Punchless Ducks Seeing Stars, 5-0

Whatever respite from their recent woes the Ducks might have received with Saturday’s 2-0 victory in St. Louis disappeared like Teemu Selanne’s offense Monday night.

The Dallas Stars--who had thrashed the Ducks, 4-0, nine days ago at the Pond--dominated every facet of the game from the opening faceoff to the final merciful horn and skated away with a 5-0 victory in front of 15,851 in Reunion Arena.

All four Dallas lines pretty much had their way with the Ducks, stealing passes and creating offensive opportunities that led to a 4-0 lead after two periods.

“You have to give Dallas credit,” Duck Coach Pierre Page said. “They’ve definitely separated themselves from the rest of us and become one of the elite teams in the league. They looked good no matter what we tried.

“But it’s like football, if you throw two interceptions in the first couple of minutes, you’re going to be in trouble. You don’t see them making drop passes that get intercepted or trying to go one-on-one at the blue line.”

Dallas’ neutral-zone trap totally frustrated the Ducks in Anaheim. After their success with a similar defense against the Blues on Saturday, the Ducks thought they’d give the Stars a bit of their own medicine.

Dallas swallowed every dose with relish, however, and spit out scoring chance after scoring chance. And while the Duck defense was ineffective, their offense was undetectable. They managed only six shots on goal in the final two periods, only one of which--a shot from the slot by Selanne, the NHL’s leading goal scorer who hasn’t scored a point in the last five games--had even the slightest chance of ending up in the net.

Dallas goalie Ed Belfour, who shut out the Ducks on Nov. 16 and has an 11-2-1 career record against them, has given up only six goals in the last six games and has strung together eight scoreless periods.

Guy Hebert, on the other hand, was like a Duck in a shooting gallery. When he was relieved of duty in favor of Mikhail Shtalenkov late in the second period, the Stars already had peppered him with 24 shots.

“We knew we were in for a tight-checking, frustrating type of game,” Duck wing Joe Sacco said, “but we had some breakdowns and they capitalized on our mistakes right away. And it’s really tough to come back nowadays, especially against a team like Dallas.”

The Stars took a 1-0 lead midway through the first period when Joe Nieuwendyk stole a pass behind the Duck net and flipped a backhanded shot off Hebert’s pads. Benoit Hogue kept the rebound alive with two more point-blank shots before Pat Verbeek pushed the puck between the post and Hebert.

Slashing penalties against Jeff Mitchell and then Richard Matvichuk 50 seconds later gave the Ducks one minute 10 seconds of a five-on-three power play, but they managed only one shot that required a good save by Belfour.

Dallas went ahead, 2-0, at 17:24 of the first period after Dave Reid blocked a pass in front of the Stars’ net. Todd Harvey picked up the puck, swung around, carried it the length of the ice and fired a slap shot past Hebert from the top of the left face-off circle.

The Stars made it 3-0 at 7:09 of the second period when Darryl Sydor passed to Hogue behind the Duck net, Hogue sent it right back and Sydor one-timed it past Hebert. Harvey’s second goal of the night--a full wind-up blast in the slot--put Dallas up, 4-0, with five minutes left in the second period. Mike Modano’s breakaway goal with 2 1/2 minutes left completed the rout.

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