Ducks Lose; Modano Hurt

The postgame talk here Saturday night should have been about the world-class goaltending of Dallas’ Ed Belfour and the Mighty Ducks’ Guy Hebert.

Instead, the focus after Dallas’ 2-0 victory before a sellout crowd of 17,001 at Reunion Arena was on bad hits, bad blood and bad feelings.

It started when Duck defenseman Ruslan Salei shoved an already off balance Mike Modano hard into the end boards four minutes into the second period.

Modano, who was driving hard toward the Duck net, cracked his head into the bottom of the boards. Dallas team officials said Modano Suffered a concussion and had a strained neck. He was to be hospitalized overnight as a precaution.

“He fell because he was off balance,” said Salei, who watched several replays of the hit on TV in the dressing room after he was ejected from the game.

“I don’t think I deserve a suspension. He got hurt, but not because of me. He lost his balance. But I was there. . . . I feel really sorry it happened.”

The Stars had a different view.

“As far as I’m concerned, he should be out of the league,” Dallas winger Brett Hull said. “It’s just cowardly. It’s time for the league to step up and make an example of this guy. It’s time for the league to throw the book at him.”

Said Dallas Coach Ken Hitchcock: “We have to have a response. We take care of our own.”

The teams play again in the Ducks’ home opener Friday at the Arrowhead Pond.

Salei’s hit wasn’t the only one that had the Stars fuming at game’s end. Duck defenseman Pascal Trepanier hammered Dallas center Joe Nieuwendyk into the glass after they chased a loose puck behind the Duck net at 7:51 of the third period.

Nieuwendyk slumped to the ice while Dallas’ Jamie Langenbrunner fought with Trepanier and Duck enforcer Jim McKenzie belted Dallas’ Darryl Sydor repeatedly.

Trepanier and McKenzie were each ejected. Langenbrunner was given a 10-minute misconduct and Sydor shuffled slowly to the Dallas bench to cover his swollen face with an ice pack. Nieuwendyk was not injured and returned for his next shift.

“I think those two players are either the stupidest players in the league or they just brought about a war,” Hitchcock said, referring to Salei and Trepanier.

“Maybe that’s what they wanted. They just didn’t bring themselves into the war, they brought other players into it too. There’s a difference between toughness and dirty. It was so unnecessary and such a cheap shot.”

The postgame banter was not all that different from comments made by the teams on March 13, 1998. That night, the Ducks were angry about a perceived cheap shot by Dallas’ Craig Ludwig against Teemu Selanne.

Three major brawls ensued, one featuring former Ducks Brent Severyn and Warren Rychel punching Sydor and ex-Dallas defenseman Craig Muni without mercy.

At one point after the fights, the Ducks had only three players on the ice and backup goalie Mikhail Shtalenkov on the bench with the coaching staff. The others were ejected or in the penalty box.

This time, the Ducks found themselves defending their actions.

“I didn’t think it was anything vicious,” Duck Coach Craig Hartsburg said when asked about Salei’s hit. “I didn’t think it was intentional. I feel bad for Modano. I hope he’s all right.”

Asked what happened on the play, Salei said, “He was going fast. I was trying to catch him. He shot the puck and was going behind the net. I’ve never seen anybody fall like that. I was really scared.”

Modano was taken from the ice on a stretcher after medical personnel attended to him for about 10 minutes.

“I saw him lying there,” Salei said. “Hull was trying to fight me, so I realized it must have been pretty bad because he never fights.”

Said Hull: “Sooner or later, someone is going to get seriously hurt or killed on a hit like that from behind. It’s disgustingly cheap to hit a guy in that position. To throw him head first into the boards is just cowardly.”