RICO'S PICO'S FOR GAME 3
By RICO
Friday, June 11, 1999

Fresh from their controversial victory over the Sabres in game 2, the Stars are introduced to plenty of boos from the sellout crowd of 18,565 in what has been billed as a retribution game. Right at the get-go, Rob Ray drops his gloves and drops Darian Hatcher with a right-left combination that sends the big goon to the ice. The crowd responds with a thundering ovation. A couple minutes later Brian Skrudland crashes into Hasek, and the Dominator takes things into his own hands and chops Skrudland on the shoulder, forcing "Skruds" to leave the game and possibly the series.

Miro Satan opens the scoring by stickhandling around 3 Stars and beating Belfour on the far side. Ten seconds later, Geoff Sanderson breaks through all alone and fakes the Eagle out of his shorts putting the Sabres up 2 zip. And then the goons start coming out for the Stars. But Lindy Ruff sends out Ray and Grand-Pierre to handle them and after a 5 minute brawl, 5 players are given game misconducts including Hatcher. Next on the list is Modano, who decided to play (and no, his wrist is not broken). Jay McKee finishes off what he started the other night by giving the Stars captain a thunderous check that knocks him right back over the boards and into the Stars' bench where he belongs. The crowd goes ballistic.

Right then, "Donut Boy" Koharski send McKee to the box for 5 minutes. The Stars come back and score twice on Hasek and the crowd starts throwing stale donuts at Koharski. The fat pig picks up everyone of them and eats them in one gulp!

At the start of the second period, Koharski gets sick from the donuts and has to be relieved by Mcgeough (Magoo!) who proves to be as blind as a bat. To the rescue comes Jim Lorentz who swats the bat in mid-air (oh, sorry, wrong Stanley Cup finals in Buffalo). Mcgeough throws a yellow flag on the ice to signal a holding call on Alexei Zhitnik. Brett Hull scores on a 120 mph slap shot to put the Stars up 3-2. But right after that, Vaclav Varada crashes Belfour causing a riot. Magoo fumbles his way over to the battle and is blindsided by Wayne Primeau, so he sends Primeau to the dressing room. With that, fans start piling out on the ice and pummeling Magoo. A real riot takes place and the state police have to come in to gas the crowd.

The game is delayed for 24 hours and when it commences once again, Brian Holzinger beats Belfour on the short side and ties the game. In the third period, Stu Barnes scores another powerplay goal and the Sabres lead 4-3. Then with one minute left in the game, and Belfour pulled in favor of the extra attacker, Hull puts a shot on Hasek and he makes the save, but the rebound comes out and is batted in the air. Hasek employs one of his favorite acts and bats the puck out of the air and hits a line shot that goes all the way down into the Stars net! HASEK SCORES HIS FIRST GOAL EVER! And the Sabres win 5-3.