Turco, Stars finally move on

DALLAS -- As the third overtime turned to a fourth, more than an hour after Sunday night became Monday morning, Stars goaltender Marty Turco could think back to the other two NHL playoff marathons he played and what it was like afterward.

The dead-limbed weariness. The strange sensation of calm after being so intense for so long. The day-after crash from being so physically and mentally drained.

And, worst of all, the sting of losing a 2-games-in-1 thriller.

This time, though, Turco got to find out how the other half lives. Thanks to captain Brenden Morrow's power-play goal 129:03 after the first puck was dropped, the Dallas Stars beat the San Jose Sharks 2-1 in the eighth-longest game in NHL history. The victory ended their second-round series in six games, earning the Stars a spot in the Western Conference finals for the first time in Turco's career.

"It's nice to be on this side of it for once," Turco said. "We've had some long ones before. But none of them was more memorable than this one. It was 99 percent fun tonight."

Pre-dawn finishes are a big part of Stars lore.

Dallas has been involved in five of the 18 longest games in NHL history, more than any other club. All have come since 1999, the year the Stars won their lone Stanley Cup title -- in triple overtime, of course.

Dallas made it back to the NHL finals in 2000, but hasn't gotten past the second round since. Along the way, disappointments have included losing to Anaheim 48 seconds into a fifth overtime in 2003 and losing to Vancouver 18:06 into a fourth overtime last year.

Turco was in goal and Dave Tippett was coaching in both those losses, and for much of the post-2000 skid. So for them, finally getting to the conference finals, and getting there like this, is certainly something they'll never forget.

"This one ranks the best for me," Tippett said. "It's way nicer when it ends this way."

Turco came away the unquestioned star.

He made a franchise-record 61 saves, one more impressive than the next, especially in the extra periods. The best was a barrell-roll to smother a puck inches from the line in the third OT, a play so close that several Sharks players raised their arms in triumph.

Thanks to their vast experience, Dallas players and coaches knew how to handle their unscheduled doubleheader.

Between periods, they loaded up on water and Gatorade, and munched PowerBars for energy. After the second overtime, team officials called the arena's catering company and asked them to round up all the healthiest food they could find at that late hour. Once it was over, many guys offered up an arm to have IV fluids pumped into their systems.

"When you go into overtime, you keep going and going and don't have to think. You go and play," said defenseman Stephane Robidas, who set up Morrow's winner. "I felt great. Everything's good."