Dallas Lives Up to Its Reputation

The Mighty Ducks weren’t going to go 16-0 and the Dallas Stars weren’t likely to be swept effortlessly into their summer vacation.

Now the Stars have a chance to demonstrate the fortitude it took for them to become the top-seeded team in the Western Conference -- or prove what most hockey observers have suspected all along, that the regular season is almost meaningless and all that matters is who’s hottest in April.

For the first time in the playoffs -- the first time since April 2 -- the Mighty Ducks were reminded Monday of what it feels like to lose. The Stars played perhaps their most solid game of the series, doing all the things they said were imperative but were unable to pull off in the first two games at Dallas.

The Stars earned a 2-1 victory with their unflagging efforts, cutting the Ducks’ lead in the best-of-seven series to 2-1 and ensuring the series will return to Dallas for a fifth game Saturday. But of greater importance, they turned talk into reality, producing a performance that was disciplined and impressive.

Until they played as well as they did Monday, all they had was hope and conjecture. They now have something solid to grasp. They have inched out of the corner the Ducks had backed them into and have emerged alive and vigorous, with renewed confidence.

“They were a desperate team,” Duck Coach Mike Babcock said, “and they played like it. Give them full marks. We have a series now.”

And the Ducks might have some problems now.

The Stars flooded the net, forcing Duck goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere to try to follow the puck through a forest of big bodies. They played physically, but not stupidly. They scored a power-play goal against the Ducks’ previously strong penalty-killing unit. They ignored an energetic and hostile crowd at the Arrowhead Pond to win a game they could not have afforded to lose and still retain any realistic chance of sustaining their playoff run.

“It would be pretty bad if we lost this game,” said Jere Lehtinen, who scored both Dallas goals, the first on a fourth-effort shot and the second by being in position for a shot by Derian Hatcher to deflect off his shin while he stood in the slot.

“It was a big win. We really needed it, but it’s only one game and we’re still 2-1 down in the series.”

Down, certainly. But things are looking up for them because for the first time in the series, their goalie, Marty Turco, was at least the equal of Giguere, who has been the wonder of these playoffs.

Turco’s toe save of a shot by Stanislav Chistov about four minutes into the third period and his full-body stop of a shot by Petr Sykora with 80 seconds to play bracketed a strong final period that enabled the Stars to protect their one-goal lead without falling back into a defensive shell. He gave them confidence to remain aggressive and not change too much of what they’d been doing.

He gave them new life. He knew nothing less than his best game would suffice, and he produced it.

Asked if he felt he had to raise his game to match Giguere’s, Turco nodded affirmatively.

“Right now, yeah,” he said. “Giguere is playing really well and giving them a chance to win. He made some big saves for them in the third period, and that’s what you want out of your goaltender....

“At the beginning of the series, we talked about making them uncomfortable. They hadn’t faced adversity [in sweeping the Red Wings] and they’re going to have to learn how to deal with it.”

The Stars responded well to adversity in their first-round series against the Edmonton Oilers, rebounding from a 2-1 series deficit to win in six games. But beyond that, there’s not much comparison. The Oilers and Ducks play different styles, with the Ducks relying on a defense-oriented system and being less aggressive offensively. The Stars were able to capitalize on mistakes the Oilers made while pressing forward and they exposed the weaknesses of Oiler goalie Tommy Salo.

The Ducks afford them fewer such opportunities, yet the Stars remained patient and poised and found ways to win Monday, as the Ducks had done in the first two games.

“We can do a lot of things better, but it’s nice that we won a good, tight game,” said forward Bill Guerin, who played gingerly in his first game since he suffered a thigh injury Feb. 27 and required emergency surgery.

“These are character-builders. It makes you believe in yourself more.”

The Ducks, to a man, insisted their confidence had not been shaken by their loss. “It was definitely nice to win and losing stinks,” defenseman Keith Carney said, “but we knew coming in we weren’t going to win every game.... It was an even game. Both goaltenders played great and both teams scored a power-play goal. We’ve just got to forget about it and focus on Game 4.”

Dallas Coach Dave Tippett called his team’s triumph “an ugly win.” But it never looked so beautiful to a team in dire need of a reward and a bounce.