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Turco, Stars blank Ducks

Apr 11, 2008 - 7:05 AM By Craig Shultz PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- Marty Turco was perfect and the Dallas Stars' power play was extremely potent on Thursday.

Turco stopped all 23 shots he faced for his fourth career postseason shutout and the fifth-seeded Stars scored four times with the man advantage en route to a 4-0 triumph over the defending Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks in Game One of their Western Conference quarterfinal series.

Captain Brenden Morrow had a goal and two assists and Steve Ott, Loui Eriksson and Jere Lehtinen also tallied for Dallas, which has been ousted in the conference quarterfinals each of the last three seasons.

Fourth-seeded Anaheim went 0-for-3 with the man advantage and was outshot, 37-23. The four power-play tallies allowed on seven opportunities was a franchise playoff record.

"They had some quality chances tonight, and my guys gave me a chance to see it," Turco said. "I felt like I did see the puck well and was moving it efficiently to my players tonight, and that's going to help us against a team that thrives on the forecheck.

"But we all know it's just one game against a team that we're expecting a grueling series. We'll enjoy it for about two minutes and then get back to work."

Turco said he received no extra thrill from posting a shutout.

"It has zero bearing for me to get a shutout," he said. "It's always been about how I play, how I feel, my patience and anything I need to do to be successful. It was there tonight. At times, there were some fortunate tips I didn't see that hit me."

The Stars, who went 5-2-1 against the Ducks in the regular season and 2-2-0 on the road, were 9-for-23 on the power play in the five victories and 0-for-15 in the three defeats.

"Our power play definitely tonight was a difference-maker, along with Marty Turco," Ott said. "Early in the game, (he) made some extremely key saves and we kind of responded from there on."

"We can't expect that out of our power play every night," Stars defenseman Philippe Boucher said. "It was nice to see, we know how important it is, but just as important, we didn't have to kill too many. We know how great their power play can be. ... The more we can stay away from giving them those opportunities, the better for us."

But one game does not make a series, according to Ott.

"It's nice to get Game One out of the way," he said. "It's always nice to win, especially in the playoff time, but it's a long series and we can't expect to win games by 4-0 every night, especially against the beast there.

"They are an extremely strong playoff team. They're Stanley Cup defenders, they know how to deal with adversity. For us, we just have to play our same game and keep the puck moving."

Anaheim goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere had a different view.

"Mentally, I guess we weren't ready," he said. "We have to be stronger mentally. There's going to be goals against, I can guarantee you that, it's not because I want to give goals. I've tried and I've tried, and it seems that every once in a while, it goes in. There's nothing I can do about that.

"Whether they're good or bad goals, we have to keep our head up and keep going forward. If we do that, we're going to get goals on our side."

Anaheim was the most penalized team in the NHL the past two seasons - and it hurt in Game One.

Ott tipped defenseman Stephane Robidas' shot past Giguere with 8:35 remaining in the first period as Anaheim's Travis Moen served an elbowing penalty, giving Dallas a 1-0 lead.

"Brenden Morrow just kind of threw it across the ice to Robidas, I was skating toward the net and it just nicked me and found a way in," Ott said. "More credit goes to Robidas, but it's definitely a goal and it's nice to contribute."

Eriksson doubled the advantage with his first career playoff goal with 2:26 remaining in the session. With Brian Sutherby in the box for cross-checking, Brad Richards made a nice cross-ice pass to Eriksson for a shot from the the right faceoff circle.

From behind the net, Richards fed Lehtinen, who beat Giguere to the stick side just 3:58 into the second period to make it 3-0. Mike Ribiero threw a pass across the crease to Morrow, who capped the scoring with 2:38 remaining in the session.

Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle was not thrilled with his team's penchant for committing penalties.

"Once we got the first penalty, it seemed to change the whole momentum of the game, and we continued to take penalties for the rest of the period," Carlyle said. "It was very indicative of our play tonight that we were out of sync, out of a groove. We got frustrated and we took some undisciplined paths that were penalties."

It was more than enough support for Turco, who stopped eight shots in both the first and second periods and seven in the third.