Belfour, Defense End Oiler Playoff Quest

Goaltending and defense, which carried the Dallas Stars all season, carried them into the Western Conference finals Saturday night in a 2-1 victory over Edmonton at Dallas.

Ed Belfour stopped 17 shots behind brilliant defense. For the series, Belfour stopped 119 of 123 shots.

“This was typical of how our teams have gone at it. The goaltenders were dominant, and it boiled down to the last five minutes,” Star Coach Ken Hitchcock said.

Oiler goalie Curtis Joseph was almost Belfour’s equal with 24 saves.

Greg Adams scored on a 2-on-1 break with 2:26 to play to clinch the victory, wrapping up the best-of-seven semifinal series in five games.

Derian Hatcher scored the Stars’ other goal in the first period.

Belfour was on the verge of the fifth playoff shutout of his career and second of the series, but the Oilers got Bill Guerin’s goal from the slot with 29 seconds to play. Edmonton Coach Ron Low pulled Joseph from goal with two minutes to go, and the Oilers capitalized on Guerin’s seventh goal of the playoffs.

Janne Niinimaa almost tied the score with six seconds left in the game, but Belfour got a skate on the shot and kicked it aside.

It was Belfour’s 43rd playoff victory and improved his record to 8-3 in this postseason.

NHL Notes

Takashi Okubo, leader of the Japanese firm that owns the Tampa Bay Lightning, has until midweek to decide whether to accept a $130-million offer from William Davidson for the cash-starved team, the Michigan billionaire’s chief negotiator, Tom Wilson, said.