Stars shine over Blues

Dallas
Stars

"When Brett scored that goal you could see it lifted a burden off his shoulders," said Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock. "He had been down about the chances he missed. You could see that goal gave him life and made him a different kind of player."

Hull played for the Blues for ten seasons before signing with the Stars as a free agent last July. He scored his first playoff goal as a Star just 49 seconds into the second period giving Dallas a 2-0 lead.

"You're a goal scorer and you haven't scored and you can say it doesn't matter but it does," Hull said. "The puck finally went in for me. I shot it as hard as I could."

Pat Verbeek also scored his first goal in the playoffs after having missed the four-game series against Edmonton because of a knee injury. Verbeek gave Dallas a 1-0 early in the third period.

"That goal relaxed me for the rest of the game," Verbeek said. "The rebound came right to me."

Belfour earned his fifth shutout and 50th career playoff victory by shutting down the exhausted Blues, who were coming off a grueling seven-game series against Phoenix.

"We thought Dallas was ripe to be beaten but it looks like we're the ones who got picked off the cherry tree," said Blues coach Joel Quenneville. "Belfour was very sharp."