Monday, May 5, 2008

Dallas Stars 2, San Jose Sharks 1 (4 OT)

By Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

DALLAS — It last started Sunday night, lasted into early Monday morning and featured some top notch goaltending from Dallas' Marty Turco and San Jose's Evgeni Nabokov, who had allowed a combined two goals on 116 shots. But Stars captain Brenden Morrow's power play goal on the 117th shot at 9:03 of the fourth overtime broke the stalemate, giving the Stars a 2-1 win and pushed them into the Western Conference Final against the Detroit Red Wings.

There were a combined 28 shots in the first overtime, with the Stars registering 17 of them. Nabokov made the save of the series when he made a spectacular glove save on Brad Richards 1:31 into the fourth period. Video replays showed that the puck was in Nabokov's glove and right on the goal line, but never crossed. Turco made a spectacular save at the other end later in the period, making a kick save on a Patrick Marleau close range shot.

Stars center Mike Ribeiro had two more great chances to end the game in the first overtime. After a San Jose turnover he was all alone on Nabokov, but lost the puck and his eventual backhand attempt was turned aside by the Sharks goalie. Moments later Ribeiro scooped up the rebound of a Loui Eriksson shot and rifled it past Nabokov, but the puck hit the crossbar and bounced out.

The Sharks outshot the Stars 11-2 in the second overtime. Turco came up a couple early saves. One came on Joe Thornton after Stars defenseman fell down and lost the puck in the Dallas zone and then made another nice stop on Tomas Plihal.

The Sharks outshot the Stars 8-6 in the third overtime and both goalies were spectacular again. Turco came up with the save of this period, making a sprawling stop on a two-on-one break by Ryan Clowe and Torrey Mitchell. San Jose did get a power play in the third OT, but weren't able to generate much on the chance.

There was no scoring in the first period, but both teams, especially the Stars, had some great chances. Nabokov stopped Mike Ribeiro from close range early in the game and made another great stop on Joel Lundqvist later in the period. Lundqvist had an early chance, but couldn't corral the puck after a great pass from Richards and was eventually knocked off the puck by Sharks center Curtis Brown.

Turco had a nice stop on a Clowe wrist shot from about 20 feet with about one minute left in the period, and then made a sharp glove save on a Brian Campbell score with one second remaining in the first and the Sharks on the power play.

The Stars broke through on the scoreboard at 4:49 of the second period when Miettinen swept in from the right side and knocked home the rebound of a Sergei Zubov shot from the point to give Dallas a 1-0 lead.

Turco came up with a total of 11 saves in the second period, including nice stops on Joe Thornton and a nice stop on a redirection by Jonathan Cheechoo. Nabokov was sharp as well, making a nice glove save on Nicklas Grossman to help keep it a 1-0 game for the Sharks heading into the third period.

The Sharks got the equalizer at 1:39 of the third period when a Clowe shot from the right boards found its way past Turco. The Sharks were all over the Stars for a stretch of time after that, but couldn't get another puck past Turco, who made several nice saves and got some help from Robidas, who made a big block on a Campbell shot late in the period. The Stars had some good chances, but Grossman fired wide on a shot from the slot and Ribeiro couldn't get a hold of the puck on the rebound while looking at the open side of the net.

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Comments

James Scott Verified

It was nice finally going to one of these multi-OT affairs and them actually winning...having been at the last OT nightmare in Dallas, I was prepared for the worse. This team as a way of just willing itself to victory - we'll see if they have anything left in their tank for DET.

2 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )