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Tuesday, May 19, 1998

Stars have to have defense on their minds

By CHARLES RICHARDS

Associated Press

DALLAS - The Dallas Stars will soon find out if the best offense is indeed a good defense.

The Stars have used nominal offense in combination with stingy defense in advancing to the Western Conference finals.

But both potential opponents in the upcoming series, the Detroit Red Wings and the St. Louis Blues, have explosive offenses.

And the Stars have been anything but fiery on offense, coming off of the lowest scoring five-game series in 70 years of Stanley Cup playoff hockey - only 14 goals were scored in the Dallas-Edmonton series.

Some of it might be explained by the fact that the Stars are doing their best impression of the 1995 Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils, who won the title with a suffocating defense.

"We're not going to run and gun with you. What you saw in this series defensively is who we are. We're not going to give you a lot of chances," Stars captain and defenseman Derian Hatcher said.

Hatcher shared top defensive billing against the Oilers with an unlikely Star, center Mike Modano, whose defense was as good as it's been in a career noted for offensive prowess.

"We sacrificed Mike Modano for this series, thinking we'd get enough goals from other people. And from a defensive standpoint, the gamble paid off," Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said.

Hitchcock told his offensive star that if he broke even with Edmonton center Doug Weight, the Stars had a good chance to win the series.

Modano did better than break even. He finished with four assists in the five games. Weight had only one point, a power-play goal when his team had a two-man advantage in Game 2.

"That's what I've been doing all season," Modano said. "But I was surprised they wanted that matchup in Edmonton, too. It played into our hands. I've gotten a lot of thrills about playing good defensive hockey, even changing my game a little to try and play a better all-around game."

In five games, the Stars and goalie Ed Belfour allowed only five goals, one an empty-netter. That had been accomplished in an NHL five-game series three times before - by the New York Rangers in 1928, the Boston Bruins in 1995 and the New Jersey Devils in 1997. Belfour also stopped 119 of 123 shots.

"That was Dallas Stars hockey," Hatcher said. "That's the way we played all year. Even in games where we gave them a lot of shots, we didn't give them any real scoring chances."