Stars Finish Sharks

San Jose
Sharks

"I felt strong today," Stars goalie Ed Belfour said. "This was huge for us. Nobody wanted to travel back to San Jose."

Dallas will play the Colorado Avalanche in a rematch of last year's conference final. Games 1 and 2 will be in Dallas.

"I think everybody has been waiting for the rematch of last year," said Dallas center Mike Modano. "We're eight wins away, but we know we're going to have our hands full against an outstanding young team that is playing very well right now."

The Sharks played without Owen Nolan, their leading scorer, or Bryan Marchment, their most physical defenseman.

"It certainly hurts not to have Owen and Bryan in the lineup because they are obviously two big keys to our team," rookie defenseman Brad Stuart said. "But we knew they were not going to be in the game today and we prepared for that. So we cannot use that as an excuse."

Dallas got a 2-0 lead in the first period when Joe Nieuwendyk and Scott Thornton scored just over three minutes apart.

"We wanted to get a good start and I thought we did, at least for the first half of the first period," San Jose coach Darryl Sutter said. "Nieuwendyk made a great play to score a goal and then Thornton outmuscled our guy to make it 2-0. I think everybody in the league knows that when you get behind Dallas by two goals, it's very tough to come back."