- Wow, what a game last night at the AAC. Was able to watch about 20 rows up from center ice. Had a great view to an absolute electric atmosphere.
- For once, the much-criticized Stars fan came through. The noise level, the standing at all times, the intensity level of the fans matched the play on the ice. It was loud, there was towel waving by the entire crowd, there was loud cheering and standing for big defensive plays and just generic plays in general (with the fans on their feet for the entire 3rd period).
- It was truly a playoff atmosphere. That 3rd period it got loud, and it didn't stop. It felt like a huge scoring run by a basketball team with the crowd behind them, and the opposing team can't do a thing, just a complete snowball effect on them. Those 2 goals had the AAC into a frenzy for all 20 minutes.
- A night like last night would sway anyone into being a Stars fan. I'm sure it's not the craziness of the Canadian crowds, but I'll tell you, for our little Hockey city, it was pure greatness.
- And when Razor and the players comment on it, you know it was good.
- Marty stood on his head last night. He had about half a dozen "reaction" saves. Saves on shots that got redirected or got on him out of nowhere. He was right there on every one of them. Take out that BS goal with 7 seconds left, and you're now looking at 5 shutouts in his last 11 playoff games. You kidding me????
- Trevor Daley had his best game of the postseason. He was aggressive early, was attacking, set the tone for the whole team, had a goal nullified on a BS goalie interference call, and was physical as hell.
- Steve Ott had another good game. He's really elevated himself in these playoffs. He's been the smart-instigator, has scored some goals and shown great offensive ability, and has been a rock. He's in line for a big payday if this keeps up.
- If Marty saved the day on defense, then Stu Barnes was the #1 Star on offense. The old man was everywhere. Playing great on the checking line, and contributing a breakaway game winning goal, and then a steal and assist on the back-breaking goal by Steve Ott late in the 3rd.
- Wrap this bitch up tonight. Don't give these guys a chance, the boot is squarely on the neck, step down and twist on that SOB. They're on the ropes, staggering. End it tonight.
Dallas Stars win Game 4; Ducks almost cooked
By MIKE HEIKA / The Dallas Morning News
mheika@dallasnews.com
Everything that Stars fans have been seeking for the last five seasons was laid before them Thursday night on American Airlines Center ice in a 3-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks.
Marty Turco was spectacular in goal, making 27 saves.
Several veteran players stepped up and carried the play late in the game, when the Stars were clinging to a 1-0 lead.
And a bunch of youngsters took over in the biggest game of the season and provided Dallas with the difference it needed to beat the defending Stanley Cup champions.
The result is the Stars have a 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 first-round Stanley Cup playoff series and can close things out tonight at the Honda Center in Anaheim in Game 5.
"It's a huge win, a huge game, and I thought we really came together and earned it as a team," forward Steve Ott said. "From Marty to the younger players, we came together. That was the key for us."
The Stars were facing all sorts of demons heading into the game. They had lost seven of eight games on home ice. They had let Anaheim grab momentum in Game 3, and they found out before the game that defenseman Philippe Boucher will be lost for at least a week with a lower body injury.
With Sergei Zubov injured, and no return in sight, the Stars had to play three rookie defensemen against one of the more veteran teams in the league.
But instead of panicking, the Stars pulled in tighter and fell back on the "pack" mentality they have preached.
Trevor Daley became a veteran defenseman and asserted his aggression with one of the most confident games of his career. Second-year players Joel Lundqvist and Loui Eriksson were thrown out with linemate Brad Richards against Ducks All-Star defensemen Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer and won that battle.
And the line of Ott, Mike Modano and Stu Barnes scored two third-period goals that gave the Stars breathing room and allowed Turco the space to make his only mistake in the closing seconds.
"It was a big game for us, and I thought everybody did a great job," Turco said. "I felt really good and saw most of the shots. But the ones I didn't see, somebody blocked for me. It's great to see everybody get the job done."
Lundqvist scored the first goal of the game when Eriksson stole a pass from Sean O'Donnell and fed Lundqvist in front of the net at the 16:39 mark of the first period. The score stayed that way until the third period, when Barnes was sprung on a breakaway by Modano and slipped the puck between the pads of Jean-Sebastien Giguere for a 2-0 lead at the 9:01 mark.
Ott scored off a Barnes steal to put the game away before Mathieu Schneider broke up Turco's shutout bid with fewer than eight seconds left.
Still, the team said it knows a 3-1 lead does not clinch the series. The players had to jump on a plane and fly to California for Game 5 tonight and said they had to hold the momentum they had finally built.
"That's why Mr. [Tom] Hicks got us that nice jet. We'll put it to good use," Brenden Morrow said. "Hopefully, we get some rest and get out there early. There's going to be a lot of adrenaline. I don't think fatigue is going to be a factor."
- The 2nd season starts tomorrow night. Everyone picking Dallas scares the crap out of me.
Lack of playoff experience doesn't bug Hornets
10:44 PM CDT on Thursday, April 17, 2008
New Orleans reminds me of the neighborhood kid who learns to ride a bike.
He does great for 6 ½ months and blows by almost every other kid on the block. When he finally does fall, everyone nods and declares it was only a matter of time.
An admission: this didn't happen on my block. But it's going on in the NBA right now.
The Hornets own a winning record against the seven teams that join them in the Western Conference playoffs. New Orleans came within an eyelash of landing the No. 1 seed.
Yet outside of the organization, everyone sits around and waits for them to fail.
"I mean, we won 56 games, and right now, we're probably looked at to be eliminated from the playoffs in a four-game sweep," Hornets guard Chris Paul said.
No one is predicting a Mavericks sweep. At least, no one should.
But New Orleans did itself no favors by ending the regular season with a 111-98 loss to the team it will face in the first round.
"After tonight, it's almost guaranteed we'll be picked to lose," Hornets forward David West said. "We've been put in that scenario just about every big game we've had this year, every single situation we've been in, and we've been able to relish that role and be successful and productive.
"We've heard all of that stuff all year."
The Los Angeles Lakers were the only team in the conference to win more games than New Orleans. The Hornets won 37 games by 10 or more points, forged the second-best road record in the West and won their last 19 home games by an average of 16.5 points. Skeptics grudgingly gave the Hornets their due.
So what banana peel do critics place in front of the Hornets now?
Playoff experience.
Paul will make his post-season debut in this series. West and Tyson Chandler will make the first postseason starts of their careers.
The Mavericks? Jason Kidd, Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard have 224 playoff starts between them.
Paul acknowledges the gap. But as he points out, the only way to get the experience is to play in the postseason. He figures it's better to start now than next season.
"To tell you the truth, everyone in our starting five has played in the playoffs except for me," Paul said. "So I'm the only one who doesn't know what it's like. If we've got to go to battle like that, I'm comfortable with those guys knowing what it's like and I'm the only one who doesn't.
"I like our chances."
It didn't seem to hurt Utah's Deron Williams. The other brilliant point guard from Paul's rookie class led his team to the Western Conference finals in his postseason debut.
"Yeah, D-Will went out there and killed last year," Paul said. "If I can do half as good as D-Will did, we'll be all right.
"We still understand we've got the No. 2 seed and the series starts in New Orleans."
Spoken like someone who has yet to fall off his bike.
- Rangers sweep on the road, beat a Cy Young winner, and continue to look decent away from Arlington.
Learning curve: Texas Rangers apply lessons in sweep of Jays
01:21 AM CDT on Friday, April 18, 2008
By EVAN GRANT / The Dallas Morning News
egrant@dallasnews.com
TORONTO – There are two ways the Rangers could look at the horrid five-game stretch that ended the season's first homestand.
They could regard it as a nightmare and try to wipe it from their minds. Or they could consider it a lesson about what needs to be done if they intend to break their eight-year stretch of third-or-worse finishes in the AL West.
They appear to be ready to go for the latter.
A day after breaking their five-game losing streak, the Rangers finished a two-game sweep of Toronto with a 4-1 win in a game that was a near duplicate of one they lost last weekend.
For the second time in a week, Roy Halladay pitched a complete game against them and didn't allow more than one run in an inning or a homer.
The difference this time: Vicente Padilla outpitched Halladay, the fielders worked with precision and the hitters delivered four hits in eight at-bats with runners in scoring position. That's four more than they delivered last week in the same number of at-bats.
"I think this was the best game we've played this season," said David Murphy, whose three doubles gave him a hand in three of the Rangers' runs. "It started with Padilla. He kept the ball in the zone and kept them off balance. And that was huge."
Padilla took the mound knowing the majority of the bullpen was shot for the night after Wednesday's 14-inning victory. Whether he won or lost wasn't as important as Padilla eating up innings so the bullpen could fall back in line.
Padilla did just that. He went seven innings. He kept to a simple game plan heavy on sinking fastballs, with just enough hard curves to keep Toronto off balance.
When he needed to, he pitched around Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay, the two Blue Jays who hurt him most last week. When he got into seventh-inning trouble, he gutted it out so the Rangers didn't have to go to any of the more exhausted relievers.
Holding a 3-0 lead in the seventh, he allowed a one-out double to Gregg Zaun, but got Joe Inglett to bounce out. Padilla nearly got out of the inning with the shutout intact, but Zaun scored as David Eckstein beat out a throw from fill-in shortstop Ramon Vazquez, who had gone deep into the hole to field a bouncer.
After Aaron Hill nearly homered on a long foul drive to right to tie the score, Padilla coaxed him into a lazier fly ball to right for the final out.
"I knew I had over 100 pitches," Padilla said through a translator. "I knew I wasn't going to be coming back for the eighth, so I had to give everything I had on those last few pitches in the seventh."
Murphy also showed he grasped learning. He had doubled in his first at-bat against Halladay last week, then struck out looking and bounced a couple of balls to the right side.
He went into Thursday with the idea he wouldn't try to pull Halladay's sinker. He ended up with three doubles. The first drove in the Rangers' first run. He scored after both the second and third.
- Chills.
- The good old days.
