NHL Dallas

Are we about to witness history?

It's been 33 years since a team won a series in the NHL Playoffs after dropping the first three games. Dallas not only lost the first three games, but never led in any of them.

Now, the Stars have a chance to force a Game Seven. To do so, they need a home win tonight against the suddenly sinking (maybe?) Red Wings.

We'll be here to cover it live, via Cover It Live. Join us after the jump for our liveblog, beginning at around 7:45pm Eastern.

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

There may be a lot of you who are surprised there is hockey this weekend.

I'll freely admit to being one of them. I'm even more surprised that there are two games this weekend.

Both the Dallas Stars and Philadelphia Flyers were left for dead after falling behind 3-0 in their respective series. Even though they were playing on home ice, they were heavy underdogs in Game Four.

They both got the job done. Their prize? They're being left for dead entering road games this weekend.

While I think it would be outright lunacy to predict one of these series will be extended, you can't rule it out. After all, most of you ruled out these series even going five games, and here we are.

Dallas tries first, as they face Detroit Saturday in "Hockeytown". We'll be live-blogging the game here at FanHouse, so join us for the action starting at 1pm Eastern.

Can this added confidence carry the Stars to a Game Five upset?

(Still to come: The conference finals indeed continue, NBC prays for a regulation end to Saturday's game, and a YouTube to remember from the incomparable Tie Domi)

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

No programming hole to fill Saturday, NBC. The Dallas Stars will play at least one more game.

After an underwhelming performance in Game Three Monday night, the Stars rebounded with a 3-1 win Wednesday night. The Western Conference Finals will go at least five games, as Detroit's lead is now 3-1.

Dallas came out flying early, got three power plays in the first period, and got nothing out of it. It was 0-0 after one period, and many of Dallas' best chances ended with shots that were blocked or missed the net. The Stars also had trouble connecting on passes down low, which took away some chances.

The Wings had their chances, and they had a controversial disallowed goal in the second period. Tomas Holmstrom was ruled in the crease on a Wings' power-play goal. Replays indicated that Holmstrom was on the ice, but he wasn't in the crease. At all. He was screening Marty Turco, but was doing it within the rules. The totally legal goal was waved off, with no hope for a review from upstairs.

Dallas struck first late in the second, as Loui Eriksson stuffed home a bad Chris Osgood rebound. Before scoring, the Stars had to weather quite the Detroit storm. The Wings outshot Dallas badly, had three power plays, and clearly had the better of the play.

(Still to come: More on Game Four, an update on Johan Franzen's condition, and a celebratory YouTube)

This isn't news anymore. The Detroit Red Wings can advance to the Stanley Cup Finals with a win tonight. It would be Detroit's fifth trip to the Finals since 1995.
What could be more notable is that the Wings have a shot at their tenth straight win tonight. All nine games in this current streak have come with Chris Osgood as the starting goaltender. Despite this 9-0 run, there may not be a more underappreciated goalie in these playoffs than Osgood.

When he took over, he was immediately overshadowed by the Game Five performance of Nashville's Dan Ellis. Then Jose Theodore's head-stand against Minnesota got everyone talking. This round, it was all about the great play of Marty Turco.

Osgood has beaten all three of them, and he's done it without losing a single game. I don't care how good the team is in front of him. That's impressive.

Join us after the jump for a live discussion. We'll start the festivities at 7:45pm Eastern, 6:45pm Central, and 4:45pm Alaskan.

Much has been made of the end-of-game incident Saturday involving Mike Ribeiro of the Dallas Stars and Chris Osgood of the Detroit Red Wings.

As the Wings' 2-1 win closed out, Osgood appeared to put his stick out in an effort to butt-end Ribeiro. The Star forward responded with a two-hand chop across the top of the net, which Osgood sold as if a sniper in the fifth row of the upper deck had just picked him off.

TSN is reporting that neither player will be suspended, but fines were levied against both. Dallas' Steve Ott was also fined for his attack of Detroit's Kris Draper after the official let him (Draper) get away with faceoff interference.

In the end, discretion on the NHL's part is the right move. Suspending Ribeiro probably would have required a suspension of the obvious instigator, Osgood. And I'm pretty sure the league doesn't want to suspend a goaltender who is 8-0 so far in the playoffs.

Game Three should be interesting Monday night in Dallas. Typically, a player who two-hands a goaltender the way Ribeiro did would be required to pay for his sin at some point. However, it's the playoffs. Such redemption may have to wait until October, when the games aren't quite as meaningful.

The Dallas Stars couldn't have been happy with their defensive play in Game One of the Western Conference Finals in Detroit. The Stars were outshot 31-21, and were back on their heels from the outset.

Head coach Dave Tippett knows that can't happen again, and it appears he's taking steps to adjust his defense before Game Two. Jean-Jacques Taylor of the Dallas Morning News says hard-hitting rookie Mark Fistric is out for Saturday's game, while puck-moving rookie Matt Niskanen is in.

Mattias Norstrom will work with Niskanen, who's more adept at moving the puck and plays more of a finesse game than the hard-hitting Fistric.

No one is blaming Fistric for the Game 1 loss, but he took a roughing penalty less than five minutes into the game, giving Detroit a 5-on-3 power play that it quickly converted into a 1-0 lead.

The message for Niskanen is simple. Play calm, composed hockey and don't try to do too much, as noted by Mike Heika.

And the skilled Niskanen is, in theory, a much better fit against the skilled Red Wings. We'll see if that holds true. Fistric seemed much calmer in pressure situations against the Sharks, so Niskanen needs to not only bring his skill, but also bring some calm.

Judging by this move, the Stars realize they can't win by playing mauler hockey. They're going to have to use their skill to get back in this series.

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

It became evident very quickly Friday night that the coaches in the Eastern Conference Finals had some work to do.

Yes, both teams were scoring and creating chances. Neither team, however, was playing much defense. The goalies were tested more than usual, and the action was exciting.

In the end, Pittsburgh was the team that got their defense going first. They held Philadelphia off the board through the last two periods of a 4-2 Game One win.

Petr Sykora set the early tone, getting open in front and making a great move on Martin Biron for the game's first goal. Mike Richards scored two in a row for the Flyers, before a Biron turnover led to a goal by Sidney Crosby to tie it for Pittsburgh. Late in the first, Evgeni Malkin held the puck in the Philadelphia zone by a hair, skated in, and wristed a shot past Biron, giving the Penguins a 3-2 lead after one.

Malkin added a short-handed goal in the second period to make it 4-2 before things finally settled down. Of course, that wasn't good news for Philadelphia, since they had to make up a two-goal deficit.

(Still to come: More on Flyers-Penguins Game One, the Stars try to rebound, and we'll dig something up from YouTube. You'll then have to judge whether or not it's cool.)

Every Thursday (and sometimes Friday when he's lazy), Earl Sleek will conspire with his pen and scanner to bring you another installment of PuckToons. Hopefully you will find these amusing, relevant, well-drawn, or you're a person who is tolerant towards mediocrity.

Of course the Mule here represents Red Wings forward Johan Franzen, whose postseason heroics continued last night with his club-record 12th goal in just 11 postseason games. His game-winner was one of three power play goals the Wings scored en route to a 4-1 victory over the Dallas Stars.

The Stars trail in a series for the first time these playoffs, and will have to find a way to stay out of the penalty box if they want to improve their result for Game Two tomorrow. Even if they do, with so much focus on the Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Holmstrom line, can they stop the raging Mule? Tune in to find out.

Everyone who watched Game One of the Western Conference Finals Thursday night is keenly aware that the Detroit Red Wings basically skated circles around the Dallas Stars.

This isn't a great surprise, but the Stars look at it as a lesson. For the first time in these playoffs, the Stars have failed to win a series opener. In dropping this one, they left little doubt that Detroit was the better team.

One thing was clear last night. Dallas can get back in this thing. They just have to start moving their feet.

"You can't stand around and watch the puck," said captain Brenden Morrow.

He's right. The Stars were caught puck-watching last night, and they paid dearly for it. They took lazy penalties, they made bad decisions with the puck, and they didn't generate any speed through the neutral zone.

Click here for more NHL playoff previews.

After what seems like forever, the NHL gets back on the ice tonight with the start of the Western Conference Finals tonight in Detroit as the Red Wings host the Dallas Stars. The Eastern Conference Final gets in gear tomorrow night for the battle of Pensylvania as the Penguins host the Flyers in Pittsburgh.

I'm not sure anyone is surprised that Detroit and Pittsburgh made it this far, though seeing Dallas and Philadelphia still alive this late in the game has to count as something of a shocker. As you'll see from our panel, while the discussion was nearly unanimous regarding predictions for both series, there were plenty of folks who were hedging their bets.