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Sunday, May 24, 1998

Detroit's offense meets Dallas' defense for best-in-west honors

By C. BRYSON HULL / Associated Press Writer

DALLAS (AP) -- The stranglehold defense of the Dallas Stars meets the storm-trooping offense of the Detroit Red Wings in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals Sunday.

In the most highly anticipated playoff series of the 1998 race to the Stanley Cup, the defending champion Red Wings will face an opponent anxious to earn its stripes as a serious Cup contender.

Though the regular-season incarnations of both teams were similar in using a four-line approach and combination of strong offense and defense, the playoff faces of Detroit and Dallas have been quite different.

With an injured lineup, the Stars have had to focus more on defense while playing mostly three lines of opportunistic offense. Conversely, the Wings have relied more on their explosive offense and strong puck handling.

That successful formula won them the Stanley Cup last year, and has made the Red Wings a contender for most of the '90s -- as well as the demon Dallas must exorcise to win a Stanley Cup.

"If we want to go all the way, we have to go through them," said Benoit Hogue, who's been a resurgent hero for Dallas with four goals in the playoffs, including an overtime game winner against Edmonton. "We know that we can play our game, so it doesn't matter that it's Detroit."

Easier said than done, said Stars coach Ken Hitchcock.

"The toughest part of playing Detroit is getting your game to influence their game," Hitchcock said. "We have to leave this series with people respecting our game. It's not a dull game, it's a disciplined game."

It's a game that relies on strong checking and a neutral zone chokehold to slow an opponent's transition game.

"They're tough. They check and check and check. It's unbelievable," Wings forward Brent Gilchrist said of his old team. "But they pressure the puck and really try to control the middle, the inside portion of the rink, and they've had a lot of success with it."

If Hitchcock is worried about criticism calling the Stars' style of play dull, he'd do well to remember that the leading proponents of so-called boring hockey were the 1995 Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils. The Devils paralyzed the heavily favored Wings in a four-game sweep with the now-famous neutral zone trap.

" Dallas is the No. 1 team in the league. We know that. They've been a very stingy team" Wings coach Scotty Bowman said.

The other key to the Devils' win was strong goal tending from Martin Brodeur, and the Stars are hoping that goalie Eddie Belfour will perform at the level that brought him to the Cup finals with the Chicago Blackhawks in 1992.

That means Belfour, whose profile has slipped to the background since he was a central figure in the first round against the San Jose Sharks, will be in the foreground again.

"I'm looking forward to the opportunity. They're going to bring out the best in our team," Belfour, who leads the league with a 1.41 goals-against average and is third with a .937 save percentage.

Belfour was outstanding in an April 15 game against the Wings, in which he stopped 44 shots on the way to a 3-1 Stars win.

In goaltender Chris Osgood, the Wings have a young player who is still developing. But he is performing close to the expectations the Wings have of him.

"Osgood has been steady all the way through. He played against a top-notch goalie and won a series against one of the best goalies ever to play in the NHL (St. Louis' Grant Fuhr)," Bowman said. "As a young goalie, that can't but help your confidence."

So can a 13-2-3 record against the Stars, in comparison to Belfour's 14-24-7 lifetime record against the Wings.

The money matchup of the series is between centers Mike Modano and Sergei Fedorov.

Both enjoy similar reputations as offensive stars who have grown into strong two-way players, and that could mean they'll be shadowing each other on the ice.

"It's really tough for one guy to shut him down. It takes your whole line to shut him down," Modano said of his likely quarry, Fedorov, who leads the NHL in playoff goals with eight and is second in scoring with 15 points, one point behind teammate Steve Yzerman. "He's a great player. I'd pay a hundred bucks to watch him play."

"I think it's always interesting if you have two good players playing against each other," Fedorov said. "Fans want to see that. But I think both teams know it's not so much about Mike Modano and Sergei Fedorov, it's about winning and how the teams respond on the ice."

That's what players and coaches want get to in a series long overdue to start, and likely to determine the eventual winner of the Stanley Cup.

"There's too many tans in the dressing room, so it's time to play hockey," Hitchcock said.