That became clear in Game 3, after the Oilers had won Game 2 at Dallas to earn a split. Every bit of adversity, we came out of it quick. "We were in last place the year before - we went from last to first in the Central Division," Hitchcock said. The season before, Dallas had traded a draft pick off the Kamloops Blazers roster named Jarome Iginla to Calgary for Nieuwendyk. You get more emotionally involved as the series goes on." So, you get a legitimate hate for certain players on the other team. "You’re playing the same team, over and over and over again. "We may never have held the lead in any of the regular season games against those guys, but the playoffs is a different animal," Marchant said. Dallas was hoping for a four-round playoff run, and in the depth of their collective psyche, they must have been hoping/planning to have plenty of energy left after the Oilers series, a healthy reserve intended for the true contenders like Colorado and Detroit. ‘Wow, we can actually play with these guys.’"Īgainst the older, more experienced Stars, Edmonton head coach Ron Low’s mantra was "let’s get 100 hits every game," Marchant recalled. "And every period, every game that went by we gained more confidence. "We were so naïve – just a bunch of kids who went out and said, ‘Let’s see what happens,’" said Marchant, now the director of player development for the Anaheim Ducks. Meanwhile, Joseph hadn’t stolen a game in weeks.
Edmonton had fallen from fourth place in the West to seventh in the final week of the season. In the regular season, the Oilers had been outscored 18-6 by Dallas and had not held a lead for even a single second in the four games. So, Edmonton trundled down to steamy Dallas that spring, first-round fodder if ever there was.
Because if I said I didn’t, he’d say, ‘Well, you should.’ And if I said I did, he’d say, ‘You shouldn’t be.’" "Glen used to always rib me, ‘Are you worried about scoring on breakaways?’ And I knew it was a double-edged sword. "As you know, I never had a lot of luck on breakaways," Marchant said some 23 years later, moving into a story about he and then-Oilers general manager Glen Sather. Now, in overtime of Game 7, the Stars had long passed the point where they’d expended more energy than a Stanley Cup contender is supposed to waste on a team like these Oilers.Īnd now, here comes Marchant, wheeling past a stumbling Grant Ledyard and steaming in on Andy Moog. It was April 1997, and Dallas Stars head coach Ken Hitchcock had just watched Curtis Joseph make the miracle save on Joe Nieuwendyk that had breathed hope into the Edmonton Oilers, and kicked his Stars square in the nards.ĭallas was that team that was supposed to win Round 1 easily - they had finished 23 points ahead of Edmonton and beaten them four times that season. EDMONTON - "I didn’t think Marchant was going to score, because he’d had a number of breakaways during the year and hadn’t scored."
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