Game Recap

BUFFALO 3, DALLAS 2 (OT) DALLAS (AP) - Dominik Hasek is considered the one goaltender most likely to steal a big game in the playoffs. Consider this one stolen -- and consider the Dallas Stars in big, big trouble. Jason Woolley came off the bench to score the winning goal at 15:30 of overtime and the Buffalo Sabres, kept in the game by Hasek's brilliance, seized home-ice advantage by beating the Stars 3-2 in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals Tuesday night. Hasek stopped 35 shots and kept the Stars to only one power-play conversion in 10 opportunities in the Sabres' first Stanley Cup game in 24 years. "We are very familiar with that," Woolley said of Hasek, a two-time NHL most valuable player. "We feed off him. We need him to play like that to be successful." Said Hasek: "My job is to win the game. I think I played well." Woolley had just come off the bench when Curtis Brown spotted him skating down the slot and put the puck on his stick to beat Ed Belfour, whom Hasek once backed up in Chicago. Belfour stopped 21 shots. "I didn't get much chance to do much the whole game," Woolley said. "I snuck up on them a little bit and Curtis made a great pass. In overtime, you just want to shoot. It was a great opportunity for our team to go up 1-0." Game 2 will be Thursday night in Dallas before the series shifts to Buffalo on Saturday. Buffalo's one worry is that Hasek, bothered by a groin injury that still isn't completely healed, got up slowly after making his final save. But he blamed that on fatigue and the hot arena, not his injury. "I felt so tired. I tried to celebrate, but I couldn't," said Hasek, who flopped wearily to the ice at game's end. "I was just too tired." If nothing else, Buffalo's victory means the Eastern Conference champion won't be swept. Colorado in 1996 and Detroit the last two years won the NHL title without losing a game in the finals. The Sabres, who had 14 fewer regular-season victories than the Stars, were outshot 23-9 over the first two periods. But they trailed only 1-0 entering the third period mostly because Hasek refused to fold, except for a tying goal by Jere Lehtinen in the final minute of regulation, when Dallas had an extra skater, and on Brett Hull's first Stanley Cup finals goal. Shaking off the rust from an eight-day layoff, Hasek's refusal to let the game get out of hand allowed the Sabres to finally mount an offense in the third period and take a 2-1 lead on goals only 5:04 apart by Stu Barnes and Wayne Primeau. "I think we shot a lot of pucks right at him," the Stars' Derian Hatcher said. "Not to take anything away from him, but I don't think we forced him to make too many spectacular stops." Hatcher may change his mind after watching the game film. "We like to do things the hard way, so now we've got to do it that way again," Hatcher said. "We've dropped Game 1s before. We're confident we can come back." The goals seemed to deflate the Stars' confidence -- they were 5-0 in the playoffs when leading after two periods -- and a towel-waving crowd of 17,001 watching the first final-round championship game played in Dallas in the city's sports history. "We probably started to protect a little bit in the third period. But it's hard to be very critical of our hockey team," Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said. But what seemed to be an unbeatable combination -- the Sabres with a lead late in a playoff game with the game's best goaltender in the net -- wasn't. Mike Modano, one of just two Stars remaining from the franchise's last Stanley Cup team in Minnesota in 1991, made a perfect pass from behind the net and onto Lehtinen's stick for his eighth and biggest goal of the postseason with 49 seconds left in regulation. The sigh of relief emanating from north Texas probably could be heard to the Oklahoma border. But, about 15 minutes of playing time later, the arena went eerily quiet as Woolley scored the kind of opportunistic goal that often decides such games. "In overtime, it's always a crap shoot," Hitchcock said. "You never know what will happen." The Sabres now can win the first Stanley Cup in their history by winning all of their games in Marine Midland Arena, where they are 7-0 in the playoffs. Buffalo Sabres 3, DALLAS STARS 2 (OT) 1ST 2ND 3RD OT FINAL --- --- --- --- ----- Buffalo 0 0 2 1 3 Dallas 1 0 1 0 2 FIRST PERIOD - SCORING: 1, Dallas, Hull 6 (Modano, Lehtinen), 10:17 (pp). PENALTIES: Zubov, Dal (roughing), 6:36; Satan, Buf (boarding), 8:18; Patrick, Buf, double minor (high-sticking), 12:46; Ward, Buf (interference), 19:11. SECOND PERIOD - SCORING: None. PENALTIES: Varada, Buf (goalie interference), 4:53; Zhitnik, Buf (interference), 7:07; Ward, Buf (roughing), 9:34; Ludwig, Dal (hooking), 12:21; Matvichuk, Dal (interference), 16:33. THIRD PERIOD - SCORING: 2, Buffalo, Barnes 5 (Juneau, Smehlik), 8:33. 3, Buffalo, Primeau 3 (Zhitnik, Smehlik), 13:37 (pp). 4, Dallas, Lehtinen 8 (Modano, Zubov), 19:11. PENALTIES: Sydor, Dal (ob.-tripping), 12:10; McKee, Buf (charging), 14:17. OVERTIME - SCORING: 5, Buffalo, Woolley 4 (Brown), 15:30. PENALTIES: Zhitnik, Buf (hooking), 6:41; Sanderson, Buf (boarding), 9:06. SHOTS ON GOAL 1ST 2ND 3RD OT TOTAL --- --- --- --- ----- Buffalo 5 4 10 5 24 Dallas 11 12 7 7 37 POWER PLAY: Buffalo 1 of 4; Dallas 1 of 10. GOALIES: Buffalo, Hasek 12-2 (37 shots-35 saves). Dallas, Belfour 12-6 (24-21). Referees: Terry Gregson, Bill McCreary. Linesmen: Ray Scapinello, Jay Sharrers. A:17,001 (16,928).