The Stars are big and bright right now

Yeah, hockey is thought of by most Texans with about as much positivity as the Plague in these parts.

By me, quite a bit more.

With the Rangers out of the baseball regular season and the Mavs out of the NBA playoffs, about the only team worth watching are the Stars. The Stars are the NHL team out of Dallas and are two wins away, as of Friday, from qualifying for the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 1999.

That is awesome for being able to fight back and qualify in the Top 4 which got them a first-round bye. Dallas had a problem scoring throughout the season so it was going to be defense that was going to get them any further.

Calgary was the firstround opponent which the Stars took care of six games. Colorado, which was picked by some to make it into the Final, gave Dallas a challenge. The Avs came back from a 3-1 game deficit to knot the series and force a decisive game 7.

Thanks to a rookie performance for the ages, Joel Kivirata scored three goals in the finale, including the game winner in overtime, to move the Stars into the Western Conference Final.

Las Vegas, the No.1- seed in the West, had had trouble with offensive issues in their last three games vs. Vancouver before getting two shutouts in the last three games to move on. The first two contests of Dallas-Vegas were shutouts as well with each team winning one.

Game three Thursday night was an epic battle where both teams scored (what a concept!). The game was tied 2-all after regulation so an overtime was required. Less than a minute into the extra session is was over and Dallas had a 2-1 series lead.

Without a doubt this series is going seven games unlike the Eastern Conference Final, which Tampa should have wrapped up by the time the weekend is over. I’m just glad to have some sports back after many months of having Korean baseball try to qualify as a sport.

Still trying to get a set schedule for when I’ll be with Jacksboro and when I’ll be with Bryson/or Perrin. For now, it will be floating but I will be heading to most Saturday contests, no matter who’s playing.

Saturday makes things a lot easier for me and provides and opportunity to get more things into the paper.

That’s about it for this week. As always, thanks for reading.

See y’all down the road.