page_title: Dallas Stars
section_title: Dominance, a Stanley Cup championship, and deep playoff runs (1998–2004)
hierarchical_section_title: Dallas Stars / Franchise history / Dominance, a Stanley Cup championship, and deep playoff runs (1998–2004)
caption_attribution_description: English: Joe Nieuwendyk
context_page_description: The Dallas Stars are a professional ice hockey team based in Dallas. They compete in the National Hockey League as a member of the Central Division of the Western Conference. The team was founded during the 1967 NHL expansion as the Minnesota North Stars, based in Bloomington, Minnesota. Before the beginning of the 1978–79 NHL season, the team merged with the Cleveland Barons after the league granted them permission due to each team's respective financial struggles. Ultimately, the franchise relocated to Dallas for the 1993–94 NHL season. The Stars played out of Reunion Arena from their relocation until 2001, when the team moved less than 1.5 miles into the American Airlines Center.
  The Stars have won eight division titles in Dallas, two Presidents' Trophies as the top regular season team in the league, the Western Conference championship twice, and in 1998–99, the Stanley Cup. Joe Nieuwendyk won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the playoffs that year.
  In 2000, Neal Broten was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame.
context_section_description: In the 1998 off-season, after falling just short in the Western Conference Finals, the Stars added what they believed was the final piece toward winning a championship: star goalscoring winger Brett Hull. Hull had already had a magnificent career with the St. Louis Blues, with three consecutive 70-goal seasons and a Hart Memorial Trophy, but a fallout with Blues management led Hull to leave St. Louis via free agency. Additionally, this was the first season for the Stars in the Pacific Division after the 1998 NHL division re-alignment.
  The Stars 1998–99 season was excellent. The Stars won 51 games, surpassing the 50-win mark for the first time in franchise history. They also recorded 114 points, which still stands today as a franchise record. They won the Pacific Division by 24 points, their third consecutive division title; a second consecutive Presidents' Trophy; the Jennings Trophy as the league's top defensive team; and were awarded the top seed in the 1999 playoffs. Winger Jere Lehtinen was also awarded the Frank J. Selke Trophy.
  In the first round of the playoffs, Dallas faced their playoff arch-rivals, the Edmonton Oilers. The Stars swept the Oilers in four tough games, winning Game 4 in the third overtime on a goal by Joe Nieuwendyk. They then faced the St. Louis Blues in the second round. After taking a 2–0 series lead, the Blues stormed back to tie the series. The Stars then won the next two games to beat the Blues in six games. The series again ended on an overtime goal, this time from Mike Modano. In the Conference Finals, they faced the Colorado Avalanche for the first time in Stars history. This would be the first of four playoff meetings between the Stars and Avalanche in the next seven years. After both the Stars and the Avalanche split the first four games at a 2–2 series tie, the Avalanche won Game 5 by a score of 7–5, taking a 3–2 series lead, The Stars rallied winning game six on the road, and Game 7 at home, both by 4–1 scorelines.
  This was the Stars' first Stanley Cup Finals appearance as the Dallas Stars, although they made the finals twice as the Minnesota North Stars. They faced the Eastern Conference champion Buffalo Sabres, who had defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4–1 in the Eastern Conference Finals. After splitting the first four games, the Stars vaunted defense would hold the Sabres to only one goal in the next two, winning Game 5 2–0 and Game 6 2–1 on an overtime goal by Brett Hull. Hull's goal at 14:51 of the third overtime was remembered as one of the most controversial goals ever scored. That season, the league still had the infamous "crease rule" in effect, which provided that if any player of the attacking team who did not have possession of the puck was in the crease before the puck, then any resulting goal was disallowed. Hull had initially gained possession of the puck outside the crease and had made a shot that was blocked by Buffalo goaltender Dominik Hasek. One of Hull's skates entered the crease as he corralled the rebound, and Hull's second shot scored the Cup-winning goal, followed by a lengthy official review. The goal was eventually allowed, as having simply blocked Hull's shot rather than catching it, Hasek never took possession of the puck away from Hull. Officials therefore determined that rather than calling it a loose puck, Hull would be considered to have had continuous possession of the puck from before his first shot outside the crease. The complexity of the crease rule, and the attendant difficulties in understanding its application by fans and players alike, combined with the controversy arising out of the disputed Stanley Cup-winning goal, resulted in the crease rule being repealed the following season. Hull's goal marked the 13th time a Stanley Cup-winning goal was scored in overtime, and only the fourth to be scored in multiple overtimes. This was the only time between 1995 and 2003 that a team other than the New Jersey Devils, Colorado Avalanche or Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup.
  The team added veterans Kirk Muller, Dave Manson and Sylvain Cote in an effo
caption: Joe Nieuwendyk helped the Stars win their first Stanley Cup in 1999. Nieuwendyk was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy for that year's playoffs.
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