DALLAS (AP) -- The Dallas Stars figure they owe the Edmonton Oilers some playoff misery.
Defenseman Sergei Zubov scored on two long-distance slap shots and Ed Belfour sparkled in goal Thursday night as the revenge-minded Stars beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-1 in the first game of their Western Conference semifinal series.
Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is set for Saturday in Reunion Arena. The top-seeded Stars have plenty of motivation, having suffered a crushing first-round playoff knockout by the Oilers last year.
Zubov powered two long shots past Curtis Joseph in the first period for a 2-0 Stars lead. Mike Keane added an insurance goal early in the third period when he beat Joseph to the glove side after a perfect goal-mouth feed by Mike Modano, his third assist of the game.
"Two goals early got us going," Zubov said. "It felt pretty good. It's good to start on a good note. Eddie kept us in the game in the second and third periods. We played very good."
Modano agreed Belfour was the difference.
"Eddie likes being sneaky good," Modano said. "This is a real confidence builder for him."
Zubov's first goal came from 35 feet out on a power play. Modano won the faceoff and Darryl Sydor got the puck to Zubov in the middle of the ice and a screened Joseph never saw the shot. It was the first goal Joseph had allowed in the last 166:54 of the playoffs after posting back-to-back shutouts against Colorado in the first round.
Zubov scored again in slightly over five minutes. It was just one second after another Dallas power play had ended. At mid-ice and just inside the blue line, Zubov one-timed a pass from Modano, hitting the net behind a sprawling Joseph from 60 feet.
"It felt real good to get two quick goals and get ahead like that," Belfour said. "It's always nice to see the guys flying early and I was feeling good, seeing the puck well and had a few lucky breaks. "
Dallas lost a goal to video replay in the second period. Modano tipped in a shot but the goal judges ruled he had his stick too high.
"When the goal was disallowed we sagged and it hurt us," said Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock. "We made a mistake trying to sit on the lead and we had a diffcult time in the last period and a half."
Edmonton outshot Dallas 17-5 in the second period and Valeri Zelepukin finally broke through against Belfour by sneaking a rebound shot through the goaltender's legs. It was the first playoff goal for Zelepukin.
A five-minute game misconduct penalty against Grant Marshall, who elbowed Kelly Buchberger in the face, put the heat on Belfour with 6:16 go. The Oilers got off only three shots during the five-minute power play.
"We kept them to the outside and our penalty killers did a good job," Belfour said. "They had only one or two good chances."
Buchberger's right eye was closed after the game but he said he'll play Saturday.
"We can't retaliate," Buchberger said. "I'll let the league deal with it."
Oilers coach Ron Low said "it's not an elbow it's a butt-end, not only is it a butt-end but it's a butt-end in his eye. It's one of the worst I've seen in a long time."
Belfour turned away 31 shots while Joseph stopped 11.
"I felt we had 14 good chances and we should have scored more than one goal," Low said. "Belfour was pretty good."
Joseph got beat although he didn't face half as many shots as Belfour.
"I've got to keep my chin up," he said.
Dallas, which lost in Game 7 to the Oilers last year in the first round on an overtime goal by Todd Marchant, had a 3-1 edge over Edmonton in the regular season.
The No. 1-seeded Stars advanced by beating No. 8 San Jose in six games while the No. 7-seeded Oilers upset No. 2 Colorado in seven.
#3 DETROIT RED WINGS vs #4 ST. LOUIS BLUES
DETROIT (AP) -- If the St. Louis Blues had any rust from a week's layoff, it didn't show.
The Blues, who clearly were pumped for Detroit, remained the only unbeaten team in the NHL playoffs as they knocked off the Red Wings 4-2 Friday night behind Jim Campbell's two third-period goals in the opener of their second-round series.
"They're the defending champions and they are a fantastic hockey club," Brett Hull said as "Disco Inferno" by the Tramps blasted from the sound system in the Blues' jubilant dressing room. "That was a big win for us. That was huge."
Hull and Todd Gill also scored for the Blues, who swept the Los Angeles Kings in the first round. Martin LaPointe and Tomas Holstrom scored for the Red Wings, who are trying to become the first team since Pittsburgh in 1992 to repeat as Stanley Cup champions.
"We've got to play at a higher tempo than that," Detroit forward Steve Yzerman said. "We just didn't play a high-tempo game. It was a little slow and a little sloppy."
A little sluggishness might have been expected.
It was the first game for St. Louis since sweeping the Kings on April 29, and the Blues were off for almost a week before they really even knew who their next opponent would be. The Red Wings hadn't played since Sunday when they eliminated Phoenix in six games.
But the layoff didn't seem to bother the Blues in the least.
"Well, you know, it's the playoffs," Hull said. "We're up for this. We're pumped, because those are the defending champs."
Game 2 of the best-of-7 Western Conference series will be played Sunday afternoon at Joe Louis Arena. Action then shifts to St. Louis for Games 3 and 4 beginning Tuesday night.
"Remember, it's only one game," Hull said. "But, you've got to win one before you can win two."
The game turned in the final seconds of the second period.
With the score tied 1-1, Detroit forward Brent Gilchrist was sent off for obstruction tripping with 10.5 seconds remaining in the period. Then, just as time expired, Yzerman was caught high-sticking Chris Pronger.
"I retaliated to a hit," Yzerman said. "I shouldn't have done that."
His mistake enabled St. Louis to open the third period with a 5-on-3 advantage and the Blues needed only 18 seconds to make the Red Wings pay as Campbell, standing in front, snapped a shot past Chris Osgood for his fourth playoff goal and a 2-1 lead.
"It was a huge goal for us," Campbell said. "We had killed their 5-on-3 earlier. Then, for us to take it in there and get a quick goal like that was huge for us."
Hull's third playoff goal, on a nice feed by Pierre Turgeon from behind the net, made it 3-1 at 3:48 of the period.
"They can come back quick," Campbell said. "But we just kept chugging along and got a couple more goals. We knew we didn't want to let up with those guys."
Campbell scored again at 10:28, two seconds after Detroit's Bob Rouse had finished serving a slashing penalty. Holmstrom scored on a power play with 3:14 remaining for the final margin.
It seemed clear from the outset that the two evenly-matched teams would have to rely on breaks, and that's the pattern the game settled into.
The Blues didn't get a shot on goal until 3:55 of the first period, but it went in.
Gill gave St. Louis a 1-0 lead with a short-handed goal, his first of the playoffs. Gill got in alone on Osgood when Slava Fetisov was a step slow in covering and ripped a shot past the Detroit goalie from the slot.
Lapointe's goal tied the game 1-1 at 14:33 of the second period. Lapointe was being jostled in the slot by Rudy Poeschek as Igor Larionov cut loose with a shot from a few feet inside the blue line. Lapointe's stick was about waist level when the puck kissed off and whizzed past Grant Fuhr.
