And so it ends. As the clocked ticked off the final seconds of game six in the NHL Western Conference Final, the American Airlines Center did not erupt in the thunderous applause that Stars fans had dreamed of since the amazing turn of fortune in game four. Instead the allplause was to celebrate the great run at the cup. Then it turned into more of a sigh and thoughts of what might have been. There was disappointment in the loss, but none in the effort and the come back from three down to force game six.

The Detroit Red Wings brutally finished the series with a 4-1 win in game six and ended the season for the Dallas Stars last night, allowing Detroit to head for their 23rd Stanly Cup showing.

While this was a disappointing defeat, it certainly is nothing for Dallas to hang their heads over. With an amazing season under their belts, the Stars fought a hard playoff battle and even forced game six in the series against Detroit when many people took the series for a sweep last week. Throughout this post-season we have seen some stellar performances by our beloved Stars. Marty Turco showed some of the best net minding of his career at times and even broke his curse with a win in Joe Louis Arena. We saw Stefan Robidas take a brutal puck to the face, to return with vengeance against San Jose. Brendan Morrow nearly decapitated multiple opposing skaters knocking them off their feet and occasionally even unconscious. There were beautiful goals scored by Modano, Richards, Robidas and others, including several that were blatantly stolen from Morrow by officials with the ocular acuity of a blind rat. Overall, it was a beautiful play off season that just fell short of the ultimate goal.

I wore my Stars hat to work today and was pleased to find several co-workers wearing hats, shirts and even one with a Stars pin still proudly clipped above her heart.

We’ll see you in September boys.

My next anticipation is a Dallas Cowboys season with Tony Romo free from the ditzy blonde influence. August can’t get here soon enough. Go Cowboys!

I could not imagine a more thrilling Western Conference Final in the NHL then what will start Thursday night. The Dallas Stars finished off the San Jose Sharks midway through the fourth overtime last night securing their face off with the Detroit Red Wings for a chance to go to the cup. I will get the pleasure of watching my two favorite hockey teams beat the hell out of each other and try to advance to the Stanly Cup Final.

In a game reminiscent of the 1999 Stanley Cup, the Stars and the Sharks played from 8:00PM CST last night until 1:24AM this morning when a Brenden Morrow took revenge for the goals that were stolen from him by decision the game before with a deflected power play shot to end the game and the series. After playing what amounted to more than two regulation hockey games back to back, the Stars finally snuck one past Evgeni Nabokov. Not to take anything away from the performance displayed by either goalie in what was one of the most spectacular exhibitions of net-minding that I have seen in years. After stopping 53 of 54 shots, number 55 found its mark. No one could have asked more of Nabokov who ended the game with a 0.964 save percentage. He delivered a stunning performance with one glove save surely to be replayed more than any this play off season, stopping the puck literally on the line in mid air.

Marty Turco fared only slightly better than Nabokov, but it was enough to lead the Stars to the next round. After both men spent over 129 minutes on the ice, Turco ended the game with 61 saves on 62 shots an almost perfect save percentage of .984. Turco had his moments of grand larceny as well. Flipping, kicking and gloving pucks that were destined to force a seventh game in San Jose, Turco would simply not be denied.

In a bit of poetic justice, the game winning goal came form the heavy hitting Stars captain Brenden Morrow. After being on the ice for a total of 51 minutes, most of which he spent annihilating San Jose players and sending a barely conscious Milan Michalek out of the game in period three, Brenden Morrow caught a Stephane Robidas pass low and tight in front of the San Jose goal. Morrow, who had been denied two goals upon review during the previous game, directed the pass right behind the tiring Nabokov to end the game and send the San Jose Sharks home for the summer. The game ended at 9:03 in the fourth overtime which translated to 1:24AM, five and a half hours of hockey, with Nabokov and Turco seeming like they were going to stretch this game all the way to game seven itself. Even the fans looked like they were in for the long haul. Most of them could be seen clearly standing and cheering through out the last five periods of the game.

Now we face the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday. In my opinion, it could not get much better than this. While I traditionally like the Red Wings, all the love goes away when they face my Stars. I do not know if the match up between Osgood and Turco can top what we saw last night, but there is definitely that potential. Now I just have to explain to my four year old son why last week we were rooting for the guys wearing red and why this week that will be a mortal sin.

Well, I can certainly appreciate the frustration on display bye the defending Stanley Cup winning Anaheim Ducks. Through almost five full periods of hockey they could not find a chink in the armor of Marty Turco. On Saturday night that finally ended with the Ducks scoring a power play goal followed shortly by an even strength strike to tie the game at the end of the second period. It was not enough and they quickly withered under the onslaught of the Stars in the thrid period.

In the first game of the series, the stars shut out the Ducks by formenting a brutal power play assault that broke the spirit of the defending champs. Anaheim could not mount a serious penalty killing effort much less rally an offensive drive. It was easy to sense the frustration mounting as they started drawing penalties for easily avoided mistakes and hits that were so late you could have run to the bathroom after the play was over and still not missed it when Anaheim slammed a Dallas player agianst the boards. By the end of the game, it seemed that Anaheim had given up any serious offensive effort and was simply out to punish the Stars as much as possible before the second game in the series.

During the first two periods of game two it seemed as if we had a repeat shut out building up until Teemu Selanne managed to divert an inbound puck up into the top of the net just inches from the grasp of Marty Turco while on the power play. The Ducks followed this up with a nice shot into the net by Travis Moen who flat beat Turco on the cross. This set up an entirely different hockey game as the third period started with the teams tied 2-2. However, the rally was short lived as Mike Madono nailed one past Giguere’s shoulder. Fifty-five seconds later Brad Richards drove a second one in bringing the Stars lead to two points once again. Loui Eriksson nailed the coffin shut with just five minutes remaining in the game.

Tomorrow night sees game three of the series with Dallas coming home to host the Ducks for the next two, and hopefully final, games of the series.

So far it has been an impressive showing from Dallas. They have out scored the Ducks by 9-2, out shot them by 67-45 and spend far more time in their offensive zone that they have allowed the Ducks. The Stars are capitalizing on nearly half of their power play opportunities right now being 6-13 at 46.1%. This compares to the inability of the Ducks to turn their opportunities into goals being 1-9 at 11.1%. The other key peices are the amazing defending we have been seeing on the ice that seems to be able to destroy most attempts by Anaheim to put together a coherent offense and the stellar performance of Marty Turco who has been credited with a 1.0 GAA and 43 saves on 45 shots against giving him a 95.6% save percentage this postseason.

Lets see if we can padd those stats a bit come tomorrow night, shall we?