Stars defeat Sharks in fourth overtime

The Dallas Stars have finally made it back to the Western Conference finals. It took the eighth-longest game in NHL history to do it.

Brenden Morrow scored a power-play goal 9 minutes 3 seconds into the fourth overtime as the host Stars eliminated the pesky San Jose Sharks, 2-1, in a game that ended just before 1:30 a.m. local time Monday – the longest game in the NHL playoffs this season, and the longest in San Jose history.

The Stars are going to the conference finals for the first time since 2000, when they returned to the Stanley Cup finals the year after winning the franchise’s only championship. They will face Detroit, which wrapped up its second-round sweep of Colorado on Thursday night.

Pittsburgh 3, New York Rangers 2 – Marian Hossa scored his second goal of the game 7:10 into overtime and the Penguins rallied after giving up a two-goal lead to beat the Rangers, 3-2, at Pittsburgh and advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in seven years.

Sidney Crosby began a rush into the Penguins’ end with a pass to Pascal Dupuis, who attempted to give it back to Crosby.

The puck trickled away but ended up on Hossa’s stick, and he beat Henrik Lundqvist from the slot for his fifth goal of the playoffs to end New York’s season. The Penguins won the series, 4-1.

The Penguins, the Eastern Conference’s worst team only two years ago, will meet the cross-state Philadelphia Flyers, the conference’s worst team last season, in the first all-Pennsylvania conference final.