I think we should call what Marty did in this game a Marty Turco hat trick. A penalty, an assist, and a shutout. I think it could catch on, like the Gordie Howe hat trick.
This game was much more Dallas Stars-y. They defend like crazy, but most of the defending is done by holding on to the puck.
As we all know, I’m a big fan of good penalty killing. The Stars really put on a show last night. I just love it when they crush the opponent’s power play. The Ducks couldn’t get past the blue line most of the time. If they got the puck into a corner, the Stars got there first, won the battle and sent it down the ice.
I’m kind of a slow writer, so Mike Heika beat me to the points I was going to make about the PK.
In 14 games, the Stars have faced 55 short-handed situations in which they are 4-on-5 – basically your standard penalty kill. In that span, Dallas has allowed four goals and scored three.
I’ve said many times that if they fret about offense and forget about defense, they’ll lose. If they stick to their defense and forget about offense, the offense just comes to them. It’s not that hard.
All the usual names showed up on the scoresheet. Zubie got three assists, and the Morrow/Ribeiro/Lehtinen line went crazy again. But I thought Modano played a really good game, even though he didn’t get any points. I’m fine with that. His new linemate Chris Conner had a good game and got a goal. Toward the end of the game, when they were on the power play, everybody was trying to help Mo get a point. If Mo touched it, they didn’t go more than two more passes before shooting it, to make sure he got a point. But alas, they didn’t get a goal there. I have no problem with Modano winning faceoffs, stealing pucks, backchecking, penalty killing, and feeding his wingers for goals. If he gets points, great, but I’m not worried about him right now.
Juicy played a really good game. He got the second goal of the night on a really good play where he split defensemen and caught a pass from Niskanen. Halpern does a good job again, basically dominating the faceoff circle. He doesn’t get many points, but I love his game.
Next up are the Sharks. We didn’t do that well last time we met them. It’ll be another in a long string of games where all the media talk about is Roenick and his 500th and Modano and his points record. As in the last game I need two things: A win, and no JR goal.
