Off to Best Start, Stars Winning Ugly

Dallas Stars' Niklas Hagman , left, of Finland, celebrates scoring early in the first period with Stars' Trevor Daley, right, at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, Monday, Oct. 23, 2006. (AP Photo/David Pellerin) (David Pellerin - AP)

DALLAS -- Dallas coach Dave Tippett knows they're not the prettiest nine games he's seen. But the Stars aren't complaining.

Mike Modano scored the decisive goal and Marty Turco had 33 saves as the Stars beat the Vancouver Canucks 2-1 Monday night to give Dallas its best start in franchise history.

"No matter what we do sometimes, we look like the Keystone Kops out there," Tippett said. "But luckily we did enough to win."

Modano, who had a goal nullified earlier, scored at 8:33 of the third when Dallas had a 5-on-3 advantage. He scooped up a rebound off a shot from Eric Lindros and beat Vancouver's Roberto Luongo. Niklas Hagman scored the Stars' first goal 2:24 into the game.

Dallas (8-1-0) topped the mark it set in 1971 when the franchise was in Minneapolis. It was 7-1-1 that season.

"It doesn't feel like we're running over teams," Turco said. "But we're coming out on top in the end, and that's all that matters."

The Stars have played six of their first nine games on the road, and this was their third contest in four nights.

Dallas struggled to muster a rhythm through two periods. The Stars took just 12 shots on goal through two periods, and went without a shot in the first 14 minutes of the second.

Turco even lost his stick twice during the game. But both times he was able to thwart Vancouver scoring attempts.

"We were sluggish to start with," Tippett said. "We were not getting to loose pucks and we were a step behind. But we battled and these are two quality points for us."

Turco bested Luongo, who had 24 saves for Vancouver.

Vancouver's Daniel Sedin scored on the first shot of the game. But that was all the Canucks could muster against Turco, who came into the game with the league's best goals-against average.