Game Recap

DALLAS 3, ST. LOUIS 1 DALLAS (AP) - The Dallas Stars couldn't get an even-strength goal against the St. Louis Blues all night Saturday. Good thing they woke up their sleeping power play. The Stars jumpstarted their troubled power play, getting two man-advantage goals and a 30-save performance from Ed Belfour to push the St. Louis Blues to the brink of elimination with a 3-1 victory. The win gave Dallas a 3-2 lead in the best-of-7 series, which returns to St. Louis for Game 6 Monday night. The Stars' power play, which is 4-for-26 in the series, went 2-for-5 Saturday night. Belfour made it easy for Dallas to concentrate on offense, stopping 30-of-31 shots, including several strong Blues opportunities in the second half of the game. "Our power play was good, the goalie was excellent, and that's about it," Stars coach Ken Hitchcock summarized. "But if we're going to win another game in this series, we've got to play better." Dallas continued to shut down the Blues' power play, even scoring a short-handed goal during St. Louis' first chance with the man advantage. With Jamie Langenbrunner off for roughing, Mike Modano beat two St. Louis defenders to the puck just inside his own blue line, sped up the right side and dished it cross-ice to Jere Lehtinen. Lehtinen put a wrist shot past Grant Fuhr for his fifth goal of the playoffs just 3:47 into the game. The Blues went 0-for-4 on the power play. The Stars made it 2-0 with a power-play goal when Langenbrunner scored on a point-blank shot at 9:43 for his third goal of the playoffs. Darryl Sydor corralled a weak clearing attempt and passed to Modano in the corner and the Dallas center fed an open Langenbrunner for the score. "Special teams were a big factor," Blues coach Joel Quenneville said. "It was a big difference. They had a good start again and we didn't recover. It's important to get off on the right foot, and we keep digging ourselves another hole." Modano helped with the excavating, giving an offensive effort on par with his defensive play. His instrumental work on the first two goals improved his team-leading point total to 10. The Stars were happy to win, but unhappy with their even-strength offense. "We've got to pick up our 5-on-5 play a little bit and go after them," Stars center Joe Nieuwendyk said. Nieuwendyk tipped in Derian Hatcher's shot from the point for a power-play goal and 3-0 lead at 10:59 of the second. It was Nieuwendyk's team-best sixth goal. But the crowd had barely finished cheering Nieuwendyk when Scott Young flicked a weak shot between Belfour's legs for his fourth goal at 11:19 to make it 3-1. Belfour's failure to stop Young was his only bad moment. His best save of the game came on a point-blank wrist shot from a streaking Geoff Courtnall with 13:45 left to play. Belfour stacked his pads to stop the first shot, and went down again to corral the rebound from a crowd of players to his left. Fuhr stopped 13-of-16 shots. The Blues had a goal called back with 57 seconds left. Jochen Hecht, who deflected a shot past Belfour, was ruled to be in the crease when he scored. DALLAS STARS 3, St. Louis Blues 1 1ST 2ND 3RD FINAL --- --- --- ----- St. Louis 0 1 0 1 Dallas 2 1 0 3 FIRST PERIOD - SCORING: 1, Dallas, Lehtinen 5 (Modano), 3:47 (sh). 2, Dallas, Langenbrunner 4 (Modano, Sydor), 9:43 (pp). PENALTIES: Langenbrunner, Dal (roughing), 3:36; Yake, StL (tripping), 8:26; Yake, StL (slashing), 16:48. SECOND PERIOD - SCORING: 3, Dallas, Nieuwendyk 6 (Hatcher, Hull), 10:52 (pp). 4, St. Louis, Young 4, 11:19. PENALTIES: Matvichuk, Dal (high-sticking), 5:39; Handzus, StL (elbowing), 9:51. THIRD PERIOD - SCORING: None. PENALTIES: Hull, Dal (tripping), :57; Mayers, StL (tripping), 3:02; Marshall, Dal (slashing), 15:51; Handzus, StL (elbowing), 18:09; Hogue, Dal (interference), 18:51. SHOTS ON GOAL 1ST 2ND 3RD TOTAL --- --- --- ----- St. Louis 6 12 13 31 Dallas 7 5 4 16 POWER PLAY: St. Louis 0 of 4; Dallas 2 of 5. GOALIES: St. Louis, Fuhr 6-5 (16 shots-13 saves). Dallas, Belfour 7-2 (31-30). Referees: Kerry Fraser, Don Koharski. Linesmen: Shane Heyer, Dan Schachte. A:17,001 (16,928).