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DALLAS — The word of the day, for the Dallas Stars, was: believe.
It was plastered on everything, from the crop tops worn by their Rollerblading ice girls to the Budweiser banners that skirted the perimeter of the pregame street party outside the American Airlines Center. And if it seemed odd that Believe! T-shirts were already going for half-price at the concession stands early in the game, well, that wasn't really Mike Modano's concern.
Modano, the former Stars captain, ensured his team would live to play another day. In a game when the Detroit Red Wings had a second-period goal disallowed because of a goaltender interference call, Modano's third-period power-play goal broke a 1-1 tie and led the Stars to a 3-1 victory over the Red Wings last night, staving off elimination for another game at least.
The series will return to Detroit for a Saturday afternoon matinee, with the Red Wings leading the best-of-seven Western Conference final 3-1.
Henrik Zetterberg of the Detroit Red Wings tries to skate the puck against Dallas Stars defenceman Mattias Norstrom. (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
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Mike Modano's third-period power-play goal broke a 1-1 tie and led the Stars to victory
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No NHL team has rallied from a three-game disadvantage to win a series since the 1975 New York Islanders did it against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Modano's goal, a slap shot from the high slot, came with Red Wings defenceman Brian Rafalski in the penalty box and Daniel Cleary helpless because of a broken stick. Sergei Zubov, from deep in the corner to Detroit goaltender Chris Osgood's right, sent a pass to Modano in the high slot, from where he scored on a one-timer.
Brenden Morrow, playing with a bad shoulder that he injured two nights earlier, added his ninth goal of the playoffs about nine minutes later to give the Stars a two-goal cushion. Morrow was parked in roughly the same place as Modano — high slot — when his shot slipped past a screened Osgood.
The loss snapped Detroit's nine-game playoff winning streak and was also Osgood's first defeat of the postseason after he replaced Dominik Hasek as the starter four games into the opening round.
There was a controversial moment 7 minutes 34 seconds into the second period when referee Kelly Sutherland waved off what looked like the game's opening goal — by Pavel Datsyuk, on a power play — because Tomas Holmstrom was deemed to be in the crease. Replays showed Holmstrom's feet were outside the blue paint of the crease when the puck crossed the line, but the officials on the ice ruled Holmstrom interfered with goaltender Marty Turco nonetheless — by sticking his behind in Turco's face, preventing him from stopping the puck.
The Red Wings argued the call long and hard, but to no avail. Interestingly, in the first game of the series, Holmstrom scored a goal under similar circumstances. His feet were firmly planted in the crease, and that goal shouldn't have counted, but did.
"What do you want me to say?" Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "The guy's not in the paint? The guy's out of the paint. That was a reputation call totally. It's disappointing.
"The way I look at it is this: In the league, there's lots that goes on, on the ice. Sometimes a guy gets tripped and you miss it. Some times, things go wrong and you miss it. Just don't make stuff up, that's all. Kelly Sutherland's a good referee. He just blew the call. That's life."
As Babcock spoke, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly were in the interview room listening attentively.
"What happens is, these referees, just like us, they prepare their team, they prepare the referees," Babcock said. "So they tell them about guys, so that they're watching for stuff. Well, watch for it, but it's got to happen. You can't dream it up."
The official explanation, according to Wings forward Henrik Zetterberg, was that Holmstrom's "rear end was in the crease. That's pretty good, that they can see that. At the same time, everything happens really fast out there, so. Unfortunately, we had that against us tonight. We're playing a pretty good team. They're not going to go away. We have to put them away."
Stéphane Robidas was in the penalty box at the time of the play, so he was happy with the ruling.
"That was fine with me," Robidas said, laughing. "That's stuff that happens. It happened against us against San Jose. Now it's on our side. You've got to control what you can control. You can't let stuff like that affect your game. Fortunately, for us, it went to the good side."
For the first time in the series, Dallas actually played with the lead for a time. The Stars also scored just their second power-play goal, after a dismal 1-for-15 showing in the first three games. A checking line, with Toby Peterson at centre, did a reasonably effective job against Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Holmstrom. For all that, it took Morrow's insurance goal with 5:26 to go to give the Stars breathing room in the game. Morrow was assessed a delay-of-game penalty with 2:17 to go in regulation. When Babcock pulled Osgood and then Modano went off for hooking with 36 seconds to go, the Red Wings held a 6-on-3 advantage, but couldn't convert.
Morrow was asked what he felt, sitting in the penalty box, watching the Red Wings press.
"I felt shame," he said, and everybody picked up on the Slap Shot reference.
Robidas made the play on the opening Dallas goal, muscling his way into the Red Wings' zone and firing away. With Loui Eriksson driving to the net, the puck hit him on the leg, dropped at his feet and may or may not have crossed the goal line before he got his stick on the puck, which just trickled over the line.
Sadly for the Stars, they didn't get a chance to play with the lead long. Early in the third period, Datsyuk intercepted a cross-ice pass between two Dallas defencemen and fed Zetterberg, who scored from the middle of the faceoff circle, a shot low to Turco's glove side that caught him moving the wrong way. That came at the 49-second mark.
The Red Wings held a 14-6 advantage overall in second-period shots and had most of the scoring chances as well. But the Stars' defence, which had been vulnerable at times in the series, buckled down and did a good job of clearing away rebounds, after Turco made the first saves.
It was just the opposite of the first period — Dallas held a territorial advantage, received all three power-play opportunities, but simply couldn't convert. Mike Ribeiro had a good chance early, but half-fanned on a point-blank opportunity from about 25 feet out. Later, Nicklas Grossman rattled a shot off the goal post, leaving Kris Draper to clear away the rebound, with Osgood down and out.
The Red Wings received three power-play chances in the second period and at one stage, just after Datsyuk's goal was disallowed, held a 10-0 advantage in shots.
