BUFFALO. N.Y. (AP) – In the third exhausting overtime, the tired eyes of Texas finally gazed upon the Stanley Cup.
Brett Hull scored on a rebound at 14:51 of the third overtime, putting a rebound over weary Dominik Hasek as the Dallas Stars won hockey's biggest prize as much by exhaustion as execution, beating the Buffalo Sabres 2-1 Saturday night.
Call it a Sun Belt Stanley Cup.
Dallas is the southernmost city to hoist the cup. When Lord Stanley paid $50 for the cup in 1892, he likely didn't envision it being won by a team located much closer to Mexico than Canada.
Hull ended the second-longest Stanley Cup finals game in history with his third goal of the series and third career overtime playoff goal.
“You can have all the other ones, this is the biggest for me,” Hull said. “It is unbelievable. The team has gone through so much together. There was a lot of pressure on the guys. We just came through.”
Hull's name goes on the ancient trophy with that of his father, Bobby, who won an NHL title with Chicago in 1961.
Hasek, outplayed again by Ed Belfour, went to his chest to bounce on a shot by Jere Lehtinen, who scored the first goal hours before. But the puck rebounded out in the slot to Hull, who lifted it into the net.
Dallas' delight at winning a Stanley Cup only six years after the Minnesota North Stars relocated there probably is surpassed only by Buffalo's disappointment at losing — again.
The Buffalo Bills lost four consecutive Super Bowls earlier in the 1990s. once when Scott Norwood's game-winning field goal attempt against the New York Giants sailed wide.
Once again Saturday. Buffalo was wide right. Joe Juneau, Michael Peca and Alexei Zhitnik all missed excellent scoring chances from the third period on that sailed to the right by Belfour.
The odds also were in Dallas' favor as soon as the game went into overtime The last six teams with a chance to win the cup in overtime have done so. Also, the road team has won the last eight Stanley Cup finals overtime games.
The Stars are the fourth team to win a Stanley Cup in a game decided in multiple overtimes, joining Colorado (1996), Detroit (1950) and Chicago (1934).
With 22 goals — 13 by Dallas and nine by Buffalo — it was the lowest-scoring six-game final round in Stanley Cup history.
Until now, that was the only Stanley Cup finals in which both goaltenders had goals-against averages under 2.00, but Dallas' Ed Belfour and Buffalo's Dominik Hasek each did that.
“I'm just happy to be on this team and get a chance to play on such a great team. … 1 am a hardworking goaltender and am happy to be on this team.”
The game was so long, the Hockey Night in Canada telecast became Hockey Morning in Canada, as the finish occurred slightly past 1:30 a m. EDT.
Overtime lasted 54:51, the longest except for Edmonton's 3-2 victory over Boston in Game 1 in 1990 that Iasted 65:13.
Dallas, which allowed the first goal in the earlier two games played at Marine Midland Arena, took a 1-0 lead on one of its few scoring chances in the first period.
Lehtinen skated to Mike Modano's pass at the bottom of the left circle and, with Darryl Shannon hanging oft his left shoulder, slipped the puck through a narrow opening between Hasek's right pad and the goal post at 8:09.
Lehtinen somehow found the only area left unprotected by Hasek, who hanged his stick in disgust at permitting the kind of shot he almost always stops.
Modano assisted on the Stars' final five goals of the series. Modano led the Stars with 23 points in the playoffs, one more than Joe Nieuwendyk All seven of his points in the finals were on assists.
Shannon had been benched for a lack of speed by coach Lindy Ruff following Buffalo's first playoff game. But he had to play Saturday after defenseman Rhett Warrener broke his ankle during a game-ending fight in Game 5.
The Sabres' defense tightened up following Lehtinen's 10th playoff goal. But so did an offense that hadn't scored since the third period of Game 4 — until Stu Barnes beat Belfour late in the second period on the Sabres' 26th shot.
Seconds after a Dallas line change momentarily left six Stars on the ice, Barnes wasted the puck from the right circle into the unguarded right side of the net at 18:21 just as Belfour shifted to protect the short side.
Barnes' third goal of the finals and seventh of the playoffs stopped a Sabres scoreless streak that had stretched to 130 minutes. 44 seconds. But the suspense was only beginning.
Belfour. no longer saddled with the reputation of being unable to win the big game, stopped 53 of 54 shots. Hasek, playing in his first finals as a starter, made 48 saves.
The first overtime was so tightly played that the Stars didn't get a shot for the first 12:14.
There were only four power plays, two by each team and none after Buffalo killed off Michael Peca's slashing penalty 1:29 into the third period The Sabres failed to convert on their final 19 power plays of the finals.
The Stars became the second team in as many seasons to win the cup on the road, as Detroit did a year ago. and the third in four seasons. Too bad for the Stars, too, because thousands in Dallas couldn't view the clincher on TV.
ESPN wouldn't allow an over-the-air station to carry the game in a city where only about 50 percent of all households are wired for cable.