WESTERN SEMI-FINALS
GAME DAY PREVIEWS
GAME 4:
#2 DALLAS STARS vs #8 SAN JOSE SHARKS
Dallas leads 2-1
Game time: Friday May 5th, 2000 9:30pm at San Jose
The San Jose Sharks try to build off of Tuesday's emotional victory and even their series with the Dallas Stars tonight in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals. Owen Nolan returned to the lineup after a one-game absence and scored the go-ahead goal late in the second period as the gritty, stubborn Sharks followed back-to-back shutout losses with a 2-1 victory over the Stars on Tuesday.
It was the team-best seventh playoff goal for Nolan, who missed Game 2 with shoulder and foot injuries.
The Sharks' scoring drought ended at 171 minutes, 28 seconds when Mike Ricci got a power-play goal in the second period. San Jose's previous goal was by Jeff Friesen in the second period of Game Seven of the conference quarterfinals at St. Louis. Dallas goaltender Ed Belfour had a shutout streak of 164:35 snapped by Ricci's tally. Belfour was villified by fans at San Jose Arena and was booed throughout Tuesday's game after leaving the Sharks for the Stars via free agency following the 1996-97 season.
Belfour's counterpart, Steve Shields, stopped all 23 shots over the final two periods on Wednesday and finished with 30 saves.
San Jose's Vincent Damphousse has gone 12 games since his last postseason goal, but set up both tallies on Tuesday. His first assist helped the Sharks snap an 0-for-14 drought on the power play.
Mike Modano scored the Stars lone goal on Tuesday, increasing his all-time franchise lead to 37. He also has five goals and three assists during a playoff career-high seven-game point streak.
#3 COLORADO AVALANCHE vs #4 DETROIT RED WINGS
Colorado leads 2-1
Game time: Wednesday May 3rd, 2000 7pm at Detroit
The Colorado Avalanche will have to find a way to cope with the loss of their key defenseman Wednesday night against the Detroit Red Wings in Game 4 of the Western Conference Semifinal series.
Ray Bourque, who did not play at all during the third period of Game Three's 3-1 defeat at Detroit, will miss tonight's contest with a knee injury.
"I was really hoping this morning I'd wake up and things would be a lot clearer in terms of where we were going from there," Bourque said at practice Tuesday. "I woke up this morning, knowing that tomorrow night I'm not going to be playing. After that, I don't know. We'll see. One thing we know, it's nothing major, so we'll take it day-by-day.
"I have hopes of coming back in the series, and that's the way I'm looking at it." Bourque has six assists in eight postseason games for the Avalanche, who leads the series, two games to one.
Brought to Colorado after 21 years with the Boston Bruins, the future Hall of Fame defenseman is a five-time Norris Trophy winner as the league's best defenseman, but has never won the Stanley Cup.
After dropping the first two games of the series at Colorado, during which it failed to score on nine power-play opportunites, Detroit tallied twice with the man advantage Monday.
Igor Larionov and Sergei Fedorov each scored for Detroit, which managed just one goal in the first two games of the series. In Game Two, Tomas Holmstrom put the puck into a vacated net after it took a weird bounce off the end boards during a dump play.
Colorado is hoping history does not repeat itself in favor of Detroit. Last year, the Avalanche lost the first two games to the Red Wings before winning four straight to close out the then two-time defending Stanley Cup champions.
The Avalanche lost for just the second time in their last 16 games overall on Monday and also lost out on a chance to hold a 3-0 lead in a conference semifinal series for the first time.
Game 5 will be Friday in Colorado.