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Bedeviled New Jersey making most of opportunities
Posted: Sunday June 04, 2000 02:50 PM
DALLAS -- You might have thought the Stars would win Game 3, what with all the breaks they got in the game. They also had a superb goaltender Saturday night and they scored a valuable power play goal. Yet it was all Dallas and the acrobatic Ed Belfour could do to stay in the game. “We’re concerned,” said Stars coach Ken Hitchcock after the lopsided 2-1 loss. They should be. Have you seen how often the Devils have controlled the play during the 180 minutes of this Cup final? Dallas could be down three games to none in this series. You know what I’m thinking? Devils in 5. New Jersey has played 20 playoff games and they have been the better team in 17 of then. The Stanley Cup does not always go to the team that blithely shuts down advancing forwards, that physically manhandles the opposition, that controls the puck for minutes at a time. That, however, is the way to bet. “At times you sense them getting frustrated,” says Devils defenseman Scott Niedermayer. “But we know they’re coming back.” The Stars won’t quit of course, and maybe they take another game in this series. But if they can’t win on a day when everything went their way, when will they win? The Devils spotted them a 1-0 lead 13 minutes into the first period. New Jersey defenseman Scott Stevens passed the puck straight to the stick blade of Dallas defenseman Sylvain Cote who saw goalie Martin Brodeur lying supine, and shot the puck into the open net. The gifts kept coming. One minute after that goal, Devils defenseman Vladimir Malakhov took a needless interference penalty. Jersey’s Claude Lemieux followed that by delivering a blatant-and, in typical Lemieux fashion, dangerous-crosscheck to Mike Modano. Here’s a 5-on-3 the Devils said. And then they sneered and killed it off. “Their ability to defense is controlling the play,” says Hitchcock. We’re going to have to do something about it.” Even in the final minutes, as the Devils held on to their lead, they were not done giving. With 4:15 left Brodeur carelessly shot puck over the glass, earning a delay-of-game-penalty. The Stars had yet another power play. The Stars finished with three more minutes of man-advantage than the Devils had in the game. Dallas also won 61 percent of the face-offs. These are kind of numbers and the kind of breaks that mean victory when two teams are evenly matched. Right now these teams are not evenly matched at all. The Devils have the puck more often, they fill the neutral zone more effectively and they put more dangerous pucks on Belfour than the Stars put on Brodeur. This is happening game after game. The way Hitchcock he has been forced to shorten his bench, things might only going to get worse. In Game 3, Modano played more than 25 minutes and Brett Hull played close to 23. Dallas also had four forwards who played 10 minutes or less. If the Devils forwards seem fresh and sharp consider everyone in the cast of 12 played between 11:02 and 17:58 on Saturday. This is a balanced and well-rested attack. Hitchcock is using his forwards the way he is because he knows that the Stars only real hope is that one of their true thoroughbreds-Modano or Hull or perhaps Joe Nieuwendyk - takes over a game. Unless that happens something else very well might: Devils in 5.
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