Game Recap

DALLAS 4, BUFFALO 2 DALLAS (AP) - The Dallas Stars finally found a strategy good enough to beat the Dominator: Desperation. Brett Hull, who once feared he might never play in the Stanley Cup Finals again, scored the winning goal with 2:50 remaining and the Dallas Stars staved off a possibly lethal loss by beating Buffalo 4-2 Thursday night to even the series at a game apiece. Hull, one of the NHL's top scorers for years but absent from the Stanley Cup Finals since his rookie season in 1986, beat hard-to-beat goaltender Dominik Hasek with a wicked slap shot from above the right-circle dot. Hull led the NHL with 11 game-winning goals during the regular season, but this was his first in the postseason. He joined his father, Bobby, and uncle, Dennis, in scoring a game-winning goal in the Stanley Cup Finals. "Where he put it was unstoppable," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. "Dom might have had a chance, but a defenseman or Michael Peca slid in front of him and he didn't see it. It was a perfect shot." Hull, a former 86-goal scorer, is the NHL's fifth-leading active scorer and only Wayne Gretzky has scored more goals in a season. On this night, on this shot, he was the Brett Hull of old, not a 34-year-old Hull. "Most of my shots for all those years, I just buried my head and shot it hard," Hull said. "The harder you shoot it, you've got more of a chance of it going in." The Stars almost had to win, as only three clubs in the last 60 years have rallied to win the Stanley Cup after losing the first two games. Now, the Stars have the momentum heading into Game 3 Saturday night at Marine Midland Arena. The team that has won Game 2 has won 26 of the past 28 Stanley Cups, including every team in the last 10 years. Hull's goal capped a determined Dallas comeback after the favored Stars were contained by the Sabres' smothering defense for two periods, only to bury Buffalo with a 19-4 shot advantage in the final period. Hasek, who is nicknamed the Dominator, said, "Of course, we're all disappointed after winning the first game. Now, we're starting from the beginning, but I like our chances because of home ice." Dallas salvaged a 1-1 tie in the series at home despite being 1-for-17 on the power play, 0-for-6 in Game 2. The Stars' victory assures the Stanley Cup playoffs won't end in a sweep for the first time in five years. Western Conference teams had scored the last three sweeps, by Detroit in 1998 and 1997 and Colorado in 1996. "I've never seen two teams play with a passion like these two did," Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said. "There's going to be no runaway here," Ruff said. "It's going to be a roller-coaster ride. Nobody said this was going to be a four- or five-game series." Still, the victory extracted a potentially costly price. Dallas played the final 10 minutes without Mike Modano, who injured a wrist. He is listed as day-to-day, but will be re-examined Friday. Even at the end, Dallas had to fight to preserve the lead, killing off a rare late-game power play resulting from Derian Hatcher's high-sticking penalty at 17:31. Hatcher made up for his mistake, skating out of the penalty box to score an empty-netter at 19:34. The Sabres fell behind 2-1 despite dominating the first two periods, then tied it on Alexei Zhitnik's power-play goal at 5:36 of the third. Shortly after Craig Ludwig put Dallas up 2-1 with his first goal in his last 102 playoff games, Curtis Brown grabbed the puck near the left circle, carried it into the high slot and shot. The puck glanced off goaltender Ed Belfour and to Zhitnik for his fourth power-play goal and the Sabres' third in a row with Sydor in the penalty box. Sydor also was off for hooking when Peca scored the first goal of the game at 7:27 of the second period. Ludwig scored 71 seconds before Zhitnik's goal with a slap shot from the left circle immediately after Brian Skrudlund won a faceoff. Ludwig set an NHL record of 11 years between playoff goals; his only previous postseason goal came in 1988 with Montreal. Peca made a heady offensive play to score his fifth playoff goal and get Buffalo out to a 1-0 lead. Peca sneaked behind Belfour and waved his stick in the air to signal he was open about two feet to the side of the net. Jason Woolley fed the puck to Peca, who one-timed it past Belfour. Woolley leads all defensemen in playoff scoring with 15 points. Jamie Langenbrunner tied the game with 1:34 left in the period by scoring his playoff-leading 10th goal. DALLAS STARS 4, Buffalo Sabres 2 1ST 2ND 3RD FINAL --- --- --- ----- Buffalo 0 1 1 2 Dallas 0 1 3 4 FIRST PERIOD - SCORING: None. PENALTIES: Skrudland, Dal (charging), 12:25; Zhitnik, Buf (boarding), 15:31; Zhitnik, Buf (cross-checking), 20:00; Smehlik, Buf (roughing), 20:00; Holzinger, Buf, major (fighting), 20:00; Modano, Dal (tripping), 20:00; Hatcher, Dal (roughing), 20:00; Nieuwendyk, Dal, major (fighting), 20:00. SECOND PERIOD - SCORING: 1, Buffalo, Peca 5 (Woolley, Satan), 7:27 (pp). 2, Dallas, Langenbrunner 10 (Matvichuk, Nieuwendyk), 18:26. PENALTIES: Sydor, Dal (hooking), 5:41; Woolley, Buf (interference), 9:19; Varada, Buf (ob.-tripping), 13:14; Zhitnik, Buf (tripping), 20:00. THIRD PERIOD - SCORING: 3, Dallas, Ludwig 1 (Skrudland), 4:25. 4, Buffalo, Zhitnik 4, 5:36 (pp). 5, Dallas, Hull 7 (Hrkac, Chambers), 17:10. 6, Dallas, Hatcher 1 (Zubov), 19:34 (en). PENALTIES: Sydor, Dal (high-sticking), 4:50; Varada, Buf (high-sticking), 10:32; Zhitnik, Buf (hooking), 11:48; Hatcher, Dal (high-sticking), 17:31. SHOTS ON GOAL 1ST 2ND 3RD TOTAL --- --- --- ----- Buffalo 7 10 4 21 Dallas 5 7 19 31 POWER-PLAY: Buffalo 2 of 4; Dallas 0 of 6. GOALIES: Buffalo, Hasek 12-3 (30 shots-27 saves). Dallas, Belfour 13-6 (21-19). Referees: Kerry Fraser, Dan Marouelli. Linesmen: Gord Broseker, Kevin Collins. A:17,001 (16,928).