Stars upend Blues, clinch Pacific crown

The Associated Press

DALLAS -- Brenden Morrow scored a pair of first-period goals and Marty Turco had to make only 12 saves in his return from an 18-game absence as the Dallas Stars wrapped up the Pacific Division title with a 3-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Sunday night.

The Stars now have 100 points, eliminating the second-place Anaheim Mighty Ducks from the division race and clinching Dallas' fourth Pacific crown in the last five seasons.

Sergei Zubov added a power play goal for the Stars, who had been in a 1-3-0-1 slump and were 7-6-3-2 behind reserve goaltenders Ron Tugnutt and Corey Hirsch during Turco's absence because of injury.

Turco sprained his right ankle Feb. 11 against the Carolina Hurricanes, and the lingering injury showed little progress until the last week when he began skating in practice. At the time of the injury, Dallas had the NHL's best record (33-11-12-1), and Turco led the league with a 1.77 goals-against average.

Turco stretched his unbeaten streak to 15 games (11-0-4) to set a club record. He made his biggest stop 20 seconds into the second period when he denied Steve Martins on a breakaway.

Dallas dominated play, holding a 34-13 shots edge.

Shjon Podein scored a first-period goal for the Blues, who had been 8-2-1 in their last 11 but lost at home on Saturday to the Detroit Red Wings, 4-2.

Morrow's rebound 2:05 after the opening faceoff gave Dallas a 1-0 lead, but Podein beat Turco 58 seconds later with his fourth goal to tie it at 1.

With the Stars on a power play, Morrow established position in front of the net and fired a shot high over Blues goaltender Brent Johnson for his 19th of the season at 13:11 of the first period, putting Dallas ahead 2-1.

Zubov's shot through a crowd and got past Johnson at 3:50 of the second period to extend the Stars' lead to 3-1.

The Stars were on a power play for Zubov's goal after Reed Low of the Blues received 27 minutes in penalties, including a game misconduct, for instigating a fight with Phillippe Boucher.

Blues center Petr Cajanek got a cut over his right eye after a crunching open-ice check by Boucher, and the Blues spent the rest of the game trying to get back at Boucher, who was not penalized for the hit.

A total of nine fighting majors and six misconducts were assessed.NOTEWORTHY

***Dallas C Jason Arnott hit goalposts twice in the first period.

***Morrow scored his first power-play goal of the season and had his ninth two-goal game of his career. Morrow has never had a hat trick.

***Zubov scored his 10th goal, giving Dallas 10 double-digit goal-scorers. The Stars had only seven players with 10 or more goals last season.

***The previous record for an unbeaten streak by a Dallas goaltender was held by Don Beaupre, who was unbeaten in 14 straight (14-0-0) in 1985-86.

***The Stars reached 100 points for the sixth time in seven seasons, most in the NHL over than span.