STANLEY CUP FINALS
GAME DAY PREVIEWS
GAME 6:
#4 NEW JERSEY DEVILS vs # 2 DALLAS STARS DEVILS
New Jersey leads 3-2
Game time: Saturday June 10th, 2000 8pm at Dallas
Having staved off elimination, the Dallas Stars hope to force a Game 7 when they battle the New Jersey Devils in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals at Reunion Arena. In the longest scoreless overtime game in the history of the Finals, Mike Modano scored at 6:21 of the third overtime to give Dallas a 1-0 triumph over New Jersey in Game 5, moving the series back to the state of Texas.
Goaltenders Ed Belfour and Martin Brodeur battled save-for-save as the overtime periods accumulated. Belfour stopped 48 shots and improved to 10-1 in his 11 postseason games following a loss. Brodeur turned aside 40 shots, but lost his seventh straight overtime contest.
"To be honest with you, I don't think I have seen anything better since I have coached in this league, two guys going at it like that," Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock said. "I honestly felt that we were just going to have to take a timeout and play next week or something because I didn't think anybody was going to score."
The Stars became the first team facing elimination to win a Finals game since the 1994 Vancouver Canucks won Games 5 and 6 against the New York Rangers before losing Game 7.
Dallas finds itself in the same situation it was in during the Western Conference finals against Colorado when the club was down three games to two and rallied to win the final two games to play for a second consecutive Stanley Cup Championship.
However, the Devils have been road warriors in the postseason, going 9-2 and were able to win back-to-back games here to take the three games to one series lead. The Stars had won nine of 10 games in Dallas before falling in Game 3 and Game 4.
New Jersey also was in the same situation Dallas is in when it fell down three games to one against Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference finals. The Devils won the next three games, twice holding off elimination games on the road.
"I don't know what's going through their mind right now, Devils center Jason Arnott said. "We just have to worry about ourselves. We've got to stay up in the dressing room, stay positive. We only have to win one, they have to win two."
Only one team has ever come back from a three games to one deficit. The 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs rebounded from a three games to none hole to defeat the Detroit Red Wings.
The defending champion Stars have never rebounded from a three games to one deficit in any playoff series since joining the league as the Minnesota North Stars in 1967.