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Curtis Zupke grew up in Los Angeles and got hooked on hockey (along with thousands of other Southern Californians) upon Wayne Gretzky’s arrival to the Kings in 1988. He covered the Anaheim Ducks for the Orange County (Calif.) Register from 2006 to 2011.
His work has also appeared in The Hockey News, Associated Press and QMI Agency (a Quebec-based wire service that serves 250 daily and weekly newspapers in Canada).
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| Sans their big Star, Dallas is getting it done |
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| Pacific | |
| Written by J.P. Hoornstra | |
| Tuesday, March 08, 2011 06:12 | |
The Stars stopped falling from the playoff race around the time of the trade deadline when – perhaps not coincidentally – management decided to keep Brad Richards. Plenty of players are pitching in.
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Brad Richards hasn’t played a minute of hockey since Feb. 13. James Neal was traded to Pittsburgh.| AROUND THE PACIFIC |
“I think this group’s been good about that (rallying from deficits) all year,” Morrow said. “Last year, years past, that may have been something that we weren’t mentally tough enough to overcome but we kind of just wiped those things away, and go back and try to steal them in the next shift, and guys getting some big goals – that short-handed goal by Benner [Jamie Benn] was huge.”
The Stars won’t have to rally from a deficit to make the playoffs this season, but rather overcome their own 13-game lapse from Jan. 21 to Feb. 22, when they won just twice. That streak sent them plummeting from first to fifth in the Pacific. Despite the absence of a concussed Richards, the team’s leading scorer, Dallas has been able to climb back into second place in the league’s most tightly contested division.
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Mike Ribeiro has two goals and five assists in his last six games, having eaten the lion’s share of Richards’ minutes at center. After his one-goal, two-assist effort against the Kings — including an adventurous race into traffic that set up Morrow’s game-winner — head coach Marc Crawford praised Ribeiro for a “brave” effort.
“He was pretty determined with the puck,” Crawford said of Ribeiro. “He logged a lot of ice time for us, killed some penalties, was pretty good on the power play for us, and of course those goals that he helped to set up. He did a terrific job of going into the danger areas and the Kings are a hard team to penetrate the middle on. They’re big defensemen and they’re back-checking forwards don’t allow you to get it very often.
“You have to be very brave to go there, and Mike is and he got a payoff all the times that he did.”
Helping the Stars cope without Richards at center, Benn has switched from the wing and responded with goals in his last four games. Defenseman Alex Goligoski also has a goal and five assists in six games since arriving from Pittsburgh in the Neal deal.
Meanwhile, Richards began practicing with the team last week as he attempts to return from a concussion. Even though no target date has been given, the fact that the team never put Richards on injured reserve hints at a probable pre-playoff return.
The trade that sent Neal and Matt Niskanen to Pittsburgh for Goligoski was largely viewed as a slam-dunk for the Penguins at the time. Yet Neal has no points in six games and a minus-3 rating since heading East.
Maybe the biggest trade involving the Stars last Monday was one the team didn’t make. By keeping Richards, general manager Joe Nieuwendyk gave his troops something to rally around in Dallas.
Notes
Sharks G Antti Niemi signed a four-year, $15.2 million contract extension Tuesday. Niemi is 25-16-3 with a 2.38 goals-against average and .919 save percentage in his first season in San Jose after being allowed to walk in free agency by the Chicago Blackhawks. … D Sena Acolatse became the first Bay Area native to sign with San Jose on Friday. The 20-year-old from Hayward has 14 goals and 56 points in 59 games in the WHL this season. … Phoenix D Rostislav Klesla had a goal in his first game since arriving from Columbus in the deal that sent Scottie Upshall and Sami Lepisto to the Blue Jackets. … Ducks G Dan Ellis went 3-0-1 in his first four starts with the Ducks while amassing a 2.13 goals-against average. … The Ducks won back-to-back games in overtime last week: 2-1 over Detroit on Wednesday and 4-3 over Dallas on Friday. … Kings head coach Terry Murray gave a 39-second postgame interview with reporters Saturday. It ended with this answer to a question about his reaction to Daniel Sedin’s game-winning goal in a 3-1 Canucks win: "That's a (expletive) shame that that goal is allowed. The guy's in the crease, (Jonathan) Quick can't move his stick, and Doughty is pushed over top of our goaltender. It's a (expletive) shame that that goal is allowed. It should not be allowed. That's a penalty."Photos by Getty Images
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