Stars shine in San Jose

Sharks' forward Jonathan Cheechoo crashes the net for the tying goal in the 3rd period.

(Steven Cabana / Bay Area Blitz)

The Dallas Stars gather around their captain after their overtime goal in Game 1

(Steven Cabana / Bay Area Sports

Julio Lara / Bay Area Blitz

There would be no actual punches thrown this time around as the San Jose Sharks and the Dallas Stars met up for Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals in San Jose. The Stars did land the first crushing blow of the series with a 3-2 victory last night.

Brendan Marrow’s shot from the right circle four minutes into overtime gave them the first win of the best-of-seven series.
The goal was the second of the night for Morrow, the fifth of his playoffs.

Unfortunately for the Sharks, the game followed a trend set from their first round match-up with Calgary – while San Jose did outshoot the Stars 27-15 in regulation, Dallas went the route of quality over quantity. It was their scoring with so little opportunities that frustrated San Jose head coach Ron Wilson.

“They must have had five good scoring chances,” Wilson said. “From a defensive point of view, I thought we played pretty good.”
Of that there is no denying.

The Sharks came out strong defensively, allowing only two first period shots. They also came as the aggressors, bringing the physical battle to a supposed more physical team.

But Stars goaltender Marty Turco proved to a ball Friday night. While the stat sheet will show that he stopped 25 pucks, the real story is that Turco shut down the Sharks, making some acrobatic saves throughout the night.
There was no mystery to what the Sharks needed to do – when they were able to cause traffic jam in from of Turco’s net, they were successful.

Hence, the first goal of the game – after turning the puck over in their offensively zone, Joe Thorton made a pretty play, gliding in on net and holding on to the puck to the last possible second and found Milan Michalek who shot crawled underneath Turco’s pads and across the line at 4:50 of the second period. The goal was the first of the playoffs for Michalek who was San Jose’s second leading scorer in the regular season, but failed to put up a point in the previous series.

But the Stars responded almost immediately. A hooking penalty later gave the Stars a powerplay and they didn’t waste any time taking advantage. Mike Modano’s shot from the blue line had eyes and found its way to the back of the San Jose net to tie the game at one a piece.

Riding the momentum of the game-tying goal the Stars completely silenced the crowd three minutes later when Morrow struck for his first goal.

Mike Ribiero got the primary assist, this after his wrap-around attempt ricocheted off of Evgeni Nabokov’s left pad right to
Marrow who beat his defenseman to the net and cleaned up for the easy goal.

“We lost the battles,” Wilson said. “When you turn [the puck] over against a great line … it’s going to end up in your net.”

The Sharks seemed flat at times. Wilson labeled it as a form of “resisting” to make a play. As time ticked away, San Jose and their patented crowd appeared to awaken.

The traffic in front of Turco’s net was the key in Jonathan’s Cheechoo’s equalizer who a little over three minutes left in the game.

Tory Mitchell’s shot from the point caused a loose puck that Cheechoo muscled from just inside the crease. The goal wasn’t pretty, but it got the job done.

“For us, it’s a matter of executing,” Cheechoo said. “We have to get more bodies in front of Turco. He’s a good goalie. We can’t allow him to see those shots.”

A late penalty forced the Sharks to play conservatively in the game’s waning minutes instead of using the momentum from the late goal to try and win it.

And in overtime Dallas turned the tables – outshooting the host 3-0. Morrow’s shot from the right circle beat Nabokov to his lower left.

“We have to put it behind us,” Cheechoo said, “and come out ready to play on Sunday.”