WESTERN SEMI-FINALS
GAME SUMMARIES
GAME 5:
#1 DALLAS STARS vs #5 ST. LOUIS BLUES
Dallas leads 3-2
Next Game: Monday May 17th, 1999 7:30pm at St. Louis
The Dallas Stars couldn't get an even-strength goal against the St. Louis Blues all night Saturday. Good thing they woke up their sleeping power play.
The Stars jump-started their troubled power play, getting two man-advantage goals and a 30-save performance from Ed Belfour to push the St. Louis Blues to the brink of elimination with a 3-1 victory.
The victory gave Dallas a 3-2 lead in the best-of-7 series, which returns to St. Louis for Game 6 Monday night.
The Stars' power play, which is 3-for-26 in the series, went 2-for-5 Saturday night.
Belfour made it easy for Dallas to concentrate on offense, stopping 30 of 31 shots, including several strong Blues opportunities in the second half of the game.
"Our power play was good, the goalie was excellent, and that's about it," Stars coach Ken Hitchcock summarized. "But if we're going to win another game in this series, we've got to play better."
Dallas continued to shut down the Blues' power play, even scoring a short-handed goal during St. Louis' first chance with the man advantage. The Blues went 0-for-4 on the power play.
With Jamie Langenbrunner off for roughing, Mike Modano beat two St. Louis defenders for the puck just inside his own blue line, sped up the right side and dished it cross-ice to Jere Lehtinen.
Lehtinen put a wrist shot past Grant Fuhr for his fifth goal of the playoffs just 3:47 into the game.
The Stars made it 2-0 with a power-play goal when Langenbrunner scored on a point-blank shot at 9:43 for his third goal of the playoffs. Darryl Sydor corralled a weak clearing attempt and passed to Modano in the corner and the Dallas center fed an open Langenbrunner for the score.
"Special teams were a big factor," Blues coach Joel Quenneville said. "It was a big difference. They had a good start again and we didn't recover. It's important to get off on the right foot, and we keep digging ourselves another hole."
Modano helped with the excavating, giving an offensive effort on par with his defensive play. His instrumental work on the first two goals improved his team-leading point total to 10.
The Stars were happy to win, but unhappy with their even-strength offense.
"We've got to pick up our five-on-five play a little bit and go after them," Stars center Joe Nieuwendyk said.
Nieuwendyk tipped in Derian Hatcher's shot from the point for a power-play goal and 3-0 lead at 10:59 of the second. It was Nieuwendyk's team-best sixth goal.
But the crowd had barely finished cheering Nieuwendyk when Scott Young flicked a weak shot between Belfour's legs for his fourth at 11:19 to make it 3-1.
Belfour's failure to stop Young was his only bad moment.
His best save of the game came on a point-blank wrist shot from a streaking Geoff Courtnall with 13:45 left to play. Belfour stacked his pads to stop the first shot, and went down again to corral the rebound from a crowd of players to his left.
"We generated a lot of chances on Belfour, and came up with some big stops," Blues defenseman Chris Pronger said. "We just weren't able to get our hands on loose pucks in front of the net."
Fuhr stopped 13 of 16 shots.
The Blues blew some strong opportunities to score throughout, in spite of keeping Dallas under pressure for extended periods throughout the latter half of the game.
Most indicative of their futility was Pavol Demitra's inexplicable decision to pass the puck to the corner when he stood unmolested a few feet in front of a fallen Belfour and an open net about seven minutes into the period.
The Blues had a goal called back with 57 seconds left. Jochen Hecht was ruled to be in the crease when he scored.
That evened the Blues up with the Stars, who had a goal called back in Game 4. Pat Verbeek would have given the Stars a 3-2 lead. Instead, they lost 3-2 in overtime.
Dallas got center and faceoff specialist Guy Carbonneau back from a knee injury. Carbonneau had not played since the first two games of the playoffs.
#2 COLORADO AVALANCHE vs #3 DETROIT RED WINGS
Colorado leads 3-2
Next Game: Tuesday May 18th, 1999 7:30pm at Detroit
Home finally proved to be sweet in the Detroit-Colorado series. Patrick Roy made sure of that.
Roy recorded his 12th career playoff shutout, and Peter Forsberg had a goal and an assist as the Colorado Avalanche beat Detroit 3-0 on Sunday to move one victory away from the Western Conference finals.
The Avalanche, winning their third straight game in the series after losing the first two at home, could clinch the series in Game 6 Tuesday night in Detroit. A seventh game, if necessary, would be played Thursday in Denver.
Roy, extending his NHL playoff record for wins to 106, had 36 saves as the home team won for the first time in this series.
Roy has stopped 111 of the last 116 Detroit shots.
Colorado coach Bob Hartley called the outcome "a great game from everyone, a great 60-minute effort." But he had special praise for his goalie.
"We've been blocking a lot of shots," Hartley said, "but let's not forget: Whenever there is a big save to be made, No. 33 (Roy) is standing right there."
Roy said the Avalanche's focus on playing a simpler game -- an approach that has worked on the road -- paid off.
"We tried to keep it as simple as possible and think defense," Roy said. "If we do that, we know that with the offense we have, we always have a chance."
Roy's 12th career playoff shutout tied him with Terry Sawchuk for fourth place in NHL history. His last shutout in the postseason came in Game 5 against Detroit in the Western Conference finals in 1997.
Detroit's Chris Osgood, who missed the first four games with a sprained right knee, returned to the net and had 23 saves.
Other Colorado goals were scored by Jeff Odgers, his first of the playoffs, and Adam Deadmarsh, his seventh.
"It was a pretty frustrating game," Detroit coach Scotty Bowman said. "We generated some chances. But we missed the net, I think it was, 15 times by the end of the second period."
Asked if those misses were out of frustration at Roy's superb goaltending, Bowman said, "Maybe we were trying to pick corners. That happens sometimes."
Red Wings forward Martin Lapointe said, "We're not dead yet. Obviously, our back is against the wall. We've done it before. We've just got to play with more desperation."
Bowman wasn't displeased with Osgood's performance.
"I think he got a good game under his belt and didn't aggravate it any more," he said. "He battled through it. I give him credit."
The Red Wings lost defenseman Ulf Samuelsson early in the first period with what the club announced was a groin injury. He did not return.
Bowman wasn't confident of getting Samuelsson back for Game 6.
"He couldn't go today," Bowman said, "so it would have to be a pretty fast recovery."
Odgers scored the lone goal of the first period following a mid-ice turnover by Detroit's Vyacheslav Kozlov. On only the second shift by Colorado's fourth line, Odgers took a shot from beyond the right circle that was deflected by Osgood but trickled into the net at 11:06.
It was only the second playoff goal of Odgers' eight-year career.
"When you play in the fourth line, you try to be a part of the game," Odgers said. "To contribute in that way is a bonus. It's a great feeling when you're not used to scoring a lot."
Colorado's Sandis Ozolinsh missed an open net early in the period, sending a puck across the crease that appeared to be going wide before Osgood dived on it.
Roy had quality stops on Wendel Clark, Steve Yzerman and Sergei Fedorov in the period.
Detroit got no shots on its two power plays in the period, and Colorado defenders blocked six shots before the puck could get to Roy.
In the second period, the Avalanche scored two goals less than three minutes apart.
Deadmarsh sprinted out of the penalty box, took a pass from Forsberg and rifled a shot from the slot between Osgood's legs at 4:23 for his third goal in the last two games.
Forsberg scored from the right circle on a power play at 7:19. It was Forsberg's sixth point in the last three games.
Detroit's Brendan Shanahan was wide with a shot on a breakaway, and Roy made several solid saves as the Red Wings had a number of scoring chances late in the period.
Roy frustrated the Red Wings again early in the third period, including stopping back-to-back shots by Yzerman and Mathieu Dandenault.