| Behind the Andy Moog plaque hanging on my wall are all the ticket stubs
from the Stars games I went to in the last two years. One of them is a crumpled
yellow ticket from Tuesday, April 29, 1997. That was game seven of the first round of last year's playoffs. I had been bitter ever since that loss. With the Stars facing Crude yet again this year, I was hoping for some kind of vindication on the part of my heroes. |
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This year I was sharing the game with my Ticket Chick and distraction to
Greggo, Rachelle. I thought it would make a heck of a birthday present for her since
she didn't get much of the Stars in Abilene. Ordinarily, I don't let her watch the
games since, every game we've gone to, the Stars had either lost or tied. So I was
tempting fate by bringing her to this most important game. It also flew in the face
of the prediction I had made before game four when I said, "If the Stars sweep them
in Edmonton, they'll take the series in five." Needless to say, I was a little nervous. |
| At the other end of the ice waited the nemesis of Stars playoff hockey,
Curtis Joseph. Not only was he backstopping a team that had once put in three goals
against the Stars in four minutes, but also one that had came back from a three-game
deficit to defeat St. Patrick (Roy) and the Colorado Avalanche. I would later tell Rachelle, "I won't feel safe until the Stars are up 6-1 with ten seconds left in the game." |
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For a good portion of the first period, the home team seemed to be just a hair off, being outshot 8-4. I started to worry that a couple of days off had not been good for them. Or that maybe they'd gotten a little too over-confident with their road wins |
| But in the waning seconds of the first, the Oilers took a penalty to put the Stars on the power play. Even as anemic as it had been during the series, Derian Hatcher managed to put one just over Cujo's glove hand to make it 1-0 with four seconds to go. |  |