Stars Talk Tough

The Dallas Stars are starting to sound like the Detroit Red Wings.

Parroting the Red Wings, they say they have not been outplayed by the Mighty Ducks in losing the first two games of their Western Conference semifinal playoff series; they’ve been victimized by bad bounces and lax officiating.

Other than their luck, they don’t need to change anything before Monday night, when the series shifts to the Arrowhead Pond for Game 3.

All evidence to the contrary, the Ducks are not destined to pull off another playoff upset after scoring a fluke goal only 69 seconds before the end of regulation Saturday at the American Airlines Center, then winning, 3-2, on a goal by Mike Leclerc 1 minute 44 seconds into overtime.

The Stars are a veteran group, loaded with character. They’re resilient. They won’t panic. They won’t quit. They’ve carried the play through much of the first two games. They don’t believe Jean-Sebastien Gigure is infallible, etc., etc.

And like Brett Hull of the Red Wings, who accused the Ducks of playing “gross hockey,” Mike Modano of the Stars said Saturday that the Ducks are flouting the rules to take advantage of a more talented, physically superior team.

“Our arms look like we’re heroin addicts from the slashes and the hooks,” said Modano, blaming the referees for allowing the Ducks to get away with what he believes is an overly aggressive style. “That’s how they play.

“They’re riding that fine line of clutching and grabbing, which is worse than in the regular season. This series [the aggressiveness] is much worse than it’s ever been for a while. That’s how they realize they have to play.”

He suggested that the NHL arrange a conference call with players and referees to explain why more penalties are not being called.

“I don’t really think we’ve been outplayed,” added Modano, who scored a second-period goal on his only shot of the game. “We’ve outchanced them in every category. We feel like we’ve outplayed them in every aspect of the game.

“Sometimes you have a little more luck on your side.”

The Ducks certainly were lucky to send the game into overtime, a shot by Rob Niedermayer banging off the skate of Star forward Stu Barnes and past goaltender Marty Turco with 1:09 to play in the third period.

“You’re not happy about it,” Barnes said of his reaction. “You try to defend as best you can and for them to get a lucky bounce the way they did is disappointing.”

But the loss, the Stars insisted, was not deflating.

Never mind that the teams losing the first two games of best-of-seven NHL playoff series have rallied to win the series only about 13% of the time.

“I think we’re fine,” said defenseman Derian Hatcher, the Stars’ captain. “We know we’re down, 2-0. We know this next game is obviously the elimination game, the make-or-break game.

“But I think mentally we feel we’ve done good stuff and maybe outplayed them, but we’re not on the winning side. We’ve just got to break that bubble.”

The series could be 2-0 in the Stars’ favor, some insisted.

“It could be,” Kirk Muller said, wearily, “but it’s not.”