Friday, April 4, 2008

Dallas Stars 4, Phoenix Coyotes 2

By Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

The Dallas Stars beat the Phoenix Coyotes 4-2 Thursday night in Glendale, Arizona, guaranteeing them at least the fifth seed in the Western Conference and a first round playoff matchup with the defending Stanley Cup Champion Anaheim Ducks.

"We've had some great games against that team," Stars captain Brenden Morrow said of the matchup with the Ducks. "You are going to have to go through them at some point and we'll have to do it in the first round."

The only issue to be settled is whether the series will open in Dallas or Anaheim. The Stars trail the Ducks by three points and both teams have two games remaining.

It also became apparent that the Stars will likely be without defenseman Sergei Zubov when that playoff series. The Stars announced Thursday that Zubov was in Germany to have a procedure done on a sports hernia related issue. Zubov will be re-evaluated when he returns to Dallas.

For Thursday's game the Stars were without centers Brad Richards and Mike Ribeiro, who were both said to be "under the weather." But the team was able to build a 3-0 lead and then hold off a late push by the Coyotes.

"We had some guys who haven't played a lot lately play very well for us," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "We did enough to win tonight. That's a positive sign."

Matt Niskanen, Stephane Robidas, Morrow and Mike Modano scored goals for the Stars. Johan Holmqvist, making just his second start in goal for the Stars, stopped 21 of 23 shots to get the win.

"I felt good out there. It's been a while since I played but I didn't feel that way," Holmqvist said. "You just have to ready to play and help the team win hockey games."

After a scoreless first period the Stars broke the game open with three goal in the second period, including two on their only two power play chances of the period.

Niskanen scored from the point on the first chance at 5:22 and Robidas on a blast from just inside the blue line on the on the second power play opportunity at 13:03 of the period to put the Stars up 2-0. Morrow picked off a Keith Ballard pass in front of the Phoenix net and scored with one minute left in the second period to make it a 3-0 game.

The Coyotes found some life in the third period after forward Daniel Carcillo took out Stars forward Krys Barch with one punch in a fight. Enver Lisin scored at even strength with 6:09 remaining and then Ballard scored shorthanded with 3:01 left to make it interesting. But Modano scored into an empty net to seal the win for the Stars, who host Phoenix on Friday night.

The Coyotes fell to 1-7-1 in their last nine games and dropped to .500 on the season.

"We physically skated into a wall about 15 games ago," Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky said. "It was partly because of youth, I think, and partly because for 45 games every game we played seemed like playoff game. You can't play like that."

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