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Carcillo's hat trick fuels Coyotes

Apr 5, 2008 - 6:17 AM By John Tranchina PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

DALLAS (Ticker) -- Daniel Carcillo wants to be known for more than just his fists and his thin 1970's-style moustache.

Leading the NHL in penalty minutes by a wide margin, Carcillo recorded his first career hat trick to lead the Phoenix Coyotes to a 4-2 victory over the Dallas Stars Friday night.

"It was pretty special," Carcillo said of his three-goal effort. "I hadn't had one since I was in juniors. It's a pretty good feeling to end the year on a positive note."

Rookie Martin Hanzal also scored for Phoenix, which snapped a three-game losing streak.

It was the second contest between the Pacific Division rivals in as many nights. Dallas posted a 4-2 triumph in Phoenix on Thursday.

With the loss, the Stars (44-30-7) locked themselves into fifth place in the Western Conference. They will meet the defending Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks, who clinched the fourth seed - and home ice - in the conference quarterfinals.

"You'd like to have it, sure, for your fans and everything," Stars defenseman Philippe Boucher said of home-ice advantage in the playoffs. "But that being said, wherever, whoever, wherever. You want to be in the playoffs, and now we know it's Anaheim. We'll start there, and we've had some success against them in the last few years.

"They're the defending champs, we'll have to be ready for them."

Stars coach Dave Tippett was not worried about the loss from the standpoint of preparing for the postseason.

"You just make sure the right parts are in place, and first and foremost is the right work ethic, and I thought we had that right through tonight," Tippett said. "We had a lot of people that worked awful hard tonight."

After opening the scoring at 2:51 of the first period, Carcillo snapped a 1-1 tie with a power-play goal 3:39 into the second.

The enforcer received a beautiful lead pass from Steven Reinprecht and skated in on a breakaway before making a nice move to his backhand to deke goaltender Marty Turco and depositing the puck into the vacant net for his second of the night and 10th of the season.

"I made a move and Turco came out a little," Carcillo said. "I got hooked and, luckily, I was able to poke it in."

Carcillo completed the hat trick and sealed the victory with an empty-net goal with three seconds left in the third.

"Carcillo had an excellent game tonight, he played hard, got three goals," Phoenix coach Wayne Gretzky said. "He just plays hard all the time, he loves to compete, plays on the edge. We got to keep him sort of held in check a little bit, but all in all, he's a tremendous young man and happy to see him get a hat trick tonight.

"He worked hard and scored two really nice goals and got the empty-netter. It was a nice effort by him."

Stars captain Brenden Morrow was not pleased with Carcillo's celebration after the empty-netter.

"You don't like to see anyone score, but I didn't like the (Michael) Jordan impersonation after he scored, with the tongue out, that empty-netter. That's frustrating," Morrow said. "When you don't score many, I think you celebrate them a little bit more."

After Carcillo beat Turco to the glove side to give Phoenix a 1-0 lead early, Dallas pulled even with 1:50 remaining in the first. While joining a rush, defenseman Trevor Daley stopped at the top of the crease and tapped in a pass by Steve Ott from low in the left faceoff circle for his fifth goal of the season.

Just 61 seconds after Carcillo's second goal, the Stars again forged a tie on a shorthanded goal by Boucher. Stu Barnes led a 2-on-1 rush before dishing to Boucher, who ripped a wrist shot over the glove of netminder Mikael Tellqvist at 4:40 of the second.

"That's the one thing I'm looking for," said Boucher, who was playing just his fifth game after missing 44 of 48 with shoulder injuries. "I feel good in practice, and in the games, it's good to get one."

Phoenix capitalized on another breakaway to take a 3-2 lead with 6:47 left in the period. Hanzal took a lead pass from defenseman Zbynek Michalek and raced in alone, making a nifty move and slipping the puck between Turco's pads for his eighth of the campaign.

"Could we have used a save on a breakaway?" Tippett asked. "Sure, but a breakaway is a breakaway. You shouldn't be giving up breakaways."

At the other end, Tellqvist was outstanding, making 30 saves.

"(Ilya) Bryzgalov obviously gave us a boost, but when Telly played, he gave us good efforts," Gretzky said. "I told the guys before the game, the game doesn't mean anything standings-wise, but we're playing for pride.

"The other side of it is, Tellqvist has worked hard every practice all year long for these guys, stays on (the ice) extra for them. It would be nice for our guys to stand up and give a solid effort for him for what he's done for this team all year, and it was nice to see."