He did it in first game against the team that made him the first overall pick in the 1999 NHL Entry Draft. And he did it in their barn.

"I spent six years here that were very special, so I'm sure I had a little extra tonight," Stefan said after the game. "But as soon as the puck drops it doesn't matter where you play."

Stefan, who was traded to the Stars during the off-season, ended up with a goal,  two assists and a plus-four rating for the night. The points were his first of the season and they came in his seventh game.

"Stefan was the spark we needed tonight," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "It's a special feeling when you come back to your former team. I'm sure he wanted to come back and play well, and that's what he did."

Stefan and his linemates - Mike Ribeiro (two goals, plus-three) and Matthew Barnaby (one goal, one assist, plus-three) - were in on four of the Stars five goals on the night. The trio did a lot of damage considering they each played less than ten minutes in the game.

The Stars got their offense by getting pucks and people to the net. It was something they worked on in practice Thursday and it paid off Friday.

"It definitely feels good to score goals," Stars defenseman Jaroslav Modry, who played with Atlanta last season, said on the Stars broadcast network. "We've been talking about doing the little things. We've had chances but we just didn't capitalize. Tonight you could see guys driving the net with authority and those little things happen for us and we scored a few goals."

The first goal, scored by Barnaby, wasn't a pretty one but it was just what the Stars needed. It was Darryl Sydor wrapping the puck around the boards, Sergei Zubov pinching in to get it and putting the puck on net, where Barnaby had set up shot.

Ribeiro crashed the net for the second one and scored on a wrap-around for the third. Stefan's goal came off an odd-man rush with Barnaby and Mike Modano scored off a rebound on the power play by getting to a puck in the slot.

The Stars' penalty kill came up big, especially in the second period when it killed off three full Atlanta power plays.

The Thrashers made it interesting in the third with a couple of quick goals, but the Stars power play scored a timely goal to basically put the game away.

Atlanta may have been just what the Stars, who had scored just three goals in the last four games,  needed. The Thrashers and goalie Kari Lehtonen have been struggling to the keep pucks out of the net lately. And that trend continued Friday night. It was the third straight game in which the Thrashers have surrendered five goals.

The Stars now move on to Carolina to take on the defending Stanley Cup champs. The Hurricanes played in Washington Friday night, beating the Capitals 4-1 for their fourth win in the last five games. 

Modry was signed to big free agent contract (three years, $7 million) back in 2004 and he didn't work out in Atlanta. After Friday's morning skate, Stars coach Dave Tippett was asked how he thought Modry was fitting in with the Stars.

"I have a real good grasp of what I think he’s capable of doing. He’s a solid guy.  He’s a very solid contributor," Tippett told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Sometimes when you change teams, the expectations change and the expectations for free agents are pretty high and they can’t do enough to make up for those. Maybe that was the case here. He’s a background player for us. He does a lot of little things for us. I see the same player as I had in LA."

• Jere Lehtinen missed Friday's game with a leg injury. He is day-to-day.
   
• Loui Eriksson, who was called up Thursday, was in the lineup. He played on a line with Niklas Hagman and Stu Barnes. Eriksson logged 8:35 of ice time, had no shots and was a minus-one in the game.

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