Dallas Stars 3, San Jose Sharks 2 (OT)

by Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

Playoff overtime used to be a nightmare for the Dallas Stars. Not anymore. Brenden Morrow's goal 4:39 into the extra period gave the Stars a 3-2 win over the Sharks in San Jose Friday night and a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

"Our goal was to come in and steal a game,'' said Morrow, who scored his second career playoff overtime winner. "We didn't want to be denied."

Stars center Mike Ribeiro started the winning play, hitting defenseman Stephane Robidas with a cross-ice pass. Robidas carried the puck on net, got Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov scrambling, went behind the net, sent a pass to Mattias Norstrom, whose cross-ice pass was banged home by Morrow from the right circle.

The goal capped off a night in which the Stars didn't generate a lot of scoring chances, but made the most of the few they had.

"We just need to stick with it, no matter how frustrating it can be out there," said Robidas. "Brenden came up big and Norstrom made a great pass in overtime and that was the play we needed.”

That was Morrow's second goal of the game. Mike Modano also scored and Ribeiro had two assists. Marty Turco was excellent in net, especially early in the game, and ended up stopping 25 of 27 shots.

The Sharks scored late in the game to tie the game and force overtime, but dropped a series opener at home for the second time in these playoffs.

"We went through it in the series before," said Sharks captain Patrick Marleau. "It was a pretty good effort. We came back and tied it up late and had quite a few opportunities to go ahead."

Said Sharks center Joe Thornton: "We played great defensively, we battled and unfortunately things like that happen. We'll just forget about it and get ready for Game 2 now."

There was no scoring in the first period. The Sharks held a 10-2 shots advantage over the Stars, who didn't register a shot until the 16:26 mark. San Jose had some good chances. Milan Michalek hit the crossbar on a point blank chance early in the game and Marty Turco came up with several good stops for the Stars, including a nice one late in the period on Ryane Clowe.

"We knew they were going to have a lot of emotion," Dallas coach Dave Tippett said. "We came out here, weathered the storm a little bit. ... Turco made some big saves for us."

San Jose took the lead early in the second period when Matt Niskanen turned the puck over in his own zone and Thornton set up Michalek, whose shot from close range trickled through Turco at the 4:50 mark.

But a little more than a minute later San Jose forward Devin Setoguchi took a hooking penalty and the Stars tied the game on a power play. Ribeiro slipped a pass to Modano, whose one-timer from just inside the blue line beat Nabokov, who was screened on the play. Time of the goal was 6:06.

The Stars took the lead at the 9:09 mark when their top line pinned the Sharks in their own zone, Ribeiro came out from behind the net and backhanded a pass to Morrow, who put the puck into the open side of the net.

Turco held the fort for the rest of the period, making a nice save on Sharks center Joe Pavelski and getting some help from the post on a shot by Marleau.

After missing on a couple of power play chances where they could have tied the game, the Sharks finally got the equalizer with 3:02 remaining when Jonathan Cheechoo knocked home the rebound of a Matt Carle shot during a scramble in front of Turco.

The Stars had a power play chance late in the game, but were unable to take advantage and that sent the game to overtime.

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