Oilers Shut Down Stars and Even Playoff Series

“Cujo” has the Dallas Stars number again. And it’s zero.

Edmonton’s Curtis Joseph, who shut out Dallas in Game 2 last season, did the same thing to the Stars on Saturday night, stopping 15 shots, including 11 in the third period, as the Oilers prevailed, 2-0, to even the Western Conference semifinal at a game apiece.

“They had a lot of chances in the third period and I really had to tighten my concentration,” Joseph said.

Game 3 of the best-of-seven series will be Monday in Edmonton. Top-seeded Dallas won the first game, 3-1, Thursday night against the seventh-seeded Oilers on two goals by Sergei Zubov.

“Our defense wasn’t very good in Game 1,” Oilers Coach Ron Low said. “Tonight, we shut them down in the neutral zone. It was a tight-checking game. Tonight, I don’t know if Curtis had four tough saves. We just played well in our own end.”

Joseph, who registered shutouts in the final two games of the first-round series against Colorado, robbed Pat Verbeek and Greg Adams on point blank shots in the third period as the Dallas offense awakened too late.

Mike Modano of Dallas said Joseph was superb.

“Everything we tried was either blocked or deflected by Joseph,” Modano said. “We’ve got to make some adjustments. We’re embarrassed. We let each other down. We have to bounce back and play together as a team. Something we have done all season after a bad game.”

Dallas Coach Ken Hitchcock said it was more than Joseph.

“We were outplayed in the first two periods. That’s as much as we’ve been outplayed here all year,” he said.

Edmonton got the only goal it needed in the second period.

Doug Weight beat Ed Belfour to the glove side on a rebound shot with 3:54 to go in the second period to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead. The power-play goal came with one second remaining during a five-on-three situation. Richard Matvichuk and Derian Hatcher were both in the penalty box for two-minute minors.

Weight said the puck glanced off Belfour’s hip.

“I had an open net but Craig Ludwig was coming across and I changed the shot at the end,” Weight said. “It hit the buns of steel--his hip--and went in.”

The Stars pulled Belfour with 50 seconds left and Rem Murray of the Oilers broke away to score an empty-net goal with 10.7 seconds left.

Edmonton thoroughly outplayed the Stars in the first period and got off 12 shots against Belfour. Dallas didn’t have a shot on goal, only the second time since 1968 that a team failed to record a shot on goal in a Stanley Cup playoff game.

Washington 6, Ottawa 1--The Capitals took only five shots against their old nemesis, Ron Tugnutt, in the second period. The last four went in.

Brendan Witt, Joe Juneau, Joe Reekie and Richard Zednik all placed the puck high to Tugnutt’s glove side as the Capitals romped to victory over the Senators at Washington to take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

“That was just a good old-fashioned butt-kicking,” Tugnutt said. “I’d like to get another chance. Obviously I’m disappointed things didn’t go my way.”

The Capitals had been 1-7 against Tugnutt over the last two seasons, but a series of defensive lapses and his inability to come up with a big save left the Senators in trouble as the series moves to Ottawa for Game 3 on Monday.

Only once before, when they advanced to the conference finals in 1990, have the Capitals been in such a favorable position in the NHL playoffs. They do have one major concern: 52-goal scorer Peter Bondra, who missed three games in the first round because of a sprained ankle, did not return after being helped off the ice after a hard check by Lance Pitlick in the second period.

“I’m OK,” Bondra said. Asked if he would play Monday, he said, “I think so.”

Six different players scored for Washington, with Brian Bellows and Adam Oates scoring in the third period.