WESTERN QUARTER-FINALS
GAME DAY PREVIEWS
GAME 1:
#1 DALLAS STARS vs #8 EDMONTON OILERS
Series Tied 0-0
Game time: Wednesday April 21st, 1999 8:30pm at Dallas
The Dallas Stars hope to put the memory of postseason failures behind them tonight when they open the Western Conference quarterfinals against the Edmonton Oilers. Edmonton stunned the Stars in the 1997 Western Conference quarterfinals. After finishing 23 points behind Dallas in the regular season, the Oilers won the decisive seventh game on Todd Marchant's overtime goal. The Stars exacted revenge last year, dusting off Edmonton in five games in the Western Conference semfinals before losing in the next round to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings.
Much is expected again from Dallas, which captured its second straight Presidents' Trophy as the top team in the regular season. In the offseason, the Stars added sniper Brett Hull to a team that came within one win of its first trip to the Stanley Cup Finals since 1991.
Two key players will miss much of this series for the Stars. Captain Derian Hatcher was suspended for seven games, the final five of which carried over into the playoffs, after shattering the jaw of Phoenix Coyotes center Jeremy Roenick with a vicious hit on April 14. Also out of the lineup will be scrappy right wing Pat Verbeek, who has a sprained knee.
Goaltending was one of the reasons the Oilers overachieved in the playoffs the past two years. Curtis Joseph was virtually unbeatable in the 1998 Western Conference quarterfinals, allowing just one goal in the final three games as Edmonton rallied for a stunning seven-game victory over Colorado.
The Oilers are thinking upset again but this time they enter the postseason without Joseph. Tommy Salo will be making his playoff debut but has played very well in the IHL playoffs and was in the nets for the Swedish team which won the 1994 Olympic gold medal.
Just as Dallas will be without two key players, the Oilers will be missing their top two scorers for at least part of this series.
Right wing Bill Guerin -- Edmonton's lone 30-goal scorer -- has a strained left knee ligament, while left wing Josef Beranek is out with a knee strain. Both are expected to miss at least three games, meaning coach Ron Low will need more production from wingers Mike Grier, Rem Murray, Marchant, Ryan Smyth and the mercurial Alexander Selivanov.
Dallas won the season series, 3-0-1, and has won seven straight home meetings against Edmonton. The Stars are 19-3-2 in the series over the last six seasons.
The series continues Friday in Dallas before shifting to Edmonton for Game Three Sunday.
#2 COLORADO AVALANCHE vs #7 SAN JOSE SHARKS
Series Tied 0-0
Game time: Saturday April 24th, 1999 10:30pm at San Jose
A few days later than originally scheduled and at a different site, the Colorado Avalanche and San Jose Sharks open their Western Conference quarterfinal series.
The series was scheduled to begin Wednesday in Denver but the tragic shootings in nearby Littleton, Colorado forced the first two games to be postponed and the series being shifted to San Jose. Game Two is here on Monday before the series returns to Denver for Games Three, Four and, if necessary, Game Five.
The Sharks will have plenty of problems to deal with when the series starts. Colorado possesses a group of talented offensive players, including captain Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Theoren Fleury, Claude Lemieux and Adam Deadmarsh.
Keep a close watch on Lemieux, who is second all-time to Wayne Gretzky with 19 game-winning goals in the playoffs.
Fleury returns to the postseason for the first time since 1996 after the Avalanche landed him from Calgary on February 28. He has feasted on the Sharks, collecting 57 points in 45 games against them, including five goals and three assists this season.
Even scarier for San Jose is the fact that Fleury was third in scoring on Colorado with 93 points. Forsberg has "only" 26 points in 19 games against the Sharks, while Sakic has 18 goals and 40 points in 23 games.
The Sharks will also have to deal with goaltender Patrick Roy, a two-time Conn Smythe Trophy winner as playoff MVP. He had a solid but unspectacular season with a 2.29 goals-against average but is all the all-time leader in playoff wins (99), games played (160) and minutes (9,879).
The Avalanche won three of four meetings against the Sharks during the regular season and Roy was in net for just one game. Roy is 15-3-1 lifetime against the Sharks.
Goaltending is a question mark for Sharks coach Darryl Sutter, who must choose between Mike Vernon, the 1997 Conn Smythe winner, and red-hot Steve Shields. Vernon has appeared in 129 playoff games and backstopped the Detroit Red Wings to a Stanley Cup championship. But he went 0-4-1 in his last five regular-season starts while Shields was 9-1-3 after March 6.
While Colorado is loaded with firepower, San Jose must work for every goal, ranking 21st in the NHL in scoring. The addition of Vincent Damphousse at the March 23 trade deadline provided a spark. It also sparked left wing Joe Murphy, who scored eight goals over the final 12 games and finished with 25, his best total since 1993-94.
#3 DETRIOT RED WINGS vs #6 ANAHIEM MIGHTY DUCKS
Series Tied 0-0
Game time: Wednesday April 21st, 1999 7:30pm at Detriot
The Detroit Red Wings begin their quest for a third straight Stanley Cup championship tonight when they open the Western Conference quarterfinals against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, who feature two of the game's best players. The Red Wings struggled throught most of the season and looked nothing like one of the leading contenders for the Stanley Cup. But that all changed at the trade deadline when general manager Ken Holland acquired three-time Norris Trophy winner Chris Chelios, left wing Wendel Clark, defenseman Ulf Samuelsson and goaltender Bill Ranford. Revitalized by those additions, Detroit went 9-2-1 to close the season.
Now the Red Wings face the Mighty Ducks in the playoffs for the second time in three years. Detroit swept the Ducks in the 1997 Western Conference semifinals en route to its first Stanley Cup in 42 years. But one game was decided in overtime, another in double overtime and a third in triple OT.
The Red Wings were loaded before the late-season additions and look as strong and as deep now as they ever have. Ageless captain Steve Yzerman led the Wings in scoring with 74 points and Clark topped them with 32 goals, while Brendan Shanahan contributed 31.
Sergei Fedorov was inconsistent again and scored just 26 goals, but he has played his best hockey in the postseason each of the last four years. Fellow Russian Igor Larionov turned back the clock with a 63-point season, but Vyacheslav Kozlov may have been Detroit's biggest threat over the second half of the season. He scored 22 of his 29 goals in Red Wings' final 42 games.
Anaheim is playing its first playoff series since losing to Detroit and only the third in franchise history. This year's edition is deeper than the team that faced the Red Wings in 1997, but the Ducks still start and end with the dynamic duo of Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne.
Kariya was third in the NHL in scoring with 39 goals and 62 points while playing all 82 games for only the second time in his career. A gifted playmaker, he also recorded 429 shots, the second-highest total in league history.
Selanne won the first-ever Maurice Richard Trophy with a league-leading 47 goals and was second in scoring with 107 points. But he was shut down the last time these teams met in the postseason, totaling two points in four games.
After Kariya and Selanne, Anaheim's best player may be goaltender Guy Hebert. An original Duck, Hebet lost five of six starts to finish the regular season and is only 4-9-5 lifetime against Detroit. He missed most of the 1997 series due to injury.
The Red Wings won three of four meetings this season and are 8-1-3 all-time against Anaheim on home ice.
The series continues Friday in Detroit before shifting to Anaheim for Game Three Sunday afternoon.
#4 PHOENIX COYOTES vs #5 ST. LOUIS BLUES
Series Tied 0-0
Game time: Thursday April 22nd, 1999 10:30pm at Phoenix
The St. Louis Blues will be curious to see which version of the Phoenix Coyotes show up tonight when the teams meet in Game One of a Western Conference quarterfinal series.
The Coyotes shot out of the gate at 17-3-3, including a franchise-record 14-game unbeaten streak. But Phoenix went a lackluster 22-28-9 afterwards, looking more like the team that has not won a postseason series since 1987, when it was still based in Winnipeg.
Phoenix will be without leading scorer Jeremy Roenick indefinitely after his jaw was broken by Dallas defenseman Derian Hatcher on April 14. Without Roenick, Robert Reichel will center the Coyotes' top line. Reichel had seven goals and six assists after coming to Phoenix from the New York Islanders on March 20.
Keith Tkachuk led the team with 36 goals despite missing 14 games with a variety of ailments.
Goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin had another stellar season with 32 wins, a 2.13 goals-against average and .923 save percentage. But will have to prove himself in the postseason after struggling in the quarterfinals against Detroit last season.
The Blues went 11-4-3 in their final 18 games and were an astounding 12-3-1 on the road after January. Coach Joel Quenneville can thank All-Stars right wing Pavol Demitra and Norris Trophy favorite Al MacInnis for helping the team overcome the free-agent departure of Brett Hull to Dallas and an injury-plagued season by center Pierre Turgeon.
Demitra recorded a career high 37 goals and 52 assists while playing all 82 games and was second in the leauge with 10 game-winners. The 25-year-old MacInnis still possesses a wicked slap shot and was tied for fourth in the league with a plus-33 rating. Demitra and MacInnis helped the Blues rank third in the league on the power play at better than 20 percent.
Goaltender Grant Fuhr was limited to 39 games due to a knee injury but returned on March 13 and went 9-4-3 over his last 15 starts.
This is the first-ever postseason meeting between the clubs.