DETROIT -- The Stars and Detroit Red Wings must really love playing each other. They don't want to leave the ice even after three hours of exhausting hockey.

Immediately after Detroit had secured its 3-2 victory Sunday over Dallas, the teams engaged in their most extended scuffle of this rugged series, with gloves littering the ice.

According to Stars captain Derian Hatcher, the Red Wings' Brendan Shanahan sucker-punched Stars defenseman Darryl Sydor. So Hatcher retaliated, punching Shanahan.

In the end, Hatcher and Detroit's Darren McCarty received irrelevant roughing penalties - though the officials could have probably called a few more penalties on other players.

"That's just the captain probably just being the captain," Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said of Hatcher.

Shanahan was unavailable for comment.

"It wasn't that big of a deal," said Hatcher, who left the ice growling at the Detroit players.

Two teams that got as far as they did in these playoffs by keeping their cool seem to have lost it now. Dallas was called for eight penalties Sunday, Detroit seven. Entering Sunday's game, the Red Wings were the seventh-most-penalized team of what began as a 16-team playoff field, and the Stars were 11th.

Through four games, Dallas has received 60 penalty minutes, the Red Wings 56. One of the goalies - this time the Stars' Ed Belfour - received a penalty for the fourth straight game. Belfour has 18 penalty minutes in the playoffs, as many as he has had during the entire regular season.

Blend in that the Stars have fallen into holes in two consecutive games, and you have a team that has exhausted itself by the end of the first period.

"It definitely takes a lot out of you, energy-wise," Hatcher said of having to come back all the time.

He was an uncharacteristic minus-2 Sunday. He was on the ice for the Red Wings' first goal, and their last. Someone told him that no team has ever come back from trailing, 3-1, to win a conference final. He thanked him for that news flash.

"We're just going to try to win Game 5," Hatcher said. "We're not looking at it as 3-1."

© 1998 The Dallas Morning News All Rights Reserved

Dave Caldwell / Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News, Tempers flare in post-game scuffle., The Dallas Morning News, 06-01-1998, pp 3B.