It may be too early to suggest the Anaheim Ducks are dead in the water, but they're definitely treading water after dropping the first two playoff games on home ice.
Mike Modano and Brad Richards scored 55 seconds apart in the third period as the Dallas Stars shocked the Ducks 5-2 and a crowd of 17,181 at the Honda Center on Saturday night.
Modano broke a 2-2 deadlock with a power-play goal on a slapshot from the point 5:47 into the third, and Richards scored on a 2-on-1 break with Loui Eriksson at 6:42.
Richards later returned the favour, setting up Eriksson in the slot with 5:24 left as Dallas took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference series.
Game 3 goes Tuesday at American Airlines Center (10:30 p.m. ET).
Mike Ribeiro led the Stars with one goal and two assists, Eriksson and Richards each had a goal and an assist, and Jere Lehtinen rounded the scoring.
Joel Lundqvist and Stephane Robidas provided two assists apiece.
Teemu Selanne and Travis Moen replied in a losing cause for the fourth-seeded Ducks, who have been blanked in five of six periods — on home ice, no less.
Anaheim was held off the scoresheet for nearly 84 minutes, but they finally solved Stars netminder Marty Turco with two goals on five shots in the second.
Turco shut out the Ducks 4-0 in the opener, and held them at bay until the 24th minute of Game 2.
Dallas took a 1-0 lead on Ribeiro's breakaway goal 6:28 into the contest.
Ribeiro intercepted Francois Beauchemin's return pass to Scott Niedermayer at the Dallas blue-line, broke in alone and backhanded the puck under the glove of netminder Jean-Sebastien Giguere to open the scoring.
Eighty-eight seconds into the second period, Giguere juggled a point shot from Robidas and the puck squirted to Lehtinen, who backhanded it into the open net for a power-play goal.
Anaheim replied with a power-play goal at the 3:41 mark as Selanne tipped Scott Niedermayer's point shot to the upper portion of the net.
The Ducks had been held scoreless for 83:41 to that point and, though a seven-minute delay to repair a pane of glass silenced the crowd somewhat, the players were sparked by Selanne's goal.
No sooner had Todd Bertuzzi stepped out of the penalty box than he threaded a pretty pass to a streaking Moen, who pulled it to his forehand and tucked it by Turco for the tying goal with 3:41 left in the period.
With files from the Associated PressRahill to oversee Canadian speed-skating teams
Brian Rahill is changing roles with Speed Skating Canada, becoming high performance and Olympic program director for the long-track and short-track teams.
Oilers rally to ruin Sakic's return
Andrew Cogliano scored the only goal of the third period as the Oilers rallied from a two-goal deficit to defeat the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 on Sunday night in Edmonton.
Rumpfhuber swiftest in Lake Louise training
Ingrid Rumpfhuber was the fastest skier in Thursday's training session for Saturday's Lake Louise downhill (CBC, 5 p.m. ET).
Contact Us About Us HomeMonday, December 1st, 2008