FanHouse

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

The Dallas Stars didn't want to put a test to that old "third time's a charm" saying.

Much better to just close this deal in San Jose Friday night, and avoid giving the Sharks any more chances to crawl back into the series they had seemingly fallen out of already.

However, things don't always happen the way we plan them.

San Jose pulled off an improbable two-goal rally, then Joe Pavelski scored just over a minute into overtime to give the Sharks a 3-2 win. Dallas' lead in the series is now 3-2, with Game Six Sunday in Dallas.

Dallas had to be happy with the first period. Nothing happened, but the big thing for them was that nothing good happened for San Jose. It kept a usually-boisterous crowd from getting riled up, and it kept San Jose's top line (which has been invisible even-strength for pretty much the entire series) from generating any major chances.

(Still to come: The NHL screws the Stars, a brief rant about the league's inexcusably bad television deal, Guy Carbonneau readies his players for a tall task, and the usual dose of YouTube)

The Stars struck in the second period, as Sergei Zubov sent a great feed over the middle to Jere Lehtinen for a power-play goal. They should have had one later in the period, but the clueless people working the video replay booth continued to demonstrate their inability to distinguish "skating" from "kicking". Brenden Morrow crashed the net, and Zubov threw the puck in front. It clearly went in off Morrow's back skate, but he wasn't really in a position to kick it, as he was trying to stop skating before he plowed into the goal and nullified the play. He also wasn't looking at the puck when it got to his skate. You'd think that makes it difficult to deliberately kick it. He had no idea it was in a place that he could kick it.

The "official" explanation from the NHL is, well, inexplicable.

"Video review at 15:31 of the second period determined that the puck was kicked by Morrow's back skate - there was a distinct kicking motion. Referee Paul Devorski's call of a goal goal on the ice was overturned by video review - no goal."

I almost feel like I was watching a different play than the people in Toronto. Morrow skated towards the net, and he's trying to stop himself from crashing into the crossbar as he makes contact with a San Jose defenseman and goaltender Evgeni Nabokov.

(Yes, goaltender interference should have been called. It wasn't. Based on that info, you can't go back and call it, and the goal should have stood. If Toronto was trying to cover for Paul Devorski's incompetence, then where the hell were they during Game Seven between Philadelphia and Washington, which Devorski and Don Koharski combined to botch as badly as any single playoff game so far?)

Anyway, Toronto ruled that Morrow intentionally kicked a puck he couldn't see. The nullified goal took some momentum from the Stars, but the television timeout that followed the near ten-minute review may have hurt San Jose. Dallas continued to control the flow, and Morrow got a "real" goal in the final minute of the period for a 2-0 lead.

Not enough.

Milan Michalek scored early in the third, and Jeremy Roenick threw a great feed to Brian Campbell for the tying goal, which Campbell sniped high past Marty Turco. San Jose showed great jump in the third period, and probably could have had a couple more goals. They had to settle for overtime, which Pavelski ended quickly.

More evidence that the NHL TV deal sucks. It's bad enough that the NHL continues to get ridiculed by the mainstream media for their invisible television partner, Versus.

(No, I don't really care much for what the mainstream media thinks, but it's not smart to dismiss them. They're influential, no matter what you or I may think of them.)

But then Friday night happens, and we're all given another reason why they should be ridiculed.

It's 2008. I can watch just about anything, including a simulcast of a radio show, in high definition. Some things are really enhanced when you watch them in high definition. Hockey is probably at the top of the list of sports that benefit from being broadcast in HD. With that in mind, you'd think it was important to the NHL that all their playoff games are beamed to the world in HD.

Oh, no. Why would they want to bother with such a detail?

Versus and The Golf Channel are owned by the wonderful folks (note sarcasm in previous two words) at Comcast. Instead of each network having a dedicated HD channel, Comcast decided to save some dough and make them share one.

Normally, this isn't an issue. A large majority of golf tournaments are played during the day (makes sense, as it would be tough to play a round in the dark, and it would be even tougher to televise that round), and all of the Versus hockey games are played at night.

Unfortunately, there is a problem. Someone in charge decided that it would be more important to air a tape-delayed broadcast of the Wachovia Championship in HD*, and Friday's Dallas-San Jose game was not available in the crystal-clear format.

(* - I'm assuming it was tape-delayed. Sources inform me it was indeed dark in North Carolina at 11pm ET Friday, and the golf was being played under bright sunshine.)

I know that many people don't have HD-capable televisions at this point, but this is ridiculous. We live in an era where just about every major sporting event (including the World Series of Poker) is carried in HD. Every miniscule PGA tournament is done in HD. You can watch Moto-X in HD. ESPN and HD Net each air one MLS game every week, and all of those games are done in HD.

Meanwhile, the NHL can't even get nationally-televised playoff games done in HD. No wonder no one takes them seriously. After all, MLS gets more consistent national television coverage in the HD format. Pathetic.

(And don't think I didn't notice that you idiots have gone back to the piped-in goal horn when the visiting team scores. The ridicule they got for this in their first year apparently didn't dissuade them.)

Can the Canadiens stay alive? Guy Carbonneau is going to pull out the lucky tie again. That decision isn't the toughest one he had to make in advance of Saturday's Game Five. That one comes in Montreal's goal. Carey Price is back after a one-game hiatus. It's not that Jaroslav Halak played badly, because he didn't. This is about making sure everyone knows who the top dog is in Montreal, and it's unquestionably Price.

The hope for Montreal is that Price regained some confidence while sitting out a game, and the home crowd in Montreal won't be nearly as hard on him as the fans in Philadelphia. A win of any kind is likely to be a further boost for Price, so he'll feel even better about himself heading into Game Six. If he doesn't regain some confidence, Montreal will be eliminated Saturday.

It would also help the Canadiens if they could get a more consistent effort out of their key offensive guys. In the two games in Philadelphia, it could be argued that they only gave that consistent effort in the third period. Waiting that long didn't work in either of those games, and it surely won't get it done this time. Montreal's offensive focus needs to be in two areas. Their breakouts have been spotty, for the most part. Philadelphia is a good forechecking team, but the Canadiens have to do a better job using their superior speed. To do that, they have to hit the first pass and get guys moving into the neutral zone. The other area is around the net. Martin Biron has been great in this series, but he's been helped by a Montreal team that just isn't going to the net enough. When they do go to the net, they flash in front and then skate either to a wing or behind the net.

Weekend schedule. All times Eastern.

Saturday
Philadelphia at Montreal, 7pm (Versus) - Philadelphia leads series 3-1

Sunday
N.Y. Rangers at Pittsburgh, 2pm (NBC) - Pittsburgh leads series 3-1
(If necessary) Montreal at Philadelphia, 7pm (Versus)
San Jose at Dallas, 9pm (JIP - Versus) - Dallas leads series 3-2

Random YouTube Fun. Memo to all NHL rinks in the United States: This is how you sing a national anthem: