Stars advance with marathon NHL victory over Sharks
DALLAS, Texas (AFP) — Captain Brenden Morrow scored at 9:03 of the fourth overtime Sunday to send the Dallas Stars into the semi-finals of the National Hockey League playoffs with a 2-1 victory over San Jose.
The Western Conference contest was the eighth-longest in Stanley Cup playoff history and gave the Stars a 4-2 win in the best-of-seven series.
Stars goalie Marty Turco was outstanding, turning aside 61 shots. Antti Miettinen notched his first goal of the postseason for the fifth-seeded Stars, who won the second-round series four games to two and will face Detroit starting on Thursday.
The top-seeded Red Wings completed a four-game sweep of Colorado last Thursday.
The Stars reached the conference finals for the first time since 2000, when they lost to the New Jersey Devils in the Stanley Cup Finals. That was a year after the Stars won their only title.
Vezina Trophy finalist Evgeni Nabokov made 53 saves for the Sharks, and Ryane Clowe scored through a screen from the top of the right faceoff circle for San Jose to tie the game at 1-1 79 seconds into the third period.
After All-Star defenseman Brian Campbell was sent to the penalty box on a tripping call, Morrow took a centering feed from blue-liner Stephane Robidas and tucked it past the right pad of Nabokov for his second overtime game-winner of the series.
Morrow also set an NHL record by delivering 19 hits - including one on Milan Michalek right before the end of regulation which knocked him out of the game.
After a fierce body check by Morrow, the 23-year-old Czech remained on the ice for some time before he was helped off by Sharks' staff, who said he suffered a left arm injury.
The game was the longest since the Vancouver Canucks posted a 5-4 triumph over the Stars in four overtimes on April 11, 2007.
The Stars, who had won the first three games of the series, dropped the next two to the tenacious Sharks.
San Jose were bidding to become just the sixth team in NHL history to rebound from a three-games-to-none deficit and reach game seven - and just the third to win the series outright - but instead were eliminated in the second round for the third straight season.
Dallas nearly ended it 91 seconds into the first overtime when Brad Richards fired a slap shot from the right faceoff circle toward an open net, but Nabokov made an incredible glove save on the goal line.
Each club then had several chances in the first extra period, but both goalies produced with big saves.
Turco denied Patrick Marleau with a beautiful save with eight minutes left in the period, then Nabokov denied Mike Ribeiro all alone in front with 73 seconds to go.
Ribeiro bounced a point-blank shot off the crossbar with 49 seconds left in the first extra session.
Ten seconds into the second overtime, a turnover by Robidas led to an uncontested slap shot from Joe Thornton in the high slot, but Turco made the save.
The Sharks thought they had won midway into the third overtime when Clowe fed a short backhanded pass to Torrey Mitchell at the lip of the crease, but a lunging Turco smothered the puck under his outstretched glove, which slid onto the goal line. After a video review, the on-ice ruling stood and play went on.
