Say goodnight, San Jose

[Watch Sharks number 9 Milan Michalek circle behind the net and toward the top-right of your screen.]

A game for the ages, and one legendary check, sends the Dallas Stars to the NHL West finals. Stars' Morrow sinks a power play goal to end it at 9:03 into the fourth overtime, at around 2:15am ET Sunday morning.

Now it's off into the Heart of Darkness.

[Joe Louis Arena, home of the Detroit Red Wings, artist's rendition]

the hunt for the Cup

For those of you interested, Rene has a series of running posts on the Stars' surprisingly dominant performance during the NHL playoffs. They're on pace to hose the Sharks in the next couple of days, and barring some sort of 2004 Yankees-style meltdown in Detroit, it's on to the Red Army from there.

Rene's been a hockey fiend for years now and can give you better analysis than most of the guys who get paid for it, so if you dig the Stars, you should check him out.