Playoffs 2000:Stars still alive after unlikely Game 5 win

Stars still alive after unlikely Game 5 win
Associated Press

DALLAS -- Maybe it was an omen for the Dallas Stars. They stayed alive in the Stanley Cup playoffs the same way they won the Cup last year.

The Stars won hockey's most prized possession on Brett Hull's much-debated third-overtime goal in Buffalo last June. This time, another third overtime on unfriendly ice, with the Stanley Cup in the house awaiting a possible ceremony, prevented the Stars from handing it over to the Devils.


	Mike Modano, right, scored the goal that got the Stars back in the series with the Devils.

Mike Modano's deflection of a Hull shot -- there he is again -- at 6:21 of the third overtime won a tense, 1-0 goaltenders' duel Thursday night, and part of Friday morning, that kept the Devils from claiming the Cup.

For at least one night. Possibly two. If the recent history of extended overtime playoff winners holds up, possibly forever.

The fourth longest game in Stanley Cup finals history -- the Stars have played two within a year -- forced a Game 6 Saturday night in Dallas, with the Devils clinging to a 3-2 lead. A lead that doesn't seem nearly as secure as 3-1. A lead that could be gone completely by the time they return to New Jersey.

"I felt if we won this game, we would come back here (to New Jersey) for Game 7 Monday," said Modano, who couldn't have picked a more opportune time for his first goal of the series, and the Stars' first even-strength goal since Game 2. "It's a big momentum swing. I think we all feel it."

The Devils certainly do. The Stanley Cup was there to win for them, on their home ice, before their fans. Several NHL officials were polishing it in a dressing room for the postgame ceremony that never occurred.

For the Devils, it was so close, yet, as each overtime passed, ever so far away. Even after playing nearly two full games in one night, the cup remains an elusive one victory away.

Now, they must make a hurried road trip they didn't want to make. To play a game they didn't want to play. To play in a building where they have won twice but, deep down, they know it will be extremely tough to win in again.

History says teams with 3-1 leads don't lose in the finals; only one of the 25 teams to try to overcome such a deficit have done so. But history also said a team couldn't rally from a 3-1 deficit and win a conference final, but the Devils are here only because they do exactly that against Philadelphia a few weeks ago.

"I'm pretty exhausted," said Devils rookie Scott Gomez, who at 20 is exactly half as old as Stars center Guy Carbonneau. "It was a long game, and it was tough to take. It could go either way."

Now, so could the series.

The Devils still have the edge, but perhaps not if they don't win Game 6 in Reunion Arena, where the Stars were 9-1 in the playoffs before losing Game 3 and Game 4.

In 1994, Vancouver faced an elimination game on the road in Game 5 against the Rangers and won it, plus Game 6, too. But the Rangers came back to win Game 7.

"We still have two more chances to finish this thing," Devils rookie defenseman Brian Rafalski said. "It's not over."

However, history -- funny how it keeps figuring in this series -- hasn't treated the losers of long playoff games very well. The Devils are now just such a loser.

In 1996, the Capitals won twice in Pittsburgh to take a 2-0 series lead, then lost a four-overtime game at home. They never won again in the series. Earlier in these playoffs, the Penguins won the first two in Philadelphia, then lost successive overtime home games, the second in five overtimes. They never won again in the series.

"It takes a lot out of you to lose a game like that," Penguins goaltender Ron Tugnutt said. "To play that long and that hard and to lose ..."

However, the Devils, who rely heavily on four rookies, expect to bounce back easier than the more experienced Stars. Neither team took the ice Friday to rest their weary legs.

"Modano probably played more than half our team put together. Every second shift he was out there," Devils coach Larry Robinson said. "He's not a young man anymore, and they have a lot of guys that played a lot of hockey. So I think, with the fact we use more guys than they do, it should be an advantage."

Of course, so can momentum and confidence, two factors clearly lacking in the Stars before Game 5. Not now.

"We seem to come up big when the time is needed," Modano said, mentioning goaltender Ed Belfour, who made 48 saves in his fourth playoff shutout this season. "Guys seem to rally, we seem to support each other. We stay positive, we stay with the program and try to find the cracks and seams to take advantage of."

The Devils just hope that crack isn't in the cup they still plan to hoist -- if not Saturday, then Monday.

"We're still up in the series," Devils rookie Colin White said. "And we're not going to get down."