Derian Hatcher has put the hurt on the shameful San Jose Sharks in more ways than they could have expected.

They can knock out Joe Nieuwendyk for the series with a dirty hit in Game 1. They can send Mike Modano to an early shower in Game 2 with a cross-check to the head that rang his bell. But they had no answer for the biggest man on the ice who is standing tall for his team when it needs him most.

That's what captains do. And Hatcher is answering the call.

The San Jose Sharks are challenging the very integrity of the Stanley Cup tournament with the kind of gutter-style hockey that rivaled the worst performances of the Johnstown Chiefs. That was the team led by a trio of bespectacled brother-goons, the dreaded Hansens, who brawled their way through the minor league circuit in the cult movie classic Slapshot.

"It's an ugly game they play," Modano said after his head cleared following the 5-2 win Friday night.

"They don't seem to play any position. You don't know where they're coming from. And with every body check they put a stick or glove in your face, they're cross-checking you. It seems like they don’t even want to handle the puck."

Unable to match skills with Dallas, the Sharks have been content to forget about hockey and bring the pain instead. When Hatcher was patrolling the ice, however, the Sharks became a school of guppies. Even Sharks defenseman Bryan Marchment was on his best behavior.

With some of his best hockey since helping Team USA win the inaugural World Cup of Hockey two years ago, Hatcher now is tied for the team playoff lead with two goals.

More important, after talking about the need to target some of San Jose's finesse players for some special physical attention, he led the Dallas hit parade. He laid into Jeff Friesen and Bernie Nicholls and the Sharks responded in kind in one of the chippiest games at Reunion Arena since that debacle with the unMighty Ducks of Anaheim last month.

Undaunted by the jeers and placards like, "No. 27 hurts puppies too," Marchment was at his evil best, or worst depending on your point of view. When he and teammate Owen Nolan tried to double-team Modano behind the goal, it was Hatcher who intervened to make it an even fight that ended quickly and peacefully.

"I haven't been facing too much physical stuff - not that I mind, " Hatcher said with a grin that said just try me. "I like games like these, no doubt about it. It's a lot of fun."

When Marchment confronted Modano during a line change, it was Hatcher who skated between them and broke it up. Marchment skated away quietly. When Marchment tried pulling Modano out of a scrum in the San Jose goal crease, it was Hatcher who tapped Marchment on the shoulder hoping to break in on that dance. Marchment politely declined.

Each of those incidents occurred after Hatcher put the biggest hurt on the Sharks, booming a 50-foot slapshot past Mike Vernon with just 28.4 seconds left in the first period that gave Dallas a 2-0 lead and deflated the Sharks.

None of which should surprise Stars fans.

Because it was Hatcher, they'll remember, who confronted Marchment in late December in Edmonton after he had wrecked Modano's knee. Problem was, Marchment had taken out Greg Adams with a serious knee injury, too, before Hatcher said "enough is enough" and went after Marchment with such fury it cost him a game misconduct penalty.

Before this series ends, Hatcher may likewise have to assert himself with the kind of fury the Sharks cannot match. He's the one guy they want nothing to do with, the one guy even Marchment refuses to confront.

It hurts when the Stars lose key players like Nieuwendyk and Modano. But they'll hurt even more if Hatcher went down for any length of time.

"He's become such a big-game player for us," coach Ken Hitchcock said of his captain. "The more intense it is, the better he seems to like it."

Just before the opening face-off Friday night, they showed a clip from the movie Slapshot. Reg Dunlop, the Chiefs coach played by Paul Newman, was doing a radio interview when he issued a challenge to his players: "I'll give a hundred bucks of my own money to the first guy who gets that creep."

The bounty had been placed on Marchment's head.

Give Hatcher the dough. He deserves it.

© 1998 The Dallas Morning News All Rights Reserved

Keith Gave / Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News, Sharks lack bite when Hatcher's on ice., The Dallas Morning News, 04-25-1998, pp 1B.