Hostilities Escalate Off Ice Too

Having lost a battle--and a defenseman--the Buffalo Sabres hope to avoid losing the verbal and physical war the Stanley Cup finals have become.

While Rhett Warrener underwent surgery Friday to repair a broken right ankle, which he suffered during a fight after Buffalo’s 2-0 loss at Dallas Thursday, his coach and teammates accused the Stars of taking cheap shots and attempting to injure them. The Stars lead the series, 3-2, and can win the Cup for the first time in their history tonight at Marine Midland Arena. A seventh game, if necessary, will be Tuesday at Dallas.

“They’re probably the dirtiest team we’ve ever faced,” Sabre captain Michael Peca said. “Part of the thing about experience is they know how to hide all their two-hand slashes and stuff.”

Warrener was sent onto the ice by Coach Lindy Ruff after Ruff claimed Dallas’ Derian Hatcher speared Wayne Primeau and cross-checked Alex Zhitnik. Warrener was injured when the 6-foot-5, 225-pound Hatcher fell on him.

“[Sabre assistant coach] Mike Ramsey’s quote was, ‘On the offense, they go with their soft sticks and on defense, they swing by the bench and pick up their hatchets on the way back,”’ Ruff said. “They’re vicious with them. Watching the tape, you probably see five or 10 really good two-handers.”

Hatcher blamed the Sabres for the hostilities. “They were the ones taking a lot of shots at our guys after we made it 2-0,” he said. “I don’t know if they were trying to hurt someone for the next game or what.”

Dallas Coach Ken Hitchcock was upset Ruff used Warrener in a game the Sabres couldn’t win and he said Warrener--a strong but not goonish player who had 84 penalty minutes this season--went after Hatcher.

“Lindy is the same guy who was complaining at [Boston Coach] Pat Quinn for doing the same thing in the last series,” Hitchcock said. “So don’t go and play the almighty when we both know as coaches what the message was there.”

Said Ruff: “The thinking was, Let’s get somebody out there in case they try something.’ . . . Let’s be realistic. If we’re going to go after somebody, are we going to go after Derian Hatcher? Come on. We’ll go after [Guy] Carbonneau, we’ll go after [Joe] Nieuwendyk, we’ll go after [Mike] Modano. We’ll go after somebody we can do some damage to. We’re not going to send David after Goliath, for crying out loud.”

Darryl Shannon, who last played in Game 1 of the Sabres’ first-round sweep of Ottawa, will take Warrener’s place beside Jay McKee.

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Goaltender Dominik Hasek thrived under pressure while playing for the gold medal-winning Czech team at the Nagano Olympics, so he isn’t nervous about the Sabres being on the brink of elimination tonight.

“It’s very similar right now,” he said. “Like the Olympics, we have to win this game. . . . I cannot make any mistakes. I don’t know if [he will give up] no goals, one goal, two goals. You can’t say before the game. But I have to play a game without mistakes.”

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The Stars, who are 6-4 on the road in the playoffs, plan no lineup changes. “Unless we get food poisoning or something like that,” Hitchcock said. The Sabres are 8-1 at home.

“A lot of people are going to count us out now that they’re up 3-2,” McKee said, “and a lot of people counted Dallas out when they were down 3-2 to Colorado [in the West finals]. But they showed they could play through it, and I think we can, too.”

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Stanley Cup Finals Schedule

Dallas vs. Buffalo

Dallas leads series, 3-2

* Game 1: Buffalo 3, Dallas 2 (OT)

* Game 2: Dallas 4, Buffalo 2

* Game 3: Dallas 2, Buffalo 1

* Game 4: Buffalo 2, Dallas 1

* Game 5: Dallas 2, Buffalo 0

* Game 6: Tonight at Buffalo, 5

* Game 7: Tuesday at Dallas, 5 p.m.*

*--if necessary; all times Pacific