Associated PressDETROIT ó Marty Turco was surrounded by teammates in front of the net at Joe Louis Arena. For the first time in his NHL career at the Joe, they weren’t there to console him.
Turco made 38 saves to lift Dallas to a 2-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday in Game 5, extending the Western Conference finals after losing the first three games of the series.
“It’s probably the best I’ve felt in this building ever,” he said.
His timing was perfect.
Turco had been 0-9-2 as a pro at The Joe after starring in college at Michigan, going 18-5 in the storied venue along the Detroit River.
“He was going to turn it around at some point,” teammate Mike Ribeiro said. “And, he picked the right time to do it.”
Trevor Daley scored in the first period and Joel Lundqvist had a go-ahead goal on an assist from Turco in the second to help the Stars pull to 3-2 in the suddenly tight series.
Game 6 is Monday night in Dallas. If necessary, the final game will be Wednesday night in Detroit.
“We’ve proven that we belong in this series ó and this building as well,” Stars center Steve Ott said.
The top-seeded Red Wings insist pressure is not mounting on them after a 3-0 lead made them look like a lock to reach the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since winning a title in 2002.
“If you told us we’d be up 3-2 going back to Dallas before we started playing, we’d probably take it,” Detroit goaltender Chris Osgood said.
The Stars have a shot at making history as the third team to win an NHL playoff series after trailing 3-0. The New York Islanders did it 33 years ago ó 33 years after the Toronto Maple Leafs pulled off the feat.
“It doesn’t really matter what history is,” Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom said. “You can’t think of what’s gone on in the past.”
That worked for Turco.
He seemed to build confidence in his arena of horrors after turning away Dan Cleary’s shot about a minute into the game.
“It was Marty’s night,” Daley said. “He was a special player and basically won that game for us.”
Detroit’s Jiri Hudler scored late in the first period, but that was the only shot the Red Wings got past Turco in its 27 shots through two periods.
“We had lots of shots on net and we missed the net 19 more times,” Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “And we had three quality chances that we didn’t even get a shot on net.”
Osgood made 19 saves for the Red Wings after helping them win a franchise-record nine straight playoff games before losing 3-1 Wednesday night in Dallas.