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Modano, Richards send Stars home with 2-0 lead

Apr 13, 2008 - 6:45 AM By Craig Shultz PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- The defending Stanley Cup champions are digging themselves a deep hole.

Mike Modano and Brad Richards scored 55 seconds apart early in the third period to snap a tie and give the Dallas Stars a 5-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks in Game Two of their Western Conference quarterfinal series on Saturday.

Mike Ribeiro had a goal and two assists for the fifth-seeded Stars, who tallied twice on the power play after scoring four times with the man advantage in Thursday's 4-0 victory in Game One.

"We've been moving it around pretty good on the power play," Modano said. "It's been something that's been a real strong spark for our team the last two games. It won us (Game One) and won it today."

"I don't think we do anything fancy. We just try to keep it simple," said defenseman Stephane Robidas, who assisted on both power-play goals. "We just try to bring the puck to the net and send some traffic. We know (Jean-Sebastien) Giguere is a good goalie, they're a good team. ... We got fortunate enough to get a couple goals on the power play again tonight."

Jere Lehtinen and Loui Eriksson also scored for Dallas, which owns a two-games-to-none lead and hosts Game Three on Tuesday.

"It certainly was a good game," goaltender Marty Turco said. "It just bodes well for this team, we've accepted the challenge as you can see by our play and tenacity. This team's committed all the way to the end. But we're not even counting anything, it's not even a feather in our cap yet, there's still a lot of work ahead."

"We came in here, competed pretty hard and found a way to win again," Dallas coach Dave Tippett said. "That's a positive sign for our side. We played pretty well. We had to come out and kill a penalty at the start of the third. We felt that if we could get a big kill there, it would give us some momentum the rest of the period. That's what happened."

Starting the series away from home has not been detrimental to Dallas.

"I said from the start, I think it was better for us to start on the road," Modano said. "Get that mindset, get really involved in the series and get into a hostile environment right off the get-go and get us really bearing down in areas that maybe you take a little soft because you have home ice. We dug in the hard areas and did them well so far."

Robidas warns that the series is far from over.

"We knew it was going to be a long series and we still feel that way," Robidas said. "We're up 2-0. Obviously we're in a good situation right now, we'd rather be 2-0 than down two or 1-1, but it's far from being over. It's not going to be easy."

"You try to win every game that you play. Just because we're on the road, we didn't not believe we could win the first game," Richards said. "We've all been on teams where you kind of take a breath of fresh air after a win on the road and you're happy with a split. You try to forget as quick as you can, and that's what we have to try to do tonight. When we go to bed tonight, it's back to 0-0."

Teemu Selanne netted his 30th career postseason goal and Travis Moen also scored for the fourth-seeded Ducks, who have lost each of their previous four series in which they dropped the first two games.

"If you can't kill the penalties, you shouldn't take them," Selanne said. "Six power-play goals in two games. In this league, your chance to win is zero, absolutely zero. There are no excuses."

"It's just frustrating. Early in the game, we had a lot of good chances. Then, one mistake, and they scored. It was very disappointing. We played a good 50 minutes, but we need to lift the bar for 60 minutes."

Defenseman Sean O'Donnell said something seems to be off on the Ducks' play.

"We're one step behind," O'Donnell said. "We're going right when we should be going left and we're just not 100 percent in sync right now."

With the contest tied at 2-2 at 5:47 of the third period, Modano blasted a slap shot from the blue line past goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere during a power play.

Brad Richards, the 2004 Conn Smythe Trophy winner while with the Tampa Bay Lightning, doubled the Stars' lead at 6:42, when he took a cross-ice pass from Eriksson and wristed a shot into the net.

"You're just trying to shoot it, get it off quick," Richards said. "Try and shoot before (Giguere) gets set, that's all you can do. (Giguere) covers a lot of net."

Giguere said the Ducks' failures in the series have been a team effort.

"We are all guilty of not playing as good as we can right now," Giguere said. "We're not making the saves, not playing well defensively and not scoring enough goals. All together, it's pretty ugly out there. We have to do a better job."

"We were down 2-0. We battled hard and came back to 2-2. I thought we were doing a good job and it was looking good for the third period. As soon as they scored that third goal on the power play after we had two power plays, I guess it just collapsed us. It's just unacceptable."

The Ducks had two power-play chances in the third period that they did not convert.

"We haven't felt very comfortable about our power play in this series," Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said. "I thought we did a lot of the things that we needed to do in the hockey game. Even though we were down 2-0, we started to grind and get it back. We got a power-play goal - the Selanne goal - and the Moen goal got us to 2-2.

"It was like we were primed and ready with the power play to start the third period. We were flat on that. We didn't really get into the zone and do much with it. We got another power play and it was the case again. It seemed to be the turning point for us."

Dallas opened the scoring 6:28 into the game. Ribeiro took the puck off the stick of Anaheim defenseman Francois Beauchemin at the Ducks' blue line and skated in alone on Giguere before switching from his forehand to his backhand and beating the netminder.

"Usually French goalies, they always stop me," Ribeiro said. "I don't think I scored yet against them (in a shootout). (Giguere) probably expected me to stop and come back, that's what I do, when I play against him in the summer; we play in the same summer league. I was going fast enough to just go on my backhand (and shoot)."

Lehtinen scored Dallas' fifth power-play goal of the series just 88 seconds into the middle period, burying the rebound of a blast from the point by defenseman Stephane Robidas.

The Ducks finally solved goaltender Marty Turco at 3:41, scoring for the first time in the series when Selanne tallied on the power play. All-Star Ryan Getzlaf fed defenseman Scott Niedermayer, who wristed a shot from the right point that was redirected in by Selanne for his 30th career playoff goal.

Anaheim tied the game with 3:41 remaining in the period as Moen accepted a feed from Niedermayer, skated into the slot and beat Turco with a wrister.

The shot was only the third of the period by the Ducks and first at even strength.

"It's going to be a bumpy road. We're very disappointed that we have to go there down two games," Selanne said. "We're going to stick together and stay positive. Everything is still in our own hands. We can control our destiny. Obviously, it's not going to be easy, but it's nothing we haven't done before."

"It's just the basic one step at a time," O'Donnell said. "We can't think about the two games, we have to think about the first period of the game Tuesday and try winning that and hopefully play a good solid road game."