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Richards helps Stars beat Sharks, take 2-0 series lead

Apr 28, 2008 - 5:24 AM SAN JOSE, California (Ticker) -- This is the reason the Dallas Stars acquired Brad Richards at the trade deadline.

A former Conn Smythe winner, Richards scored a goal and set up three others in the third period Sunday as the Stars took a commanding two-games-to-none lead in their Western Conference semifinal series with a 5-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks in Game Two.

Niklas Hagman netted a pair of goals and Mike Ribeiro and Mike Modano also tallied for the Stars, who now have won the first two games on the road in each of their first two series this postseason.

"(San Jose) has been good on the road all year, and they play a tight, tight game," Richards said. "It's always one of the biggest adversities in the playoffs is home ice. You have so many distractions. Your mindset is, you're supposed to win, and the road team always comes in with nothing to lose and plays solid."

"We should recognize what happened last series, we came out of Anaheim with a 2-0 lead, we knew the opponent was going to play a very strong game," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "There's no reason to think they're not going to come in hard."

Marty Turco made 29 saves for Dallas, which will host Game Three on Tuesday but has felt right at home in San Jose lately - posting an 8-0-1 record at the HP Pavilion over its last nine games there.

"I'm not going to overanalyze it," Modano said of the club's success in San Jose. "It's been a good thing to have here. I enjoy the atmosphere, the fans are really good, and it's an exciting building to play in."

"He is playing great," Sharks center Joe Thornton said of Turco. "He is an elite goaltender and he is playing great. He is making the big saves to keep them in the game. We have to bear down and get some more traffic in front of him, but he is a good goalie."

Evgeni Nabokov stopped 21 of the 25 shots he faced for San Jose, which has never overcome a two-games-to-none deficit in franchise history and has been eliminated in this round in each of the past two seasons.

Joe Pavelski and Milan Michalek each scored for the Sharks, who allowed four goals in the final session.

The third period is what was frustrating," Nabokov said. "We have to play a better third period, especially at home. We have to dominate a team at home. We did all season long, but for some reason now we can't. We have to find a way."

The second-seeded Sharks took a 2-1 lead into the third period, but the fifth-seeded Stars struck for a pair of quick goals early in the session.

Richards wasted little time tying the contest at 2-2, scoring his second goal of the postseason just 32 seconds into the period off a critical turnover.

"When you are an offensive guy, you like to get involved, and it brings a good feeling," Richards said. "You want to contribute. You have to stick with it and keep doing the little things as well as possible and be hopeful that everything will work out."

Pavelski, controlling the puck in the Sharks' zone, lost his footing and slipped to the ice. Richards scooped up the loose puck in the slot and fired a quick wrist shot past Nabokov.

"We got a lucky break with Pavelski falling," Richards said. "I was fighting it a bit in the first five periods of this series. It wasn't a good feeling. You want to try to help out. You just have to keep grinding away, and hopefully, things will happen. You make things happen sometimes, and sometimes you get a break."

"I went to cut back and my feet went out and I lost the puck," Pavelski said. "You can't give a good player a good lane like that and he went in and made a good shot to tie up the game."

Just 17 seconds after coming out of the penalty box, Modano gave the Stars a 3-2 lead at 3:39. Modano went to the box for tripping at 1:22, but San Jose's power play was cut in half because defenseman Christian Ehrhoff was called for holding a minute later.

After leaving the box, Modano sprinted into the zone and received a backhanded pass from blue-liner Sergei Zubov at the right hashmarks. He wristed a quick shot to the top corner past Nabokov, who was slow to get back in position after Zubov's pass.

"In the third period, it's kind of difficult to say," Sharks coach Ron Wilson said. "Ignore the fourth and fifth goals. The tying goal - there's nothing we can do about it. A guy slips and fall, in an almost non-dangerous situation. And the other one, we got puck-focused, and Zubov made an unbelievable pass."

Hagman put the contest away with two goals less than five minutes apart late in the final period. He took a centering pass from Richards with 6:05 left and snapped a shot past Nabokov, who was relieved for Brian Boucher in the final three minutes of the game.

Hagman then added an empty-netter with 75 ticks left to provide the final margin off an assist from Richards, sealing the comeback win for Dallas.

"It's great to see Richards and Hagman put up there," Tippett said. "I thought a little speed would be good tonight, and we were fortunate for Haggy to get a couple."

Pavelski opened the scoring with 9:47 left in the first period with a power-play tally, but Ribeiro tied the game at 1-1 with 4:23 remaining when he scored from behind the net, banking his attempt off the skate of Nabokov.

"We clawed ourselves back in," Tippett said. "We got a break on the early goal and we kept pushing. I thought we pushed right to the end. We needed a strong (third) period to win the game, and our guys came up with one."

Hoping to retake the lead, San Jose failed to capitalize on a 2-on-1 rush about six minutes into the second period. Torrey Mitchell led the break with Jeremy Roenick as the trailer, Mitchell got too deep into the zone and his backhand pass to Roenick was on the heel of the stick.

After Roenick was unable to get off a quality shot, Mitchell had an open net at the doorstep but the puck was poked away by Dallas right wing Stu Barnes.

"We had a couple of chances and we have to bury it," Michalek said. "They scored on every chance they had and we have to bury more chances to get in front of the net. If (Turco) can see it, he's going to stop it."

Controlling the puck in the neutral zone, Sharks blue-liner Brian Campbell found Milan Michalek slipping behind Dallas defenseman Trevor Daley for a breakaway. Turco came out way out of the crease, trying to make a diving stop, but Michalek stick-handled around him and flipped a wrist shot into the vacant net with 5:06 left in the second to take a 2-1 edge.