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Morrow's second goal of game gives Stars early lead

Apr 26, 2008 - 7:14 AM SAN JOSE, California (Ticker) -- The Dallas Stars made their shots count.

Captain Brenden Morrow scored his second goal of the night 4:39 into overtime, giving the fifth-seeded Stars a 3-2 victory over the second-seeded San Jose Sharks in Game One of their Western Conference semifinal series on Friday.

Mike Modano also tallied and Mike Ribeiro added a pair of assists for the Stars, who were outshot, 27-18, but improved to 7-0-1 in their last eight visits to HP Pavilion.

"It's a really fun place to play," Morrow said. "The atmosphere here is great, and the fans. I've been part of a few playoff series here and I was excited. I think the home team gets a bit of adrenaline, they get some excitement out of it, but the road team does, too."

Milan Michalek and Jonathan Cheechoo netted goals for San Jose, which hosts Game Two on Sunday.

"It's always difficult when you lose, especially at home," Cheechoo said. "It happened last series, too, so we just have to put it behind us and come ready to play on Sunday."

After registering just two shots in the first period and five in the third, Dallas posted the only three of overtime, with the last one helping it steal home-ice advantage from San Jose.

"We did the same thing against Anaheim (in the quarterfinals) and it turned out huge for us," Morrow said. "If you are the road team, you want to go in and steal one and find a way to get home ice back."

From the left point, defenseman Mattias Norstrom made a cross-ice pass to Morrow, who blasted a one-timer from the right faceoff dot past the left pad of goaltender Evgeni Nabokov and inside the right goalpost to cap his second multi-goal effort of the postseason.

"There was a lot of chaos around the net," Morrow said. "I saw there was a lot of people in the crease area. ... Norstrom made a good heads-up play to find me with the pass. The puck didn't go where I wanted it to, but it found the net."

"We were looking for that one play that could dictate the outcome," Dallas coach Dave Tippett said. "Norstrom made the great play to Morrow, and we found a way to win."

It came as no surprise to Stars netminder Marty Turco that Morrow was the hero.

"Where do you start with that guy?" Turco asked. "He just makes big plays, period, ones that you can't teach. You just watch and appreciate. We're not surprised at the ferociousness that he brings, the ability to make plays with all facets of his game. His forechecking and his skating on the top scoring line, he does it all on the ice. He cares more than anybody. That's the reason he's our captain, the heartbeat of the team."

Morrow credited Turco for keeping Dallas in the game in the first period.

"He bailed us out," Morrow said. "We didn't have our feet under us yet. We looked like we had a few days without some good competition, some battles. San Jose was the better team by far, but Marty gave us a chance."

The Stars, who have gone on to win the previous eight playoff series in which they captured the opener, dodged a bullet early as Michalek rang a shot off the crossbar just 64 seconds into the game.

"We did weather the storm a little bit," Tippett said, referring to the lopsided first period. "I would have liked to have seen us generate a little more. I didn't think we skated as well as we needed early."

However, Michalek gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead at 4:50 of the second with his first goal of the playoffs.

"Milan's been playing really well and it's nice to see him get on the scoresheet," San Jose captain Patrick Marleau said. "We are going to need more coming down the stretch."

After Stars defenseman Matt Niskanen made an errant pass that went directly to Joe Thornton at the blue line, the former Hart Trophy winner dished to Michalek. From the doorstep, the Czech let go a shot that appeared to be stopped by Turco.

But Dallas' goaltender never completely controlled the puck, and it trickled into the net to put San Jose ahead.

"It was nice to finally get that goal, but I'd exchange it for a win tonight," said Michalek, who failed to record a point in the seven-game quarterfinal series against Calgary. "I hope my confidence will go up now and things will change."

"We need Milan scoring," San Jose's Torrey Mitchell said. "Obviously, he's one of our best players. It was good for him to get that goal."

The lead did not last long, as Modano fired a one-timer from the blue line along the ice that got past a screened Nabokov during a power play at 6:06, knotting the contest at 1-1.

Morrow gave the Stars the edge 3:03 later.

After gaining control of the puck behind the net, Ribeiro came out near the left post and backhanded it across the crease to Morrow, who deposited it past Nabokov at 9:09 for his fourth goal this postseason and a 2-1 advantage.

"The goals they scored, we lost a couple of battles," Sharks coach Ron Wilson said. "You have a soft play in your own end, turn it over, it's going to end up in your net. ... They got the jump on us, they had our defense pair hemmed in, we didn't move the puck quick enough and they jumped on a mistake. That simple."

With time winding down in the third, San Jose got the equalizer. Defenseman Matt Carle unleashed a one-timer from the top of the left faceoff circle that hit Mitchell on its way to the net.

The puck rolled through the crease and was headed wide of the right post, but Cheechoo drove hard and jammed it in with 3:02 remaining, forging a 2-2 tie.

"We wore them down, had a bunch of traffic in front of the net, three guys there," Wilson said. "When Cheech gets involved, gets his nose dirty like he did, he's going to score. He scored kind of a typical Jonathan Cheechoo goal. We need him to do that every shift."

"He's a good goalie," Cheechoo said of Turco. "When he gets a chance to see a clear shot, he's going to stop it 95 percent of the time. ... You can't allow him to see all those shots."