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A little Dackell do ya Ottawa knots series with 2-1 victory in Game 4
Posted: Monday May 01, 2000 08:02 PM By Chris Stevenson, SLAM! Sports OTTAWA -- He has been called Duct Tape by some for his versatility and ability to patch up a hole in the defence or help hold together a penalty killing unit.
Dackell turned offensive with both goals in Ottawa's 2-1 win over the Leafs at the Corel Centre, tieing the opening round series 2-2 and sending the teams back to Toronto for Game 5 Saturday night at the Air Canada Centre. "It's always nice to score goals. It was just my luck today," said the 27-year-old Swede, a 10-goal scorer in the regular season. "We had a huge team effort today and I had the luck to put the puck in the net. It's good for our confidence to get two big wins at home. We felt good right from the start. You could look around the room and everybody was pumped." Dackell has played a variety of roles from winger on the club's top offensive line last year to accomplished penalty killer to a forward struggling for goals this regular season. He played right wing last season with Alexei Yashin in the middle and Shawn McEachern on the left side. He worked the boards and did a lot of grunt work for the unit. When Yashin opted to hold out this season, many thought it might be McEachern who suffered the most. But while McEachern continued to produce, coming just two shy of matching last year's career-best 31 goals, Dackell looked to lose his identity on the club. His penalty killing continued to be outstanding and with Joe Juneau, combined to make one of the top penalty-killing units in the league. But he took eight games to get his first goal of the season and another 16 before he got his second. The low point was the 26 games he went without a goal from late November to late January. "Maybe I put too much pressure on myself," he said. "I wanted to produce more. The second half it picked up and my confidence came on. I play better when I don't think about it." His two goals Wednesday night matched his career post-season output. Both goals came on 2-on-1 situations as Dackell carried the puck in and elected to shoot on a shaky looking Curtis Joseph in the Toronto net. Dackell was accompanied by two of the Senators' top marksmen on the 2-on-1's, captain Daniel Alfredsson on the first and 29-goal scorer Shawn McEachern on the second. So why did the 10-goal scorer take the shots? "On the first one, I was looking for Alfie to make the pass, but they're 'D' slid and I stopped up. I didn't think much. I was maybe a little bit surprised it went in. "On the second one, the same thing happened. I waited and waited and was looking for Mac, but [the defenceman slid down] and I couldn't make the pass." Alfredsson said he was pleased to see Dackell load up. "It's good to see him shoot the puck," he said. "When I saw him play in Sweden, he was a much more offensive player. He's played a defensive role here and he's done great, but I'd like to see him shoot more." Apart from being beaten by a couple of ordinary looking shots by Dackell, Joseph lost his cool for the second game in a row, though on a much smaller scale. In Game 3, he launched himself towards referee Mick McGeough to dispute what turned out to be the Senators' winning goal and wound up in a ball of fury with McGeough on the ice. Wednesday night, he let go a wild, one-handed slash to the back of Senators winger Shawn McEachern which went unpunished. "We're trying our best, but they're getting the breaks right now," said Toronto winger Tie Domi, who was tossed from the game with just over five minutes to go after a skirmish in front of Ottawa goaltender Tom Barrasso, who was outstanding on the night. "There's no frustration on our part. It's something we're learning to deal with. It's a best two-out-of-three now and we've got home ice advantage.." Dackell gave Barrasso all he would need on the night on two plays which mirrored each other, the first down the left wing in the second period and the second down the right wing early in the third. After taking a penalty after a whistle, a very uncharacteristic penalty for the industrious winger, Dackell came out of the box and helped create some havoc in the neutral zone in the second period. He stepped out of the box and interrupted a Leaf push up the ice, which resulted in some fractured play in the neutral zone. The puck wound up on the stick of Ottawa's Shawn McEachern as the Leafs got caught pushing up the ice. He moved the puck to Dackell and the Leafs suddenly were looking at a 2-on-1 situation against them at their blue line. With Alfredsson going hard to the net, Toronto defenceman Alexander Karpovtsev made the fatal error of leaving his feet to try and take away the pass. Dackell simply delayed, shifted from backhand to forehand and avoided Karpovtsev's futile sweep check. Joseph looked like he was caught between committing to Dackell's shot and anticipating a goalmouth pass to Alfredsson. His body position spoke of his indecision, his strong-side knee angled towards the ice, his body deep in the crease. Dackell opted to shoot and his shot handcuffed Joseph, squeezing between his right arm and his body and squirting into the net at 8:15 of the second. Early in the third, Toronto defenceman Cory Cross took a wild swing at a bouncing puck at the Ottawa blue line and missed, leaving Dackell to jump on the puck and breakaway in an odd-man situation with McEachern. Dackell skated down the right side and when Joseph moved first, starting to drop to the ice, put a shot under the Leafs goaltender. "Now it's a best of three," said Dackell, "and they've played really well in their building. It's going to be a big battle again and we've got to play our best game to win Saturday." 
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