Sunday, November 30, 2008

Dallas Stars 4, Edmonton Oilers 3

By Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

DALLAS — Mike Modano's 1,300th NHL point came at a perfect time for the Dallas Stars. Modano's power play goal with 2:21 remaining gave the Stars a 4-3 win over the Edmonton Oilers at the American Airlines Center Sunday evening.

"That was a pretty good shot and it's great to see his milestone goal be so meaningful for us," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "You don't get to 1,300 points without being a great player, and that was a great goal."

Brad Richards sent a pass from behind the net to Modano, who pinched in from the left point and roofed a shot from the left faceoff circle for his 537th career goal.

"Richie made a great pass, flat, on the stick and I found a seam," said Modano, who also assisted on a Mike Ribeiro power play goal in the first period. "It's been a great run and I've been blessed to have been around this long. The game has been very good to me and I can't ask for a better organization or city I've had here in Dallas."

Modano almost sat the game out due to some back issues on Saturday night, but his Dad - in town for the holidays - told him to play through it.

“It spasmed up in the middle of the night, but it felt better as the day went on,” Modano said. “Dad gave me a little lip service, told me not to sit this one out.”

Modano factored in on both Stars' power play goals. Dallas was 2-5 on the power play after going 0-21 in the previous four games.

"Finally our power play was something to get excited about," Modano said. "It finally won us a game. It's been a while. It's been a real struggle at times, but you've got to brush yourself off and come to work."

The Stars, who have won two of their last three games, improved to 8-11-4 on the season.

"We have to find ways to win games and it's so important for guys to do the job they were asked to do and we got that tonight," said Tippett. "Marty [Turco] made some big saves for us tonight, the power play got it done and it was the difference maker. I give our guys a lot of credit and we are going to build on this."

The Stars got off to a strong start in the game, taking a 2-0 lead into the first intermission on Ribeiro's power play goal, which came off the rebound of a Modano shot from the point, and Toby Petersen's first goal of the season, which came off the deflection of a Matt Niskanen point shot.

But the Oilers bounced back with a power play tally in the second and then tied it on a Kyle Brodziak goal early in the third. That set a see-saw affair late in the game. Sean Avery scored with just over five minutes to go to put Dallas up 3-2 and then Brodziak struck less than two minutes later to tie it again at 3-3.

"It's funny how it works when you get in slumps, then you turn it around and play a really good game like we did tonight. It tested our will right to the end," said Turco, who stopped 25 of 28 shots on the night. "We talked about being more relaxed. Tonight was an awesome night for us the way it all worked out."

Things worked out the way they usually do for the Oilers in Dallas. Edmonton lost for the tenth time in the last eleven games. The loss dropped the Oilers to 10-11-2 on the season. Coach Craig MacTavish was not happy about how wide open Modano was on the game-winning goal.

“It was missed execution on a pretty elementary part of our penalty kill,” MacTavish said. “The game was there for us. It was ripe for opportunity. We squandered a pretty good second and third (periods) with boneheaded mistakes.”

The Stars and Oilers will meet again Wednesday in Edmonton. It's the next game for the Oilers, but the Stars will play in Calgary on Tuesday before the Edmonton game.

Stars Notes: Defenseman Sergei Zubov missed Sunday's game with a lower body injury. He will be evaluated next week. ... The Stars acquired defenseman Andrew Hutchinson from Tampa Bay for right wing Lauri Tukonen on Sunday.

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