Quack Quack Quack Part 3

So the Stars took a 3-1 lead in the series last night with a 3-1 win over Anaheim in Dallas.  They definitely fixed whatever it was that went wrong Tuesday and got back to the grit and determination that gave them the 2 wins in Anaheim to start the series. 

Boucher is out for the rest of the series with an injury, so Fistric got to play in his first playoff game, and did he look great.  I might be a tad biased, but really he did.  Trevor Daley also had a great game and looked like a seasoned veteren.

Marty Turco, no words can express his awesomeness from last night.  He should’ve gotten the shutout, but the Ducks managed to net one with only 7 seconds left in the period.

It was an amazing, amazing game.  Hopefully they use this momentum to knock the Ducks out completely tonight in Anaheim.

FYI, What I didn’t appreciate last night was the smug smirk on coach Randy Carlyle’s face after Selanne took out Turco.  Not cool.

Stanley Cup Playoffs: Day 9

Montréal Canadiens (1) vs. Boston Bruins (8)
Game 5: Canadiens 2 Bruins 5
Canadiens lead the series 3-2

Anaheim Ducks (5) @ Dallas Stars (5)
Game 4: Ducks 1 Stars 3
Stars lead the series 3-1

Washington Capitals (3) @ Philadelphia Flyers (6)
Game 4: Capitals 3 Flyers 4 (2OT)
Flyers lead the series 3-1

Minnesota Wild (3) vs. Colorado Avalanche (6)
Game 5: Wild 2 Avalanche 3
Avalanche lead the series 3-2

San Jose Sharks (2) vs. Calgary Flames (7)
Game 5: Sharks 4 Calgary 3
Sharks lead the series 3-2

Stars still lead the series 2-1

I woke up still all discombobulated from last night.  The Ducks managed to beat the Stars 4-2 last night to get one win in the series.  I originally said Stars in 6, so I’m just going to brush this loss off and look forward to Thursday and Friday.  I hope that is what the Stars are doing as well.

I don’t know what happened to them.  The first 5 minutes was great, then the Ducks scored some goals and they started playing their March “panic” hockey, the hockey I loathe so much.  They finally recomposed themselves and came back in the 3rd fighting and forcing the Ducks to take stupid penalties again.  Brenden Morrow managed to get 2 goals and that got the building rocking again.

Speaking of the building, holy crap.  The beginning of the 2nd period?  I have not heard that building that quiet in quite a long time.  It’s definitely going to be a long series, but if the Stars can continue what they got back to doing in the 3rd of last night, I still believe we can take the series. 

I believe in these guys, even despite last night.

Stanley Cup Playoffs: Day 7

Montréal Canadiens (1) @ Boston Bruins (8)
Game 4: Canadiens 1 Boston 0
Canadiens lead the series 3-1

Washington Capitals (3) @. Philadelphia Flyers (6)
Game 3: Capitals 3 Flyers 6
Flyers lead the series 2-1

Anaheim Ducks (4) @ Dallas Stars (5)
Game 3: Ducks 4 Stars 2
Dallas lead the series 2-1

San Jose Sharks (2) @ Calgary Flames (7)
Game 4: Sharks 3 Flames 2
Series tied 2-2

Minnesota Wild (3) @ Colorado Avalanche (6)
Game 4: Wild 1 Avalanche 5
Series tied 2-2

I will post a recap of the game tomorrow after I have had time to sort my thoughts

Quack Quack Quack Part 2

Do I really need to say more? Stars goals were as follows:

• Mike Ribeiro (unassisted)
• Jere Lehtinen (Stéphane Robidas & Mike Ribeiro)
• Mike Modano (Mike Ribeiro & Stéphane Robidas)
• Brad Richards (Loui Eriksson & Joel Lundqvist)
• Loui Eriksson (Joel Lundqvist & Brad Richards)

Final was 5-2

Games Played on April 12

Detroit Red Wings (1) vs. Nashville Predators (8)
Red Wings lead the series 1-0
2pm ET – RIS, TSN, NBC

Montréal Canadiens (1) vs. Boston Bruins (8)
Montréal lead the series 1-0
7pm ET – VERSUS, CBC, RDS

Anaheim Ducks (4) vs. Dallas Stars (5)
Stars lead the series 1-0
10pm ET (9pm CT) – RDS, VERSUS, TSN (KDFI-27 locally)

Quack Quack Quack

I don’t think you could’ve asked for a better start to this series if you’re a Stars fan. Okay, so some even strength scoring would’ve been nice, but everyone figured this would be a battle of special teams. And boy was it, with all 4 Stars goals coming on the power play. Yes, the February Stars are back, it seems. And what a perfect time to return.

Stars posted 2 goals in the first period: the first a deflection from Steve Ott assisted by Stéphane Robidas and Brenden Morrow and the second a goal from Loui Eriksson assisted by Brad Richards and Stéphane Robidas. Stars capitalized on the power play in the 2nd 2 more times, with goals from Jere Lehtinen (assists by Mike Ribeiro and Brenden Morrow) and Brenden Morrow (assisted by Mike Ribeiro and Jere Lehtinen).

Turco posted his 4th career playoff shutout. Where are all of you Turco haters now?! EH?! He was amazing tonight. Absolutely amazing. The entire team was amazing. In the 3rd period, the Ducks kept having to back into their OWN zone because of how strong every member was on the blue line. Amazing, just amazing.

The Ducks spent most of the 3rd period just trying to hit our guys hard. Saturday will definitely be interesting, those Ducks aren’t happy. We’ll see how that one pans out.

The Stars broke out black T-shirts that said “Lock it Down” on the front and “Think Pack,” on the back. Modano explained that the theory is that one hyaena couldn’t take down an elephant, but that a pack of hyaenas could.

“So we’re like Timon and Pumba…Hakuna Mattatta,” he joked. An excellent reference for Disneyland

That lovely quote courtesy of the Dallas Morning News blog

The three stars of the night were

1. Mike Ribeiro
2. Brad May (WTF?)
3. Marty Turco

No, just no. I Think Razor is right.

I believe the Ducks manipulate the 3 Star selections at home games to put their players in a better light.

Because seriously? No. Just no. This is how the 3 stars should’ve been

1. Marty Turco
2. Brenden Morrow
3. Mike Ribeiro

The end.

It all starts tonight.

While 8 teams began their runs to try to get the greatest trophy in sports last night, the Dallas Stars begin tonight against current champs the Anaheim Ducks.

They say you’re a champion until someone else dethrones you, the Stars have that chance starting tonight.  I’m not going to go into some big breakdown of the series; both teams (and fans) know each other well  having met 8 times in the regular season.

The Official Dallas Stars Podcast played some special Playoff Remixes of The Bravery’s “Believe” and AC/DC’s “Back in Black”.  You can download them at Playoff Central.

Games played tonight..

• Montréal Canadiens (1) vs. Boston Bruins (8) – 6pm ET – CBC, RDS
• Detroit Red Wings (1) vs. Nashville Predators (8) – 6pm ET – VERSUS, TSN
• San Jose Sharks (2) vs. Calgary Flames (7) – 10pm ET – CBC, RIS (calgary leads the series 1-0)
• Anahiem Ducks (4) vs. Dallas Stars (5) – 10pm ET – RDS, VERSUS, TSN (FSNSW locally)

And for Dallas Stars fans, here is a quote from Marty Turco when asked if he has a message for the fans for games 3 and 4 via the Official Dallas Stars Podcast:

I’m not one to tell people what to do, my wife might argue with me.  But, you know, we need our fans.  We always have.  The term ‘home ice advantage’ comes only because of fans and so you know we’ve been fortunate over the years to have great fans and great support.  And this community, they know what it’s like to go through..a lot of them know what it’s like to go through a couple runs in 99 and 2000.  They’re as hungry as we are.  And there’s fans that don’t recall it, or weren’t here and are looking forward to it.  We’re in this together, we’re in it as a team together win or lose over the years.  And we hope the fans feel like that too, we want them a part of it as much as they want to be a part of it.  And that’s something that we could do together.  We just hope that they’re there with their hearts on their sleeves and as passionate as we are to win.

I believe.

Playoffs, here we come

Despite the fact that the Stars lost 3-2 in a shootout, they officially clinched a playoff spot with the point earned. So at least that’s a plus, and at least it was an overtime loss which is better than straight out losing. Brad Richards looked good in the shootout. Good boy Brad.

The damn Refs were awful to the Stars in the first 2 periods. Absolutely awful. Stars goals were scored by Mike Modano (from Morrow and Lehtinen) and Niklas Hagman (from Toby Petersen). Turco managed to grab the 3rd star of the night, and he totally deserved it. He made some amazing saves, and definitely kept our team in the game.

I think it’s pretty safe to say we’re going to be seeing a lot more of Anaheim come mid-April.

 

I also promise I’ll get the player pages updated soon. Until then, enjoy a picture of the cute mini-mittens I made for Caitlin for her birthday.