Thrashers fall to Stars

DALLAS - At age 31, Mike Modano figures to put up some blockbuster numbers before his NHL career is over.

Modano became the fourth United States-born player to reach the league's 400-goal mark in the Dallas Stars' 2-1 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers on Wednesday night.

``It's a great accomplishment,'' teammate Joe Nieuwendyk said. ``I think he can do a lot more. He's a great player who's going to accomplish a lot of things before he's done.''

Modano, the Stars' career leading scorer, notched his 18th of the season and the tying goal at 12:12 of the second period, knocking in the rebound of Brad Lukowich's shot.

Joe Mullen, Pat LaFontaine and Jeremy Roenick are the other American-born players with 400 goals.

``Joey and Pat paved the way for American-born players,'' Modano said. ``The guys behind me Billy Guerin and Tony Amonte are also going to get it. There's a good stretch of American-born players now. It's been an honor to be a part of the growth of the game in the United States.''

Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said Modano will rate as one of the game's greats when his career is over.

``When it's all said and done, he'll be in elite company as a forward,'' Hitchcock said. ``He'll also be measured by championships and on our team's success.''

Modano had gone four games without a point, and was pressing to reach the milestone.

``It's nice to get it over with,'' he said. ``I've been chasing those numbers for a couple of years now. Hopefully I'll be able to put up some numbers that nobody can catch. This is right up there for me.''

Nieuwendyk's power-play goal with 9:08 remaining was the game-winner. Nieuwendyk converted Pierre Turgeon's centering pass while Atlanta's Hnat Domenichelli was serving a five-minute slashing major. It was Nieuwendyk's 15th of the season.

Domenichelli, trying to clear the puck out of the corner, accidentally slashed Lukowich. He also received a game misconduct. Lukowich broke his left ring finger and could miss several games, although he did return to the ice for the game's final two minutes.

``It was obviously unintentional,'' Domenichelli said. ``I was just trying to swing the puck out of the zone. The next thing I knew I was kicked out of the game.''

Thrashers coach Curt Fraser was surprised at the severity of the penalty.

``We worked our tails off and competed hard,'' Fraser said. ``I don't know how hard the slash was. It came at a pretty important time of a game we were competing hard in.''

The Thrashers led 1-0 at 8:24 of the second when Tony Hrkac scored off Lubos Bartecko's centering pass.
Notes: Dallas has won all five meetings with Atlanta. ... Atlanta is 2-10-3 in its last 15 games. ... Turgeon is in a 14-game goal drought, the longest of his career. ... Dallas won only two of its previous 12 home games.