SUDDEN DEATH TO CONSISTENT VICTORY

With the Stars Game 3 overtime victory fresh in our minds, and with the Twinkles having won three consecutive OT playoff games, I thought I'd dust off an old blog entry from what now seems like a lifetime ago. (I'm also incredibly lazy)

Try to keep a visual picture of Turco stoning Michalek just prior to the Norstrom tally as you peruse this old classic.

DEATH IN OT

The crushing loss to the Avs marked the first time since 1997 that the Stars lost all the overtime games in a series. That year Buchberger, Smyth and Marchant scored winners on Andy Moog as the #7 seeded Oilers upset the Stars in seven games.

Sound somewhat familiar?

Much will be made of Marty's 1-6 record in playoff overtime. It's an awful stat for a goalie to live with because the insinuation is that when the margin for error is nil, the goaler can't deliver.

For you Stars fans, this is made even more pronounced when you juxtapose Marty's record with that of Ed Belfour during his terrific tenure in the Stars playoff pipes.

The Eagle played in 20 (how fitting) pressure packed Stanley Cup overtime games with Dallas. His record was 12-8.

But what doesn't show up in that 12-8 mark is who provided "that goal" at the other end.

Chronologically here are the names of the Deciding Dozen.

Keane
Hogue
Langenbrunner
Nieuwendyk
Nieuwendyk
Modano
Hull
Nieuwendyk
Modano
Langenbrunner
Hogue
Muller

It's quite a list isn't it?! (And quite a trip down memory lane)

And who has come through for Turco? -- Steve Ott

Well since that acerbic entry they've played in five Stanley Cup overtime tilts.

Last Spring they dropped two more extra-session games to the Canucks and Marty Turco's record in OT fell to an abysmal 1-8 before, (Who else) Stars captain Brenden Morrow severed and cauterized the hemorrhaging of game ending goals going into Dallas' net first in Game 5.

Morrow did it again in Game 1 of this series and then the unlikely but likeable Matty Norstrom gave him a breather last night.

Ott, Morrow, and Norstrom -- Marty Turco's "3-Stars"