The Ducks failed to defend their title as champs when they became the 4^th reigning champion last Sunday to fall flat in the first preliminary round. Instead, the Dallas Stars successfully strut their stuff and managed to win the match, taking them to the second round of the game and one step closer to bringing home the Stanley Cup. Stephane Robidas sustained a broken nose earlier on but chose to continue playing and play he did when he scored the tying goal, then managed to prepare Stu Barnes for yet another excellent shot 52 seconds later, culminating in the Dallas Stars’ victory over the dejected Anaheim Ducks with a score of 4-1.

To date, the Anaheim Ducks are the fifth defending Stanley Cup title holders to have been unsuccessful in holding on to their Cup. There has not been a repeat winner in the history of the NHL since Detroit made that happen in the 1997-1998 season.

Teemu Selanne was the star for the Anaheim Ducks in their 6 -3 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday. The three goals scored by Selanne have put him in the 25th position of the overall career scoring list and with these three goals he has had more goals than Rocket Richard. He has achieved a career best of 546 goals now and said that he knew pretty well about the career goal score of Richard. Selanne has played 1051 regular season games so far and knew what Rocket Richard had given for the game.

In fact, Teemu Selanne was the first person to receive the award that was given in honor of Richard Rocket, the Montreal Canadian star. The sort of gamesmanship that was displayed by Selanne in front of more than 17,000 fans not only stole the hearts of the fans but also has instilled the winning power into the Ducks team. The Anaheim victory is the fifth consecutive victory against the Chicago Blackhawks and is the fourth straight victory for the Ducks this season. The 10 time All Star Finnish player who was contemplating retirement as he was not playing the first half of the season is now having six goals in the ten games he has played this season.

After Kariya lit up the Stars for a third-period hat trick the last time the teams met, expect coach Dave Tippett to try to get Mike Modano’s line out against Kariya as much as possible. With Kariya a left wing and Halpern a right wing. The Blues rank last in the NHL in average shots on goal per game at 25.3. Dallas ranks fourth in fewest shots on goal against at 26.0.

On Friday, Calgary beat Carolina 4-3, Buffalo crashed Washington 5-6, Toronto outplayed Atlanta 4-0, and Minnesota won over Anaheim 5-2.

Dallas Stars 3, New York Rangers 2: Morrow’s power-play goal early in the 3rd period lifted the visiting Dallas Stars over the New York Rangers on Sunday and stretched the Stars’ winning streak to 5 matches. Despite being outshot 41-18, Dallas used a sizzling power play in order to win the 1st of a 6-game road trip that will take the team to all 5 teams in the EC’s Atlantic Division.

Anaheim Ducks 3, Los Angeles Kings 2: Kunitz and Getzlaf scored 3rd-period goals as the Anaheim Ducks rallied for a win over Los Angeles.

Vancouver Canucks 2, Chicago Blackhawks 0: Morrison scored an early goal and Luongo made twenty-seven saves to lead Vancouver over the visiting Blackhawks.

The Edmonton Oilers beat the defending Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks 3-2 Sunday night for the 1st time since Penner’s away from Anaheim with a 5-year, $21.25 million offer sheet that Brian Burke declined to match. This move triggered a public spat between the two general managers, who have not spoken to each other since. Penner, who left the Ducks as a restricted free agent after his rookie season, didn’t receive a warm welcome from the crowd of over seventeen thousand fans. In other National Hockey League games, it was Detroit 3, Vancouver 2; and Colorado 3, Minnesota 1.