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MIKE MODANO'S PLAYOFF DIARY - MAY 17 Passing is the key to Stars' success on power play 05/17/99 ST. LOUIS - It's nice to finally score on the power play. It seems to come up big for us when we really need it. Before, the shots were there and everything seemed to be OK, but the puck just wasn't going in. That happens. But we scored twice with the man advantage on Saturday, and that was big. It's all about having confidence with the puck. Passing is the biggest key to it. If you can get four or five good passes in a row and get the box moving and get everybody out of position, then start throwing the puck at the net. When the power play's not working, you just take a deep breath and really relax and believe in your ability to do what you can with the puck. Everybody just got on the same page with that and got the confidence back that comes wth puck movement. The lanes seemed to open up, then you get some rebounds and tip-ins, and everything seems to flow from that. Both teams have done really well on the penalty kill. After you play a few games against each other, you get a good bead on what their strengths are and what they're trying to accomplish on the power play. A lot of it is pressuring their key guys and pressuring the point. And same with them. They're pressuring (Sergei) Zubov and (Darryl) Sydor and we're pressuring (Al) MacInnis and (Chris) Pronger. Those are the guys who can cause the most damage. We analyzed their power play pretty well before the series started. Everything forms from MacInnis. Once the shots start getting through, guys start getting tip-ins and rebounds off his shot. He always seems to find a way to get it to the net. Whether it's a wrist shot or a slap shot, he always seems to know where to put it. The pressure's on them now. We have to play a smart game on Monday. The last couple of games, we've had a great first 10 minutes. We'd like to continue that by getting the first goal. Getting off to a good start lets everybody relax a little and get into the flow of the game. We really want to win Game 6. If we just had to win all our home games the rest of the way, that would be the easy way out of it. But eventually you're going to have to turn the tables and play well on the road. There's going to be some pressure on us to finish off the series. If we're smarter than they are, and positionally better, we like our chances. Mike Modano's diary, as told to Staff Writer Bill Nichols, will appear in The News during the playoffs.