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DALLAS (Ticker) -- Not even a lineup snafu could end the Dallas Stars' home mastery of the Edmonton Oilers. Rookie Steve Ott and Brenden Morrow scored less than four minutes apart midway through the second period to erase a deficit as the Stars extended their home unbeaten streak against the Oilers to 15 games with a 4-1 triumph. Dallas took an early lead on a goal by Rob DiMaio at the 31-second mark, but Edmonton coach Craig MacTavish immediately summoned the referee to point out a discrepancy in the Dallas lineup. Stars coach Dave Tippett submitted a lineup card that had Ron Tugnutt as his starting goaltender. But when the first puck was dropped, Marty Turco was in net for Dallas, prompting the officials to wave off DiMaio's tally and issue a minor penalty to the Stars. "I'll take all the responsibility," Tippett said. "That's my job, to make sure everything is right. I apologized to the team. Mistakes are part of the game and I made a mistake. That's 'shock' adversity. It whacks you in the teeth. It's a credit to the players to overcome that adversity." "It's happened before and it hasn't been called, but tonight it was," Turco added. "We knew we had to pick up the coaches tonight and we weren't going to let that deter us." With Edmonton ahead, 1-0, Ott netted his first NHL goal at 10:19 of the second period and Morrow connected for his 11th of the season just 3:43 later to put the Stars ahead. Mike Modano and Bill Guerin added empty-net goals in the final minute to improve Dallas' home mark against the Oilers to 14-0-1-0 since a 4-3 loss on January 17, 1996. "We played well tonight in all of the zones," said Turco, who turned aside 24 shots. "We were really aggressive in the offensive zone and played physical tonight. It was just another good overall game for us." Since moving to Texas from Minnesota in 1993, the Stars are 30-4-4-0 against Edmonton. "We had our chances, but we were just unable to capitalize," MacTavish said. "When you have the type of record that we do against this team, it becomes a psychological burden to win a game like this." "It's tough when you don't have success against a certain team," Edmonton center Mike Comrie added. "Mentally, it's very difficult. You know you're always going to be in a battle against these guys. We hung in there, but how many times is David going to beat Goliath?" Shawn Horcoff scored the lone tally for Edmonton, which has lost seven of its last eight contests. Just 4:10 into the first period, Georges Laraque carried down the left wing and shoveled the puck to the net. Turco kicked it into the slot, but Horcoff was there to put it in for his third goal of the season and a 1-0 lead for the Oilers. After getting a pass from Guerin in the right faceoff circle, Ott slipped the puck behind goalie Jussi Markkanen from the doorstep for his first goal in eight NHL games, tying it at 1-1. "It's obviously a great thrill," Ott said. "It was a grinder type of goal. I wasn't really expecting such a good pass from Bill. He put it right on my stick and I just took the shot. Our line tried to supply energy and I think the goal picked up our team." "He's a great kid," Tippett said. "He's going to be a very good NHL player. That enthusiasm that he has is something that makes him special." Morrow put Dallas in front at 14:02, getting a feed from Jason Arnott in front and backhanding the puck between Markkanen's pads. "We're starting to get that killer instinct back that we seemed to have lost last year," Morrow said. "We're now able to win these close games." Modano sealed the victory with 57 seconds to go and Guerin capped the scoring with his 17th goal of the season and 22nd point in 23 games. |
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