Stars vs. Wild 12/26/07

Dallas 8, Minnesota 1

That Wild game was a wild game! (Har!)

What an unbelievable game. Turco picked a good night to have trouble. And he did have trouble, but it was early in the game and he straightened out toward the end. The rest of the team bailed him out, not just by scoring eight goals (!), but also by only allowing 17 shots. I think they only got 3 shots in the second period. Sure, they got a goal on one of those three shots, but I think my point still stands.

Almost everybody got a point, and quite a few players had multiple points.

Modano made a beautiful pass to Nik Hagman for the first goal. Mo had a goal in the third, too. He looked good throughout the game.

I was going to point out that this kid, Aaron Voros, gets teased about his resemblance to Modano, but Mike Heika beat me to it. I made a note to myself to watch for him and see if he really does look like him (he kinda does!) and I think I jinxed it because he scored early. He got an assist on one of Pavol Demitra’s easy goals, later, too.

Steve Ott had two assists, and his assist on Jeff Halpern’s shorthanded goal in the first period was a hard assist. He went hard to the net and almost scored, but the puck just stuck to the ice right in front. But Halpern was right behind him to pick it up and score. I love Jeff Halpern, too. He doesn’t rack up the points, but I give him a point for every shift he’s up against the opposition’s best player and that player doesn’t get a point. Like Marion Gaborik, for instance (a minus-3 in the game). According to Vic Ferrari’s awesome time-on-ice numbers, Jeff Halpern and Steve Ott had the Gaborik job.

Brenden Morrow got two goals, and on nice shots, too. On one, the three of them had a really nice move. Miettinen had the puck along the boards, Ribeiro was over behind the net, and Morrow was in the corner. Mittens passes the puck, apparently, to Morrow. But just as he does, Morrow zips out in front of the net, Ribs picks up the puck behind it, and sends it straight out to Morrow, who fires it past the goalie. Very clever.

Modano got a nice sneaky goal in the third, and the Stars get two power-play goals in the period, too. (Actual power-play goals.)

I think Loui Eriksson’s goal was highly underrated. Razor pointed out in the broadcast that it was a gift goal, but I think it took skill and quick thinking. Eriksson was standing next to the post when the puck comes his way, about head high. He catches it with his glove and sets it down in front of him and puts it in the open net. Sure, the goalie was nowhere to be found (probably out looking for his defensemen), but still, he didn’t panic or shank it, or knock it in with his hand.

The prize for the best goal, though, goes to Mike Ribeiro again (I apologize, but the highlight is very choppy; hopefully it will be fixed eventually. You can also see it here, starting at the 43-second mark). In the first period, he’s in the neutral zone with the puck. He gets a hard hit, bounces off it, knocks into another Wild player, bounces off him, and there’s the puck, just sitting there. He grabs it, sends it over to Morrow, while he works his stick free from the defender over to the other side of his body and back, while headed for the net, just in time to tap in Morrow’s pass. Amazing. I just can’t get over what he’s doing.

That was Ribeiro’s 20th goal of the season, which ties his career-high! It’s only December! There are four months to go!

Personally, I’m not looking for scoring any more. We already have it.

Just some general observations…
–My new favorite thing is when Zubov jumps up in the air to catch a puck they’re trying to lob over his head. He’s done it several times in the last few games, and did it again tonight in the first period. People who grew up around ice skating probably aren’t impressed by that, but I didn’t, so I am.

–Steve Ott has been very good on the penalty kill. He has gotten many shorthanded chances lately, because he stays up on the defensemen at the point and is pretty good at interrupting their passes. He did that tonight and it led to Halpern’s shorthander.

–Stu Barnes legs out an icing call and beats the Wild player to the puck, but the linesman calls icing. Amazingly, Stu talks the linesman over to his way of thinking and they move the faceoff out to center ice, instead of down by Marty.

–During the first intermission interview with Stu Barnes, Razor asks whether the power play or the penalty kill is more important to winning. Stu kind of hems and haws and says both, essentially. But Razor says, “Penalty Killing.”

This very blog is why the Dallas Stars are currently NUMBER ONE in the LEAGUE in penalty killing. Razor said it himself.