Carrying a 1-0 lead into the final period, the Dallas Stars extended it on Stu Barnes 29th career playoff goal. After collecting a nice lead pass from Mike Modano at the Anaheim Ducks blue line, Barnes raced in on a breakaway against Ducks goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere, firing a quick wrist shot from the slot through Giguere’s pads.
“Just a good play by Mike Modano, I kind of snuck behind everybody and he found me,” Barnes said. “Great play by him.”
The Stars put the stake through the Ducks’ heart with 2:43 to go when Barnes stole the puck in the neutral zone and sped back into the Anaheim zone with it. Carrying into the right face-off circle, Barnes fed a charging Ott at the lip of the crease, and Steve Ott re-directed it past Giguere for his second goal of the playoffs and a 3-0 lead.
Dallas got the all-important opening goal with 3:21 left in the opening period, after an egregious turnover by the Ducks in their own zone. After Loui Eriksson intercepted Sean O’Donnell’s clearing attempt in the high slot, Eriksson batted the puck to a wide open Joel Lundqvist in front and Lundqvist fired a quick wrist shot over Giguere’s shoulder for the 1-0 lead.
The Ducks then snapped Marty Turco’s shutout bid with just 7.6 seconds on the clock, after Mathieu Schneider ripped a wrist shot from the high slot that beat a screened Turco just inside the far post.
“Marty was excellent and we scored a few goals for him and we need to battle like this again tomorrow night,” Stars coach Dave Tippett said. “Marty is going to have to be really good for us to be successful and you saw him really good tonight.”
“I think the fans said it all with the chants of ‘Marty, Marty, Marty.’ He’s definitely been our first star the whole season,” Ott said of Turco. “His play in the playoffs has been spectacular.”
The Calgary Flames scored in the last two minutes of regulation off of a big rebound off of the backboards and a boucing puck that was alertly slapped in the goal by Dustin Boyd past Dallas Stars goalie Marty Turco for a 3 - 2 lead. Then Alex Tanguay added an empty net goal during the final minute to finish off a 4 - 2 victory tonight in Calgary at the Pengrowth Saddledome. It was the first NHL goal for Boyd.
Jere Lehtinen scored for the Dallas Stars on a slap shot to tie Byron Ritchie and the Calgary Flames at 2 in the second period. Lehtinen scored off of a perfect feed from Loui Eriksson as Eriksson picked up his second assist. It was Lehtinen's 11th goal of the season. Jere continues to play well. He scored Thursday night and now has five goals and three assists in his last seven contests. The Stars were perfect on the power play at this point with 2 goals on two power plays.
The Flames came out more aggressively in the second period than they had in the first and at 1:17 in the 2nd Ritchie scored his second goal to put the Flames ahead of the Stars 2 - 1 at that time. Byron scored on a snap shot from 13 feet.
At 16:53 in the first Calgary tied the score at 1 apiece. That goal was also scored by Ritchie. He scored on a wrist shot from 22 feet. It was his fifth goal of the season.
Earlier at 9:09 Dallas had drawn first blood with a power play goal by Daryl Sydor who took the rebound after an 18 foot snap shot was missed by Philipe Boucher. It was Sydors first goal in 33 games. The Stars outshot the Flames 11 - 6 in the period and were more agressive than the Flames early in the game. It was the 19th assist for Boucher.
Phillipe Boucher had scored for Dallas on Thursday and continues his recent strong play. Boucher has two goals and five assists in his last nine games.
The Flames hosted Dallas without captain and leading scorer Jarome Iginla. Iginla left in the second period of Thursday's game against the Florida Panthers with a sprained ligament in his left knee that stemmed from a scuffle with Panthers defenseman Bryan Allen. Iginla, who leads the Flames with 23 goals and 30 assists, was retaliating for a hard hit on teammate Chuck Kobasew earlier in that game. The right wing served a fighting major and did not appear hurt, but after he exited the penalty box, went to the Flames' dressing room and did not return. Iginla will be sidelined for at least a week.
"There are different leaders and different warriors in this league and when you have a guy that's third or fourth in the league in scoring and he's stepping up and fighting for his team, that shows his character," Flames goaltender Jamie McLennan said. Losing Iginla could affect the Flames' success at home. He scored in the opening minutes of Thursday's game and has three goals and five assists over the last four games at the Pengrowth Saddledome. Iginla has15 goals and 18 assists at home this season. "It's tough to fill a guy's spot, a guy like Jarome." said defenseman Mark Giordano.
Coming into tonights game Calgary goalie Miika Kiprusoff was 18-14 with a 2.37 GAA this season and had stopped 124 of 133 shots against Dallas since the 2003 - 2004 season. Kiprusoff is now 3-2 against the Stars since 2003-2004. The Flames have been impressive this season at home. They kept the fires burning at the Saddledome against Dallas, which has struggled lately in this series. Calgary has now won three of the last four meetings with the Stars after winning just once in the previous 11 matchups in the series.
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“Just a good play by Mike Modano, I kind of snuck behind everybody and he found me,” Barnes said. “Great play by him.”
“Marty was excellent and we scored a few goals for him and we need to battle like this again tomorrow night,” Stars coach Dave Tippett said. “Marty is going to have to be really good for us to be successful and you saw him really good tonight.”
