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head coach: Ken Hitchcock

roster: C-Mike Modano, Guy Carbonneau, Joe Nieuwendyk, Bob Bassen, Brian Skrudland. LW- Dave Reid, Greg Adams, Benoit Hogue, Juha Lind, Patrick Cote, Jamie Wright. RW- Mike Keane, Mike Kennedy, Pat Verbeek, Jamie Langenbrunner, Jere Lehtinen, Grant Marshall. D-Derian Hatcher, Craig Ludwig, Darryl Sydor, Shawn Chambers, Richard Matvichuk, Sergei Zubov, Craig Muni. G-Ed Belfour, Roman Turek.

injuries: Shawn Chambers ,d (sprained knee, day-to-day); Richard Matvichuk, d, (sprained shoulder, unknown); Joe Nieuwendyk, c (surgery to repair damage in both knees, 6 months).

transactions: None.

game results:

First Round vs San Jose: Stars won 4-2

4/22 San Jose     W 4-1
4/24 San Jose     W 5-2
4/26 at San Jose  L 4-1
4/28 at San Jose  L 1-0 OT
4/30 San Jose     W 3-2
5/02 at San Jose  W 3-2 OT

Second Round vs Edmonton: Stars won 4-1
5/07 Edmonton     W 3-1
5/09 Edmonton     L 2-0
5/11 at Edmonton  W 1-0 OT
5/13 at Edmonton  W 3-1
5/16 Edmonton     W 2-1

Western Conference Finals vs Detroit: Red Wings lead 1-0

5/24 Detroit      L 2-0
5/26 Detroit      W 3-1
5/29 at Detroit   L 5-3
5/31 at Detroit   L 3-2

team news:

by Jim Panenka, Dallas Correspondent

Wings Slowly Killing The Not Ready for Prime Time Players
(Sorry, no Phil Hartman references here. I'm talkin' bout them Stars.)

Its just not looking good, people. The Dallas Stars have been searching for their true identity ever since Bob Gainey stepped down as head coach of the team several years back.

Slowly, but not-so-quite-surely, Dallas is developing into one seriously good team. They proved that this year with another record-setting season, a President's Trophy, a few playoff records, and a conference finals appearance.

This conference finals series was an opportunity for Dallas to defeat the defending champions and forever establish their identity as a true winner. But, the more that the series with the Red Wings goes on, the more clear it is becoming that this Dallas team isn't ready to go all the way -- at least not just yet.

Of course, the main reason why this time around was all the injuries. Modano (twice), Hatcher, Matvichuk, Nieuwendyk, Chambers, Lehtinen, to name a few, were all injured throughout the season, and the list goes on and on. There wasn't a single month that went by without some new Stars player on the injured reserve list, it seemed.

Despite the manpower losses, it has been a season of miracles for Dallas. Nobody was sure if the Stars would repeat last year's regular-season success. They did. Nobody was sure if Ed Belfour could still carry a team. He could. Nobody was sure if all the injuries would kill the season for the team. They didn't. Nobody was sure if Dallas could cut it in the playoffs and survive the first few rounds. They did. Barely.

And its that "barely" part that is killing the team. Make no mistake, the Dallas Stars are a serious contender amongst the NHL's top teams - most of the time. But the other part of the time, Dallas seems to revert to playing like the team that tanked out two years ago and finished amongst the worst in the league.

The Stars have a confidence problem. Early on in the season, the Stars were playing a little cocky, and were being consistently beat by "lesser" teams that were hungrier than Dallas. That developed into a pattern. The Stars could beat the best teams during the important, clutch games - but they seemed to not take all the other games seriously enough. They didn't have the killer instinct to go out and put the lesser teams away with authority, as they should have.

As a result, there were several turning points during the season where the Stars easily could have blown their lead, and begin free-falling into a death spiral down the standings. Instead, the players would wait right until they were looking over the cliff, and then "turn it on" in a mad attempt to come out on top.

Luckily, (luck may have had nothing to do with it, there was some skill involved) every time the Stars were facing one of these critical turning points, they managed to pull through it and continue on their winning ways.

The playoffs were no exception. Even in the first series against San Jose, after Marchment (DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED!!!) wrecked Joe Nieuwendyk's fantastic, amazing, stupendous, should-have-been-there-the-whole-time season, Dallas was guilty of allowing the Sharks to win a few games and get right back into the series.

Sure, the loss of Nieuwendyk was a crime, a damned crime, but Dallas nearly allowed San Jose to make it to a Game 7 nail-biter to finish the series. That could easily have ended up a Game 7 OT win for San Jose. But the better team got its act together and won the series, with a little help from Mike Keane.

During the Edmonton series, Dallas pulled out the first win, but then immediately went back into hiding for Game 2. The whole team failed to show up - for a playoff series. What's up with that? Not only that, the Stars were held completely shotless the entire first period, and set a new low mark for shots on goal during the entire game (15).

Indeed, the series set a new playoffs low record of only 14 goals recorded amongst both teams throughout the five- game series. That was the lowest goal total between teams in a five-game series in about 60 years. Obviously, it was much more a defensive series than anything else, a natural reflection of the Belfour vs. Joseph goalie duel.

"The first two periods were as bad as we have been outplayed in this building all year," Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said after Game 2. "The difference was Edmonton's tenacity and that we were unable to match their desperation."

"I think some of our people played soft and did not have the necessary grit. They beat us to most of the loose pucks and they worked us over real well in front of the net," said Hitchcock.

Well no kidding, Hitch! If you fail to show up for a game, that usually happens.

The Detroit series is not much different. Dallas totally blew Game 1 at home, a game the Stars had a chance to win, and take an early, and comfortable lead with home-ice advantage. Instead, the Stars snoozed through a boring stinker, and allowed Detroit to skate away with the 2-0 shutout win and a 1-0 series lead.

"Detroit basically has four players who are outworking our five," Hitchcock said of the Stars' power-play efforts. And it is the Stars' anemic power play which is causing much of the offensive woes for the team in the playoffs. The Stars were at an unthinkable record of one out of 48 power play chances during the playoffs. That is no way to win.

Actually, the power play is sapping strength from the teams' 5-on-5 play. The power play gave up the Stars first and only shorthanded goal of the playoffs during Game 4.

Defenseman Darryl Sydor, who has easily been one of the Stars' hardest working player in the Detroit series, and who's efforts aren't going unnoticed by his teammates, summed up Game 1 with complete honesty.

"We took games off in the first couple of series, too, but we can't do that against this team," said Sydor. "We have to be ready to play this time."

No kidding, Darryl. Does anyone other than yours truly think it is the most serious of crimes that a team would fail to show anything other than 100% in a conference finals series? That just isn't supposed to happen, hockey fans! You have to give Sydor high marks just for giving an honest answer, rather than the usual "we feel good right now, but we just have to get our game back on the ice..." rhetoric.

Dallas turned it around, as they always attempt to do, and put in a much-better effort during Game 2. This one game made the entire playoff season worthwhile. There was plenty of hard hitting going around, and the two teams pretty much traded rushes in what turned out to be a wonderful 60 minutes of controlled chaos. If you saw this game and wasn't impressed, check your pulse.

Dallas was nearly dominant over Detroit, and proved that when the team shows up, and everyone is equally committed to put the Stars over the top, they can beat anyone. Trouble is, the Stars don't always show up that ready for games.

Why does a team purposely put itself into a hole to climb out of? Maybe if you're not confident, you need to put a hole in front of yourself to climb out of to prove to yourself that you are worthy. But hey, that's all you get for free. Any more consultation from Dr. Jim will require a $100 per hour fee, buster.

It all still seems to be related to the confidence factor. The Stars still aren't quite ready to proclaim themselves as a great team, as well as continuously and consistently play like one. Who knows why, but until they get over this lunacy, they will never secure Lord Stanley's Cup.

And, Detroit looks like they are in no mood of giving the Stars any slack. The Red Wings have since rebounded from the Game 2 loss to claim the next two victories as their own. The difference so far is that the Wings fully capitalized on all their chances, and Dallas has failed to finish on many of theirs. The Wings now have a 3-1 series lead over Dallas, and the Stars must now go against traditional wisdom and history and win three straight games to advance. Not many teams have been able to do it.

"They can talk about the history, but no one in this dressing room thinks it's over," said Guy Carbonneau. "We still want to go to the end. To do that, we've got to get back to Dallas and win the next one."

"It's not the right time of year to be losing players, that's for sure," said Craig Ludwig, of losing teammate Richard Matvichuk to a shoulder injury. "But we haven't used injuries as an excuse all year, and we won't now. We'll do the job with what we have."

"The last two games have been tough-luck games for us," said Mike Modano. "You can pinpoint little things that aren't going our way. But we can't expect to win a series if we keep painting ourselves in the corner at the start of the game."

Those are gutsy rebuttals to the naysayers who say Dallas is dead. And, they definitely aren't dead yet. But, they are on life support, and the priest is waiting just outside the door.

The end is near. Eddie Belfour is finally beginning to come unglued, just as many of his detractors predicted he would. Its just sad that he waited until the bitter end to begin doing it.

Many predicted he would lose it after getting run by Owen Nolan during the San Jose series. Instead, the whole Stars team took the game off as the big "get even" game for the loss of Nieuwendyk. Dallas was totally preoccupied with getting even, and forgot to play hockey. But, Belfour remained quiet for the most part, and held the Sharks at bay the rest of the series.

During the Edmonton series, the focus clearly shifted to the Belfour-Joseph duel, and both teams were content to just play good hockey. There was no reason for Eddie to get riled up, so he kept his mind in the games and turned in a spectacular string of wins for Dallas.

Then, there was Detroit. For some reason, the Red Wings are the Stars' achilles' heel. Belfour saw plenty of the Red Wings during his tenure with the Chicago Blackhawks, and that long history seemed to have developed a healthy hatred of Detroit by Belfour.

Game 1 went quietly enough, but when the Stars' energy went into overdrive for Game 2, Eddie was right there with his teammates getting very involved during the game. Belfour hacked and whacked at any red-and-white jersey that dared to venture near his doorstep. He has definitely gotten full use of his goalie stick.

And later in the game, when Detroit was making a push at the Dallas net, several Stars tangled with Wings directly in front of Belfour. One of the Wings took a Star to the ice, and was holding him down with his back to the Red Wing player. Belfour took exception to this unfairness, and got into a pretty good shoving match with the Wings player (Lapointe, I believe).

While he was lucky that he didn't draw any penalties (and Osgood did), that was mainly Eddie just being Eddie. But during Game 3, Belfour stepped a little too far over the line, and out of his net. His play had become more and more chippy, and he was guilty of whacking serveral Red Wings while they were near the crease.

Later in the game, after Detroit racked up a 4-1 lead, Dallas was playing well and got two quick goals to bring the score to a more-managable 4-3. The Stars had caught Detroit slacking off, and were building enough momentum to challenge for the game win.

That's when the wheels came off for Belfour. He went behind his net to play the puck, and instead of immediately dumping it around the boards, he held onto it looking over his shoulder, as if to wait for the approaching Red Wing forechecker to come by him.

As the Red Wing player skated near, Belfour fanned on an attempt to play the puck, and then made some contact with the Red Wing player. As soon as Belfour felt the contact, he hit the ice as if he'd been shot. Belfour lay there waiting for the penalty call that never came. The referee wasn't biting on this one.

While Belfour was waiting for his call, Marty Lapointe parked directly in front of the Dallas net waiting for a hail mary. Slava Kozlov somehow got possession of the puck, and sent in a perfect pass to Lapointe, who twisted around and slammed the puck under a sprawling Belfour just as Eddie was making his way back to the net.

You could see the look of abject terror on Belfour's face after he realized the scope of what he had just cost the team. Not only did he: 1) fan on the first attempt to play the puck, he also 2) took a dive hoping for a stupid penalty call and 3) didn't get back to his net quickly enough. If that wasn't bad enough, the Lapointe goal 4) easily put the game away for Detroit 5-3.

Belfour had just cost the team any comeback hopes. Dallas fell to 2-1 against Detroit in the series. Nobody gave him too much guff over this one because, hey, Belfour was the man who carried the team on his back up to this point.

But he did give up two or three goals he normally should have stopped. The early Gilchrist goal was mentioned as a stop you have to get from your goalie. For some reason, Belfour couldn't keep it out of the net, and the Wings rallied off this single goal to bury Dallas.

During Game 4, the Stars hoped Eddie would bounce back, and just settle into a solid game, as he had done vs. Edmonton. Instead, Belfour was rattled again by an early goal, this time on a Kirk Maltby breakaway. Again, it was another save some felt he should have made.

Somehow, the miracle Stars were about to pull off another miracle. They were challenging the Wings, who had let down some once again, and threatened to steal the momentum back in their favor. They were only down at this point 1- 0.

That is, until Bassen got a marginal penalty. Belfour was hacking and whacking again during the penalty kill, and the Stars were killing it off well. Just before the penalty ended, Lapointe parked in front of Belfour again, but this time Eddie went postal, and slammed his goalie stick directly between Lapointe's legs. OOOOOHHHHHHH- that H A D to hurt!

Eddie gave Marty a wicked bellringer, just like the madcap battle between Johnny Dangerously and that other guy, you know, the one with the mouth. His fargin bells must have wanted to fall out of his farging pants. I had that happen to me once -- ONCE!

Fortunately for Belfour, and Mrs. Lapointe, Marty seems to still be able to procreate. And, Belfour has yet to receive any league discipline over his bell-busting efforts.

But unfortunately for his team, on the ensuing power play, Detroit scored again to take a commanding 2-0 lead. The Stars did manage to claw and scratch their way back to a 2-2 tie, only to yield a late nail in the coffin to Slava Kozlov. Yes, him again. The much-hated (by LCS Hockey) weasel did it to Dallas again, as if scoring the winning goal in Game 3 wasn't enough.

It was clear that Dallas was not gonna make it back. They were putting up a valiant effort, despite being sold out by their normally better netminder. That was the wrong point during the wrong game of the most important series the Dallas Stars franchise has ever played for Belfour to have such a big lapse of reason.

Sure, Hitchcock and the others brought up the terrible way that Marouelli called the game, and it seemed as if old Danny was on a different planet during this game (can you say payoff?). But, even though you normally wont get called for a whack to the leg while you are killing off a penalty, Belfour should have known better.

The Stars still made the attempt, but when Richard Matvichuk went down with a shoulder injury of unknown severity, the wheels were definitely coming off. Dallas was already playing without an injured Shawn Chambers.

It was Chambers' absence that led to Matvichuk's first-period shorthanded giveaway to Maltby. Matty was getting tired playing more minutes on the power play due to Chambers' absence, and Matvichuk was already playing hurt. So, he fanned on a backhanded pass across his crease because the puck was bouncing.

The puck was probably bouncing because it was one of those cheesy Fox glow-puck abominations. You know, they can't freeze those things because of all the electronics inside. What happens to an unfrozen puck when being played in a hot, humid rink on bad, slushy ice? It b o u n c e s. It bounces a lot. In this case, it bounced right to a waiting Kirk Maltby, who went in to score on a hapless Belfour.

Well, at any rate - after the giveaway, Detroit targeted Matvichuk even more, because they knew Matty was playing injured with a bad knee. And, they knew he was rattled by the giveaway.

Getting back to the late Matvichuk injury, Matty and the Stars battled valiantly until the very end. But, when Matvichuk lay on the ice as a writhing heap, with a disturbing look of pain on his face, you could feel the air coming out of the Dallas bench. That was the last straw.

The Stars were losing too many men on the battlefield, playing a losing game against an overwhelming opponent with superior firepower. Now the Red Wings simply need to put away the flaming plane wreck formerly known as the Dallas Stars.

Of course, there is always hope. Never leave a hockey game. Never count your team out. And, if you're a Dallas Star, never give up the war until the last battle has been fought.

If Dallas pulls off this miracle of beating the champions, full credit has to go to them as the most durable team ever to lace up their skates. In three short seasons, they will have gone from last place to first, have broken nearly every franchise record related to win/loss record and points production in a single season, and have defeated all comers, including the defending Stanley Cup champions -- all without most of their best players in the lineup at differing times.

That's one tall order. The Stars will attempt to fill that order back home at Reunion Arena beginning on June 3, 1998.

Other Notes

* In an attempt to spark offense, ANY OFFENSE!!, Hitchcock united the power line of Lehtinen, Modano, and Langenbrunner. It was this line that got the big attempted comeback started during the end of Game 3. They never had much chance to get anything going because of all the special teams play during game four. Marouelli should have choked on that whistle of his, the putz.

* In another effort to boost offensive production, Hitch moved Modano back to the point on the power play, and moved Derian Hatcher back up front in an attempt to screen Osgood. The good news is, Dallas scored a power-play goal. The bad news is, they surrendered a shorty.

* While it was good to see Bob Bassen score in this series, he and Pat Verbeek only have a goal apiece so far. They were two of the ones mentioned that need to pick it up. Maybe they will have enough time left to do so. Greg Adams was one of the other forwards mentioned as needing to score more, but other than the game-winner during Game 2, Gus has been silent due to a re-aggravation of his ongoing neck/back problems. DOH!

* Of all the forwards being singled out for more production, only Jere Lehtinen seems to have a legitimate streak going. Lehtinen has 4 points in the last 2 games (2g, 2a). All this while playing injured with a weak knee. It was no coincidence Lehtinen helped set up Modano's only goal of the series during game three. Modano also assisted on one of Jere's two goals that night.

* Dallas will probably recall Dan Keczmer and some of the other K-Wings d-men due to the injuries of Chambers and Matvichuk. Just how much injustice is this team supposed to face before they get a few breaks?

* Other than the only power play goal of the series, Sergei Zubov has been held quiet. He is starting to show some of that lack of willingness to shoot the farging puck on the farging net that put most of the Pittsburgh Penguins fans in a loopy hatefest towards him. But like Belfour, Zubov waited until the very end, when it was most important NOT to exhibit your bad tendencies, to bring that old can of worms out into the open. Whatsa matta, Zube?

* Look for Derian Hatcher and Craig Ludwig to wipe out everything in sight next game. It appears as if that may be the only way to knock Detroit off their game long enough to steal a couple-three wins away from the champs. For some reason, Dallas abandoned the rough, nasty play that won them game two during games three and four. Except for that Belfour Bell Slash to Lapointe, of course.

* And, the lack of Stars willing to sacrifice themselves in front of the net has been a B I G problem. If the rough boys mix it up, maybe the forwards will take cue from them and begin mixing it up in front of Osgood?

C'Mon, Dallas- hang in there for just three more games...

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