Stars Hunt Down Sharks

It's becoming a the new fad in the NHL. Pick the San Jose Sharks to go all the way, since they always seem to have the right amount of talent, only to watch them fall from their high expectations. This season it was the Dallas Stars who knocked them from their public appointed pedestal in 6 games.

The Sharks did work awfully hard to make it to 6 games in the end, but it just wasn't enough. The giant-killing Stars had the Conference Finals in their sights for a little while now and they were not going to be denied in the end.

The Sharks were not the Western Conference favourite in the pool, but Evgeni Nabokov (Box 12) was far and away the most popular goaltender in the West, since the Detroit situation was not clear to start the playoffs.

Despite Nabokov's best efforts, which were amazing at most times in the quadruple overtime game, the Sharks still fell short of their goal of sending the series to seven games. Instead, it was Brendan Morrow (Box 2) who sent the Stars into the third round of the playoffs with the game-winner. Morrow, taken once in the pool, was quite the spark plug for the Stars in the series, finding himself in the middle of many situations. Morrow's bonus point tied Marty Turco (Box 12) for the game-high in points with two. Turco is currently tied for second in pool scoring in these playoffs with 19.

Both Mike Ribeiro (Box 1) and Brad Richards (Box 4) were also clutch for the Stars, each registering 6 points in the series.

The Stars sat defenseman Matt Niskanen (Box 10) for the final game of the series against the Sharks. Niskanen has registered 3 points in this year's playoffs, including 2 versus the Stars. There was no other indication of why the young defender sat and his four pool owners may want to know what's going on before the Stars face Detroit on Thursday night.