Ducks Give Up Star Billing

This was all too familiar. So familiar that Mighty Duck captain Paul Kariya already had his hands in the air in celebration.

Petr Sykora had the puck. He had an open net. He had the game on his stick.

This was the type of goal that had propelled the Mighty Ducks to one playoff victory after another. Only this time, the shot didn’t go in.

Sykora’s flick on net with 1 minute 20 seconds left was the Ducks’ last best chance. Dallas goalie Marty Turco made the save and the Dallas Stars exhaled.

That play was the final step in the Stars’ journey back into the Stanley Cup playoffs. Their 2-1 victory in front of 17,174 at the Arrowhead Pond ended the Ducks’ six-game playoff winning streak and, more important, left Dallas down only 2-1 in the Western Conference semifinals.

“I have to get that shot underneath the crossbar,” Sykora said, head down in front of his stall in the dressing room. “If I get it higher, we’re in overtime. I didn’t.”

There was no way that anyone was going to sew a scarlet letter on Sykora’s jersey. But that last gasp was typical of how the entire game played out.

Jere Lehtinen scored both Dallas goals, one off his shin, with gritty play. The Stars banged and battered throughout, their style all season. It was Turco, though, whom they leaned on.

The Ducks had chances. Turco had saves.

Sykora’s chip shot, the Ducks’ last shot, was stopped by Turco, with the puck landing behind him. Dallas center Jason Arnott then tapped it away.

“I thought it was in,” Kariya said. “I had my hands up. I don’t know what happened.”

Turco stopped 31 of 32 shots, many from so close he could see the whites of the Ducks’ eyes.

That was how he played in helping the Stars finish first in the Western Conference during the regular season.

This was the first time in the series that Turco outplayed Duck goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who stopped 30 of 32 shots.

“You always figure it’s going to come down to the wire,” Turco said.

The Ducks had fed off such close games, always finding a way in winning six consecutive playoff games by one goal, four in overtime. Turco, who set an NHL modern-day record with a 1.72 goals-against average this season, left the Ducks hungry.

“Turco made some great saves, some point-blank ones,” Duck center Steve Rucchin said.

And thus the Stars found their familiar position. They trailed Edmonton, 2-1, in the first round and rolled through the Oilers and into the second round.

“I think we have been here before,” said Dallas right wing Bill Guerin, who returned to the lineup for the first time since injuring his thigh on Feb. 27. “It’s one of those things you have to deal with. You get yourself in a hole, you got to get yourself out.”

The Stars started digging from the start.

Lehtinen made a pest of himself. He parked next to the crease during a power play. Derian Hatcher fired a shot from the blue line that went off Lehtinen’s leg and past Giguere for a 2-1 lead 3:41 into the period.

In the first period, Giguere made three acrobatic saves on a bang-bang-bang sequence. However, for one of the few times in the playoffs he received little support from teammates, who didn’t get near any of the rebounds.

Lehtinen finally whipped the fourth rebound on net before Giguere could recover from the previous shot, giving the Stars a 1-0 lead 2:24 into the game.

“This was a must-win situation for us and we played like it was,” Dallas defenseman Philippe Boucher said.

The Ducks got even with their second power-play goal of the playoffs. Rucchin tried to center a pass across the crease from the left post. The puck went off the skate of Dallas defenseman Richard Matvichuk and into the net to tie the score, 1-1, at 16:09.

The rest of the night they were trumped by Turco.

In the first period, Adam Oates whipped a pass from the blue line that Kariya redirected at the crease. Turco managed to change direction and sit on the puck before it could slip past him.

In the second period, Rucchin did blue-collar work and came up with the puck behind the Stars’ net. His quick feed was one-timed by Kariya in front of the net, but Turco managed to get square and deflect the shot away.

In the third period, Samuel Pahlsson launched a shot from the blue line that Turco stopped. Stanislav Chistov burst in and ripped the rebound on net, but Turco managed to stick out his left foot and catch the puck with his skate.

“The deeper you go into the playoffs, the less it is about skill,” Sykora said. “It’s about endurance and how you handle the mental stress.”