Ducks checkers pose challenge for Stars

When the puck drops in Anaheim shortly after 7 p.m. PT Thursday, the Dallas Stars will unleash 30-goal-scorer Brenden Morrow and 25-goal-men Mike Ribeiro and Niklas Hagman on the defending Stanley Cup champions.

It's the only way Dallas can beat Anaheim, some hockey observers believe. Forget about getting involved in 1-0 and 2-1 nail-biters.

Games 1 and 2 of the best-of-seven NHL Western Conference quarter-final will be contested in Anaheim, where the Ducks upended Ottawa last June 6 to win their first-ever Cup.

They will need another 16 playoff victories to become the first team to win back-to-back championships since Detroit in 1997 and '98.

The opening series against Dallas will feature three playoff MVPs: Anaheim goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere (2003) and defenceman Scott Niedermayer (2007) along with Stars forward Brad Richards (2004), who was acquired from the Tampa Bay Lightning in a Feb. 26 trade.

"To me, it's not about those guys as much as it is about [the Ducks' checking line of] Travis Moen, Rob Niedermayer and Sami Pahlsson," said Hockey Night in Canada analyst P.J. Stock.

"I was in Anaheim for Game 1 [of last year's Cup finals] and it was so much fun watching these guys pound on everyone.

"Dallas went out and picked up Mike Ribeiro [in 2006] and Brad Richards. One is 175 pounds, the other is 195. If they get past that [Moen] line, it's Anaheim's top scoring line. [After that] it's the defence of [Chris] Pronger, Niedermayer, [Mathieu] Schneider and [Francois] Beauchemin. I think Dallas is in tough."

Moen, Rob Niedermayer and Pahlsson shut down the Senators' top trio of Daniel Alfredsson, Dany Heatley and Jason Spezza last spring, forcing coach Bryan Murray to break up the unit.

Unlike Ottawa's big scorers, the Stars' offence isn't starting this series with a lot of momentum, having scored just 12 times in the final four games, including a 3-2 setback in overtime at Anaheim on March 30.

Dallas has stumbled for the past month, having won only four times since March 1, and sporting a 6-8-2 record since Richards's arrival.

Ribeiro, who led the Stars with 83 points in the regular season, hasn't scored in 10 games and has suffered from the flu this week.

But even if the Stars get down a goal early Thursday, there's no reason to panic. At 20-20-2, they were the only NHL team to not have a losing record after allowing the first goal.

Dallas, which finished the season with 45 wins and 97 points, has been eliminated in the first round for three consecutive years.

Zubov out for start of series

It also doesn't help that top defenceman Sergei Zubov will miss at least the start of the series following hernia surgery.

"I think he's the best lateral-moving defenceman in the National Hockey League," Stock said of Zubov, who led all Stars blue-liners with 35 points this season. "His loss is going to hurt the Stars in the transitional play."

Perhaps in Dallas's favour is Giguere's recent history versus the Stars. He won only three of his eight starts against them and posted a 2.92 GAA, nearly a goal higher than his season average (2.12).

Dallas's chances rest heavily on netminder Marty Turco, who posted a 1.30 GAA in a seven-game loss to Vancouver in the 2007 quarter-finals.

The Stars won the season series against Anaheim 5-2-1, but their only two losses came over the last two months.

In their most recent post-season encounter, the Ducks prevailed four games to two in the 2003 West semifinals.

"You want to get that [Cup-winning] feeling back again," Pronger said of the team's quest to win another championship. "We've been there, but it's a whole new year and we just went through a long grind of a season to finally get to this point to have the opportunity again."

With 60 home-ice points this season and 20 wins in its past 26 starts, Anaheim appears poised to give it a good run.

With files from the Associated Press

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