NHL Playoffs: Joe Louis Arena hasn’t been kind to Dallas goalie Turco

The Associated Press |

5/6/2008 - 5/7/08

DALLAS — Throughout the shellings, blown leads and other indignations he's endured at Joe Louis Arena, Dallas Stars goaltender Marty Turco has pacified himself with one thought: "At least it's not the playoffs."

Well, now it is.

Turco is carrying an 0-7-2 record and a 3.17 goals-against average at "The Joe" into the Western Conference finals against the Detroit Red Wings starting Thursday night.

Uh-oh, eh?

"Actually, not at all," Turco said Tuesday. "This is totally a different animal. ... To say I'm looking forward to this is an understatement."

He's coming off arguably the best performance of his career, one of the best in club history — a franchise-record 61 saves in a quadruple-overtime victory that ended the second-round series against the Sharks.

Turco has been solid the entire postseason, with a goals-against average that's second only to Detroit's Chris Osgood and the fourth-best save percentage. More important, he outdueled reigning Stanley Cup champion Jean-Sebastien Giguere of Anaheim in the first round, then topped Vezina Trophy finalist Evgeni Nabokov in the second round.

"He's been spectacular in making the hard saves look easy for us for a long time," Stars captain Brenden Morrow said. "It's been a lot of fun to watch."

Now, if he wins a single game — and Dallas will need at least one in Detroit to win the series — he'll really have done something.

"I'm not trying to erase any memories of playing against these guys at Joe Louis at all," Turco said. "I'm here to win this series, to win the next game, and, from a focus level, to make that next save. That's for me, and pretty much all goalies, the approach you need to have and look forward to it."

The last time the Stars won in Detroit, backup Mike Smith got the win. The time before that, it was another backup, Johan Hedberg.

But Turco isn't much better against the Red Wings in Dallas, going 2-3-3. That's a career record of 2-10-5 against Detroit for a goalie who's 205-93-21 against everyone else.

"I really could care less if I was 0-and-100 against these guys or had never lost a game and never got scored on," Turco said. "It is totally all irrelevant at this time of year. It's something that, to be honest, isn't entering my mind at all. ... So there's a lot to think about, and that's not one of them."

The Red Wings surely will be thinking about it.