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LATE FINISH COULDN'T PUT DAMPER ON STARS PARTY Players celebrate with champagne, sweet vindication 06/21/99 By Kevin Sherrington / The Dallas Morning News BUFFALO, N.Y. - On the ice, the celebration had been subdued. One by one, the Stars hoisted the 35-pound Stanley Cup trophy over their heads and skated tentatively around the ice. What remained of the 18,595 fans, those who stayed through nearly three overtime periods into Sunday morning, watched in silence. The Stars, out of respect or self-preservation, mostly just hugged and grinned. But inside the locker room, all bets were off. Corks popped like muffled fireworks. Players drank California champagne from the bowl of the 106-year-old trophy and from the bottles, too. They sprayed the rest on each other, media, family, coaches, friends, even the owner. Some players cried, some howled, some sneered and some were clearly numbed by the 2-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres in the longest Cup-deciding game in National Hockey League history. Eight Stars had won at least one Stanley Cup somewhere else, but this was different. "The first Stanley Cup south of the Mason-Dixon line!" Stars president Jim Lites shouted from atop a metal folding chair, a bottle of champagne in hand. The Stars' Derian Hatcher, a Michigan native, became the first U.S.-born team captain to accept the Cup from the league commissioner, Gary Bettman. The best hockey team in North America is from Texas, which didn't even have an NHL team until the Minnesota North Stars moved to Dallas in 1993. Former owner Norm Green briefly considered calling his transplanted team the Lone Stars so new fans could identify with it. No need for that anymore. "All cities love winners," Stars owner Tom Hicks said, spraying champagne, "but Dallas really loves winners." Until now, only the Cowboys fit that description. The Stars, by winning the first title in the club's 32-year history, gave Dallas another championship to go with the Cowboys' five Super Bowl titles. The victory over the Sabres was particularly galling to Buffalo fans who already resented Dallas because of the Cowboys' back-to-back Super Bowl victories over the Bills. They hadn't gotten over a 1975 Stanley Cup Finals loss to Philadelphia, either, and this one won't be any easier, particularly because of the way it ended. Goal dispute "Hull of an Ending," read Sunday's headline in the Buffalo News. It was a reference to the Stars' hired gun, Brett Hull, who got the game winner at 14:51 of the third overtime. Replays showed that Hull's left skate was in the crease, the shaded area in front of the goal, when he slipped the winning shot past Sabres goalie Dominik Hasek. Across the hall from the Stars' raucous celebration, Sabres coach Lindy Ruff told a room of reporters that the goal shouldn't have counted and he was appealing to the NHL. But NHL officials said the goal was good, which was all that mattered to the Stars. "It's too late to worry about it now," Hull said, smiling from his perch atop a locker. "The trophy's in here now." Hull enjoyed his newfound stature. Long criticized as a scorer concerned only with his statistics before he came to Dallas as a free agent last year, Hull revealed that he had played the final two games with a blown-out medial collateral ligament in his right knee. He was as quick to pounce on his critics as he was the loose puck in front of Hasek. "This takes me back to all those articles that said I couldn't fit into a system," he said. "You can't say, 'You'll never win with Brett Hull.' You can't say, 'Brett Hull won't play in a team system' anymore." Satisfied, Hull then yelled to teammate Mike Keane, who was smoking a cigar the size of a bratwurst, that he wanted one, too. "You were in the crease," Keane yelled back. "You can't have one." The victory also vindicated Mike Modano, the first pick of the 1988 draft and a lightning rod for criticism over the last decade. In a sign of respect, Modano was the first player Hatcher passed the Stanley Cup to. "It was a relief," Modano said of the victory. "No one can take it away from us. We went through some tough times in Minnesota, and no one knew what to expect when we came to Dallas." No one could have predicted Modano's transformation over the last three years, either. "The scouting report said I was a soft one-way player," he said, breaking down again. "Everybody reads that. They're going to have to change that. If they don't, that's their problem." Modano turned to see his father, Mike Modano Sr. The son stepped off a platform where he had been answering questions and buried his head in his father's shoulder. Mike Sr. spoke softly in his son's ear and patted him on the back. Mike Jr. wouldn't let go. He held firm, his eyes shut tight for several minutes. Family affair Stars coach Ken Hitchcock made certain it was a family affair. He told his players before the game to think of what it would mean to their families if they won the Cup. Joe Nieuwendyk, winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the post-season, said he appreciated his coach's sentiments. His family is never far from his thoughts, particularly because his mother died two years ago. "I really thought about my mom a lot," he said. "Every night during the playoffs, I really played on her strength. She was my biggest backer." Like Hull and Modano, goalie Ed Belfour won his first Stanley Cup. The Stars had talked of how Belfour felt he had something to prove, which Belfour consistently denied. Belfour finally relaxed his stoic front early Sunday, releasing 10 years of frustration over his reputation as a great goalie who couldn't win big games. "The people who criticized me all these years," he said, smiling, "this is a nice way to stick it up their butts. I'm thankful for all the people who were nice to me and stuck by me all these years. They are my friends for life." And what about Hasek? He and the Sabres goalie were teammates in Chicago until the Blackhawks traded Hasek to Buffalo. "Dominik is a great goaltender," Belfour said. "You can't take anything away from him. But we were teammates in Chicago, and I beat him out for the position there. And I knew I could beat him here." Party time Brad Lukowich, a 22-year-old defenseman, opened and quickly emptied bottle after bottle of champagne on his teammates. At one point, he told Hitchcock, "You're going to get wet." Guy Carbonneau, now a three-time Stanley Cup winner and the Stars' elder statesman at 39, called the room to quiet after some difficulty. "The show's over," he said from atop a locker. "Anyone who doesn't have anything to do with the team, get the hell out." Amid cheers, someone turned on heavy metal music. As the media filed out, someone asked play-by-play voice Ralph Strangis how he called the biggest goal in Stars history. "I said, 'Yes!' about 10 times," Strangis said. At last, nothing else needed to be said. Staff writers Gerry Fraley and Barry Horn contributed to this report.