SoCal Stanley Cup Preview

Anaheim at Dallas, 5:30 pm
Western Conference quarterfinals
Stars lead, 2-0

DALLAS (Ticker) - The Dallas Stars are in position to quickly put an end to the Anaheim Ducks' title defense. As the series heads to Dallas, the Stars will attempt to take a commanding three-games-to-none lead when they host the defending champion Ducks in Game Three of their Western Conference quarterfinal series on Tuesday.

Mike Modano and Brad Richards scored 55 seconds apart early in the third period to snap a tie and lift Dallas to a 5-2 victory over Anaheim in Game Two on Saturday. Mike Ribeiro had a goal and two assists for the fifth-seeded Stars, who tallied twice on the power play after scoring four times with the man advantage in Thursday's 4-0 victory in Game One. "We've been moving it around pretty good on the power play," Modano said. "It's been something that's been a real strong spark for our team the last two games. It won us (Game One) and won it today." "I don't think we do anything fancy. We just try to keep it simple," said defenseman Stephane Robidas, who assisted on both power-play goals Saturday. "We just try to bring the puck to the net and send some traffic."

Teemu Selanne netted his 30th career postseason goal and Travis Moen also scored for the fourth-seeded Ducks, who have lost each of their previous four series in which they dropped the first two games. "If you can't kill the penalties, you shouldn't take them," Selanne said. "Six power-play goals in two games. In this league, your chance to win is zero, absolutely zero. There are no excuses." Robidas, however, knows this series is far from over. "We knew it was going to be a long series and we still feel that way," he said. "We're up 2-0. Obviously we're in a good situation right now, we'd rather be 2-0 than down two or 1-1, but it's far from being over. It's not going to be easy."