The Game of Their Lives

As is often the case in any postseason where two evenly matched teams face one another, the Dallas-Vancouver series comes down to one factor: goaltending.

For tonight's Game 7 in Vancouver, hockey's electron microscope will be focused solely on Marty Turco and Roberto Luongo.

Turco is arguably facing the single most important start to his brief career. Labelled as a netminder incapable fo strapping a team on his back and leading them to victory, he has never faced pressure like this before. Even when he won two NCAA championships with Michigan in 1996 and 1998, he had top-flight teams surrounding him. In 1998, it was more a crossbar and the other goaltender's mistake which reflected glory upon Turco's play. This time, the spotlight is trained totally on him, and after he pitched two consecutive shutouts to get his Dallas squad out from under a three games to one series deficit, he's got to do it one more time in front of a hostile crowd.

Talk about pressure - Pete Peeters would probably have lost his lunch into his mask at the mere mention of a Game 7, and yet Turco, on the surface, appears to be calm. Regardless, tonight's tilt is the most crucial for a number of Stars, including head coach Dave Tippett. How Turco performs, win or lose, will go a long way towards the path of the team and the arc of Turco's own future, beginning next season.

On the other hand, Luongo may be in the drivers' seat as the ultimate game of the quarterfinal series approaches. On Long Island and in South Florida, Luongo has borne the brunt of shoddy defense with spectacular goaltending for horrible teams. In his first season with the Canucks, he has been the key to the club's rise to the top of the Pacific Division and it's renewed commitment to team-wide two-way play. This is his first postseason experience, and although Vancouver is the higher seed and a division winner, I get the sense that everything he does is just icing on the cake. Hell, for years it was a monumental achievement just to beat Colorado once in a while, and now that the former Flying V's find themselves in a higher class, a loss for Luongo in Game 7 won't be seen as a crippling blow - instead it might be viewed as a valuable learning experience for a netminder in the prime of his career.

Still, nobody wants to be the one responsible for a Game 7 loss, at home, after your team held a near-cinch 3-1 series advantage. Luongo was a major factor in Vancouver's epic Game 1 quadruple-overtime win, and played a key role in their other two series wins. There's no reason to believe he can't go to the well one more time and help his team advance to the second round, and I can imagine that his chief motivating factor will be the accumulated memories of those 5-1 loss, 40-plus shot nights he endured as an Islander and Panther to adopt a sense of fearlessness as game time draws near.

Regardless of the realities which the camera eye will reveal on an endless loop once the game is finished, the greatest injustice either side can endure in an elimination game for both sides, is for one team to play so miserably that it renders all discussion moot. I would hate to see either Turco or Luongo make a critical mistake which leads to a winning goal, and I would hate to see either the Stars or Canucks wilt under the pressure and come up totally lame.
Speaking of totally lame, isn't Eric Lindros due to do something which will erase the bitter memories of his last Game 7 experience?

Ed/Author day-after note: It wasn't Turco's fault. On the first goal, the Stars left Sedin all alone in front and did not react at all to the play. On the second goal, you have to credit Ohlund and Linden. Every Stars player who played undisciplined hockey is to blame, putting Dallas in 11 shorthanded situations including a 5-on-3 and a 4-on-3. As usual, after Modano clanged one off the crossbar with Luongo prone in the crease, it was a death knell.

Dave Tippett should be removed as head coach after four years. His clubs have seen three first-round exits in a row despite high seeds and 40+ win seasons. Dallas is the prime example of how shootout wins are nothing more than record inflation. However, if possible, Turco should be given a contract extension while the team around him is gutted.