc Crawford on what Washington was rolling out against Marty Turco in the shootout "He was pretty good. It's not every day you fire 52 shots on him. There were a lot of long ones but he made a lot of good saves, especially on the five-on-three. Right in front, on deflections and controlling it. We've seen in the past what he can do what he's on top of his game and he was on top of his game tonight." - Washington coach Bruce Boudreau on Marty Turco "He was great. I don’t know how many shots we had – maybe 50 something. He was good. He did some important saves for them especially on the five-on-three. I guess that happens in hockey. It was a tight game." Washington center Nicklas Backstrom on Marty Turco |
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