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NHL West
Friday, November 3
Hitchcock, Stars keep cool



The screws are tightening. The stakes magnifying.

He may have control of the better, deeper team, the defending champs, the prohibitive choice in this Western Conference semifinal series against the eighth seed from San Jose. But at 2-1, with Game 4 to be contested in the feeding frenzy that is the Shark Tank, no man in full possession of his faculties would be issuing any guarantees.

Ray Bourque
Ray Bourque isn't young for the NHL, but he's been rejuvenated in Colorado.

Yet the customarily congenial Ken Hitchcock isn't jumpy or irritable or in the least bit on edge.

As a matter of fact ...

"This? This is fun," enthuses the Stars coach. "If this doesn't get the old juices going, better check your pulse to see if it's still working. This is the game at its purest. When it's all on the line. All that matters is winning. Everything's magnified. The hockey in this series has been just ... incredible. The work ethic and the passion, from both sides ... exemplary.

"Are we in a battle. Wow!

"The line is always fine in the NHL today but get down to this time of year, it's even finer. Almost transparent. This time of year is all about adversity and how teams handle it. Both San Jose and our team have been really stifling defensively. I think their six defensemen have been largely unheralded, really outstanding, first in the St. Louis series and now against us.

"Usually that brings the outcome down to goaltending and special teams -- and our four power-play goals have held us in pretty good account there.

"To win in the playoffs, you need to feel confident that you can turn a scorless tie or a a 1-1 game your way. You can't panic or change the way you play. You need to stay patient, stay with the program and have faith in your ability to make a big play.

"We continue to improve as this goes along. We understand we have to play better to emerge from this series but we're encouraged by what we've seen."

And why for heaven's sakes not? Eddie Belfour's at the top of his form in goal. Mike Modano, Dallas' best forward, has been Dallas' best forward. Guy Carbonneau is playing as if he hadn't checked his birth certificate in a decade. Brett Hull's got that goal-famished look in his eyes again. The additions of Dave Manson and Sylvain Cote to the defensive brigade shored up an already deep blueline corps. The coach anticipates both Jamie Langenbrunner and Jere Lehtinen back in harness.

"Getting those two back helps us big time," Hitchcock says. "The difference in the playoffs is invariably timely goals. That's what success or failure comes down to. Those two people bring more of that to our lineup, to complement (Joe) Nieuwendyk and Hull and, well, Modano's just been flying out there.

"Look at the Colorado-Detroit series. Two great teams. A fierce struggle. But Colorado's getting the timely goals. Detroit isn't. And that's the only thing to separate them through four games.

"We haven't scored a lot in these playoffs. But we're managing that crucial goal at the key time, receiving great goaltending and playing good, solid defense."

Yes, Big D is beginning to hone that methodical, almost clinical, efficiency which carried it all the way to the promised land last spring. Outside of a bit of Modano improvisation, these guys don't knock anybody's eyeballs out with their razzle-dazzle, they just grind you under heel.

"We've been really good in both series," judges the Stars' most hardline critic. "What I like about us now is that one night we play, the next day we march. Regardless of what happened to us the night before, the next day we march on.

"We now realize a series isn't won or lost in 24 hours. That 5-2 pasting we took in Game 3 of the Edmonton series would've taken us four days to get over three years ago. Just taken all the air out of the balloon. It didn't this year. We just marched."

Similar to a platoon of African red army ants levelling a village. Faced with the prospect of going home even, 2-2, with the Oil, the Stars summoned up that championship grit, that deciding resolve, which has every chance of setting them apart again this playoff season.

They beat back Edmonton at Skyreach and closed the deal in Game 5 at Reunion. A similar task awaits them now in the Silicon Valley.

At the outset, many prognosticators viewed San Jose-Dallas as a five-game series, max. The Stars, though, as is their mindset, are simply anticipating it going the limit. Anything less is a bonus.

"The way San Jose is playing doesn't surprise me in the slightest," argues Hitchcock. "This is the same way they played against us all six times during the regular season. They beat us pretty handily."

When this series opened, many wondered if San Jose's dramatic, emotional seven-game upset of the President's Trophy-winning St. Louis Blues might not have been draining enough to make it easy prey for the well-rested Stars; or whether the Sharks would be satisfied with what they had already accomplished, subconciously consider their own little Stanley Cup and suffer a fatal letdown in Round 2.

Hitchcock, for one, wasn't banking on either.

"One of two things can happen in that sort of situation. Either a team can have expended all its energy in just winning the first series and never quite get it back or if they've been a team shackled by expectation or bad luck or injuries, feel that those shackles have somehow been removed and just feel unburdened and ... go.

"The Sharks are playing like a team with a lot of wind in their sails. So are we. That's why this has been such a passionate series. The emotion, the energy level, is extremely high. Which is why I mean it when I say this time of year is fun.

"There are 20 teams at home, sitting around watching us play on TV. We've got a chance to do some more damage, to move on. Right now, I'd say we're as good as any team in this conference. A month ago I couldn't have made that statement. Now, I can, in all honesty. I'm sure San Jose feels the same way.

"So, nervous? I'm not nervous. I'm excited. Excited to see how we'll react to this challenge."

All things being equal, Hitchcock and his Stars will react as we all expect them to: Like champions.

George Johnson covers the NHL for the Calgary Sun. His Western Conference column appears every week during the season on ESPN.com.

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