Stars Light Up Kings--Win 50th

The Dallas Stars are heading into a Stanley Cup run with almost everything going their way.

Grant Marshall notched the go-ahead goal late in the first period and Brett Hull scored 2:20 later as the Stars got a club record 50th win with a 6-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday.

Among the highlights for the Stars was collecting their second straight Presidents' Trophy and welcoming leading scorer Mike Modano back to the lineup after he missed four games with a groin injury.

"Everybody's just trying to stay sharp, fine-tune everything and keep everybody healthy," said Modano, who went scoreless in 16:05 of playing time. "We like where we're at right now."

The only negative for the Stars was the loss of Pat Verbeek for about two weeks with a sprained knee.

Verbeek could miss the Stars' first-round playoff series The dependable right wing has played in 240 of 242 games since signing with the Stars prior to the 1996-97 season. Verbeek, injured in a collision with Los Angeles defenseman Mattias Norstrom in the first period, finishes the regular season with 17 goals and 17 assists.

Norstrom was also lost for the game with torn rib cartilage, ending his season.

"He's a player who brings a lot of tenacity shift after shift," Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said of Verbeek. "But we have people who can fill that role."

Mike Keane, Tony Hrkac, Derek Plante and Darryl Sydor also had goals for the Stars. Zubov, Sydor and Jere Lehtinen had two assists each and Dallas capitalized on three of six power plays.

The Stars received the Presidents' Trophy from league vice president of hockey operations Jim Gregory in a ceremony between the second and third periods. Dallas wrapped up the award for the top regular-season point total with Friday night's victory over the New York Rangers.

"It's something the players and management take a lot of prde in," Hitchcock said. "We worked hard for it. We'll use it as a building block for the playoffs."

Dallas, 8-3 in its last 11 games, has already set franchise marks for most points and most home wins. The 1997-98 team won 49.

The Stars won all six games against the Kings this season, the third time ever that they've gone 6-0 against an opponent in one season.

Craig Johnson and Steve McKenna were the goal-scorers for the Kings, 2-7 in their last nine games and officially eliminated from the Western Confrence playoff race with the loss.

"We have three kids just up from the minors, so that's about as well as we can play," Kings coach Larry Robinson said. "We got off to a great start, but we made a couple of bad plays, they scored on them, and it was see you later."

Dallas emerged from a wide-open first period with a 4-2 lead.

The Kings scored 2:12 after the opening faceoff on Johnson's seventh goal, but Keane tied it at 4:21 with his sixth and third in his last three games.

The Stars grabbed a 2-1 advantage when Tony Hrkac capitalized on a two-on-one break for his 13th goal.

Dallas goaltender Ed Belfour left the game at 12:30 to have a broken skate blade repaired. Los Angeles evened the score 37 seconds later on Steve McKenna's wraparound goal, his first of the season, on the first shot faced by Stars backup goalie Roman Turek.

Marshall and Hull then put the Stars in front with goals in the final five minutes of the first period. Marshall notched his 13th on a rebound at 15:30 to break the tie, then Hull extended the lead to 4-2 with his 32nd goal while the Stars were on a power play.

Belfour was back in the Stars' net to start the second period, but Turek got credit for the victory because he was in the game when Dallas took the lead for good. Turek faced only two shots and stopped one.

In the second period, Plante scored his sixth and Sydor his 14th, both on power plays, to extend Dallas' lead to 6-2.

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