Sunday, February 3, 2008

Dallas Stars 2, Calgary Flames 1

By Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

Behind another stellar performance from goalie Marty Turco, the Dallas Stars beat the Calgary Flames 2-1 Saturday night and completed a sweep of their three-game road trip through Western Canada.

Turco, who stopped 92 of 97 shots during the road trip, made 31 saves Saturday night against the Flames.

"He was like that the whole trip," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "He gave us a chance to win every night."

Brenden Morrow and Niklas Hagman scored goals for the Stars, who remained two points ahead of San Jose in the race for first place in the Pacific Division.

"Marty was doing some unbelievable, spectacular things to keep us in the game," said Morrow. "We got some bounces. It was a great trip for us."

The Stars' penalty kill was a perfect 7-7 in the game, thanks in part to Turco who made 11 saves while Calgary was on the power play, including a spectacular save on Daymond Langkow in the second period when Calgary had a 1-0 lead. The Dallas penalty kill was 18-18 over the three-game road trip.

The Flames had a four-game winning streak snapped and lost in regulation for just the fifth time in their last 25 games (16-5-4).

"We had a huge advantage on the power play and didn't score which was a big difference in the game," said Flames head coach Mike Keenan.

Said Flames captain Jarome Iginla, who was held without a goal for the ninth straight game: "We had a lot of chances. A lot of good chances. When you have that many power plays, in a one-goal game, that should be the difference."

After a scoreless first period the Flames opened the scoring 5:37 into the second period when Langkow scored off the rebound of an Alex Tanguay shot.

Langkow came close to making it a 2-0 game with the Flames on the power play later in the period, but Turco had a spectacular stop on that shot and made four other sharp saves on that Calgary power play to keep it a one goal game.

"You never know what's going to make a difference in the game, you make one save at the right time and it manages to turn the game around," said Turco. "That's the way it is for a goaltender in this league."

The Stars drew even a short time later when Mike Ribeiro came down the left wing, skated into the circle that put a shot on net that deflected off Morrow and past Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff at 13:37 of the second.

"I just tried to drive the net and take away Kipper's line of sight," Morrow said. "It was a big goal and it got us back in the game."

Hagman scored the game-winner just 2:28 into the third when he came out from the behind the goal line in the Calgary zone and beat Kiprusoff over the shoulder with a shot from a sharp angle.

"To be honest, I didn't see if there was room there or not," Hagman said. "I was just trying to get it at the net, and it managed to get in."

The Stars' penalty kill denied the Flames two more times in the game to help preserve the win.

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