The Deathly Dallas Trap caught the Buffalo Sabres as it's victims as the Stars moved to within one game of winning their first Stanley Cup. The Dallas Stars played their close checking, trapping and blocking game to perfection as the beat the Sabres 2-0 in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals. The Sabres had a terrible time trying to penetrate the trap and when they did, they had an even harder time getting through the tight Dallas D. This was a game that the Sabres were completely taken off they their speed game and their hitting game was nowhere to be found.

The Sabres, who were trapped to death in the first two periods, put out all the stops in the third in an effort to tie the game the game at 1. But a defensive breakdown resulted in Mike Modano stealing the puck and Pat Verbeek ended up scoring on Dominik Hasek. Matvichuk passed to Verbeek and he deked Hasek and beat him on a backhand at the 15:21 mark. That miscue was reminiscent of the two giveaways Dallas had in the previous game which cost them a victory. This time it was Buffalo's turn and it couldn't have come at a worst time. The Sabres finally were putting a lot of pressure on Belfour and this sealed the Sabres fate.

Players like Miroslav Satan and Joe Juneau have been completely absent during this series. These are the guys the Sabres really counted on to get their offense going in the Finals. There were a lot of no-shows in this game.

Early in the second period with Curtis Brown in the penalty box for interference, Guy Carbonneau won the faceoff against Wayne Primeau and the puck came out to Mike Modano who sent a pass to Darryl Sydor and he got off a wrist shot that beat Dominik Hasek to put the Stars on the board. That play left Hasek shaking his head. He knew that with the margin for error so narrow in this series, the one goal lead was like a mountain to climb. Indeed, it was a mountain named the Dallas defense. In the second period, the Sabres could not get anything mounted. Their passes didn't get through, and neither did their players nor many shots.

Eddie Belfour played an excellent game in recording his first shutout of the Stanley Cup Finals. The game goes back to Buffalo for Game 6 on Saturday and the chance for the Stars to win their first Cup in their history.

Multimedia

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HASEK MAKES A SAVE IN GAME 5
VERBEEK AND SATAN GO AT IT IN GAME 5
VERBEEK'S CLINCHER IN GAME 5
HASEK'S COMMENTS AFTER GAME 5 (AUDIO)
HATCHER SAYS BELFOUR WAS MVP OF GAME 5 (AUDIO)
POST-GAME PRESS CONFERENCE AFTER GAME 5 (AUDIO)

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Dallas 2, Buffalo 0

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	1st	2nd	3rd	TOTAL
Dallas	0	1	1	2
Buffalo	0	0	0	0

First Period
Scoring: None. Penalties: Ludwig, Dal (Obstr tripping), 2:08.

Second Period
Scoring: 1, Dallas, Sydor 3 (power play) (Modano, Zubov), 2:23. Penalties: Brown, Buf (interference), 1:42; Woolley, Buf (Obstr holding), 3:31; Langenbrunner, Dal (roughing), 7:44.

Third Period
Scoring: 2, Dallas, Verbeek 3 (Matvichuk, Modano), 15:21. Penalties: Sydor, Dal (roughing), 8:21; Primeau, Buf (roughing), 8:21; R Warrener, Buf (slashing), 16:31; Zhitnik, Buf (elbowing), 17:27; Nieuwendyk, Dal (roughing), 17:27; Skrudland, Dal (Obstr tripping), 19:29; R Warrener, Buf (roughing), 20:00; Hatcher, Dal (roughing), 20:00.

SHOTS ON GOAL

Buffalo		9	5	9	--23
Dallas		8	7	6	--21

Power-play Conversions: Buf - 0 of 3, Dal - 1 of 3. Goalies: Buffalo, Hasek (21 shots, 19 saves; record: 13-5-0). Dallas, Belfour (23, 23; record: 15-7-0). A:17,001. Referees: Fraser, Koharski. Linesmen: Scapinello, Sharrers.

INDIVIDUAL PLAYER STATISTICS

Buffalo					Dallas
	G	A	+/-	Shots		G	A	+/-	Shots
B Holzinger Barnes Brown Cunneyworth D Ward Juneau Mckee Patrick Peca Primeau R Warrener Rasmussen Sanderson Satan Smehlik Varada Woolley Zhitnik	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	even even even even -1 even even even -1 even even even even even -1 -1 even -1	0 1 0 0 0 3 1 1 1 1 3 0 4 2 3 2 0 1	Carbonneau Chambers Hatcher Hogue Hull Keane Langenbrunner Lehtinen Ludwig Matvichuk Modano Nieuwendyk Reid Skrudland Sloan Sydor Verbeek Zubov	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1	even even +1 even even even even +1 even +1 +1 even even even even even +1 even	0 1 1 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 3 3 1 0 0 4 2 2

CLICK HERE FOR PLAY-BY-PLAY AND IN-DEPTH STATS OF GAME 5

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Top 5 Post-Game Quotes

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1. Lindy Ruff on his shouting match with Hitchcock at the end of game five - "I was angry because Hitch was angry at me, so I guess we were both emotional. He started yelling at me; I was yelling back. Crowd was so loud I couldn't hear what he was yelling. I doubt if he could hear what I was yelling. Heck with it. (laughter)"

2. Ken Hitchcock on the intensity of this series - "This is a series that, from an intensity standpoint, is much higher than the Colorado series even."

3. Ken Hitchcock when asked if the reason why he has liked Sydor so much was if because Sydor was chunky while playing for Kamloops (WHL) - "Yeah, I fell in love with him at that time. That is probably the wrong thing to say. (laughter)"

4. Dominik Hasek on the close series - "One mistake, one goal is the difference every game."

5. Lindy Ruff on game six - "You can't get too high after winning and you can't get too low after losing."

FOR MORE QUOTES, LISTEN TO THE POST-GAME PRESS CONFERENCE ON REAL AUDIO

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Sabre Sword's 3 Stars Swords of the Game

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1. Dallas' defesne - What more is there to say?

2. Mike Modano - Big players come through at big times. This certainly was the case in game five.

3. Geoff Sanderson - At times it looked like Sanderson was the only Sabre forward who gave any kind of effort.

HONORABLE MENTION - Dallas' special teams, face-off men, Sydor, Verbeek, Belfour and anyone remotely affiliated to the Dallas Stars.