"They were short staffed. They didn't have Zubov and [Jere] Lehtinen and a couple other guys. So when you look at it I don't it is a fair assessment of their team. Their team is well organized. Chris Osgood (Red Wings goalie) played well tonight and we came out with the upper hand. They have a real good team and they'll bounce back."

But the Stars still had enough top players in the lineup and it was those players who were a little quiet in this one.

When it came down to making an impact, the Red Wings' impact players did just that. Henrik Zetterberg returned to the lineup and chipped in two assists and had some chances. Pavel Datsyuk had a goal, was a plus-two and was solid defensively.  Nicklas Lidstrom had two assists and was a plus-three.

Chris Osgood, the NHL's leader in goals against average and save percentage, was rock solid in net for the Red Wings.

And the Red Wings got contributions from down the lineup as well. Dallas Drake scored his first goal of the season. Ex-Star Aaron Downey picked up his first assist of the season, making a nice pass to set up a Johan Franzen goal. The Red Wings appeared to have everybody on board.

"It's nice when everybody contributes," said Babcock.

As for the Stars, it wasn't a stellar night for some of their top players. Goalie Marty Turco continues to have his issues with Detroit. He allowed four goals on 26 shots this night. The Stars could have used a couple of big saves, but didn't get them on this night. Turco fell to 1-9-5 all-time against Detroit.

"You don't need to remind me," Turco told reporters after the game when the record against Detroit came up.

The Stars' usually productive top line of Brenden Morrow, Mike Ribeiro and Antti Miettinen was quiet in this one. Those three ended up with no points, three shots on goal and a combined minus-six rating. Tippett moved Mike Modano, who didn't register a shot on goal in the game, to center that line at one point and shifted Ribeiro to a line with Steve Ott and Jeff Halpern.

"The coaches expected more from us and we didn’t perform the way we know we can," said Morrow. "The bottom line is they outworked us."

The Stars did get some good efforts. Leading the charge at the times was a line of Brad Winchester, back in the lineup for the first time since the December 10 game against Edmonton, Joel Lundqvist and Loui Eriksson. That trio produced the Stars' only goal of the game (an Eriksson wrap-around score late in the game) and Winchester had some excellent chances when the game was still close.

Without Zubov in the lineup the defensive pairings were changed up a bit. Mattias Norstrom played with Matt Niskanen and Mark Fistric moved back into the lineup to play with Trevor Daley, who had a very good game and led all Dallas defensemen in ice time. Fistric came up with the defensive gem of the game when he blocked a Daniel Cleary shot when Turco got caught out of the net. Niklas Grossman and Stephane Robidas continued to play together.

Special teams were a wash in this one. Both teams had three power plays, although some of the time was of the abbreviated variety. The Stars' penalty kill was sharp against the Detroit power play, which was ranked second in the league coming into the game.

The Stars' power play continues to sputter. It has failed to score in five of the last six games and it missed Zubov Wednesday night. It also misses Jussi Jokinen, who is a key member of that second power play unit up front.

The Stars won't be getting any break. They head to St. Paul to play a well rested Minnesota team that is probably still smarting from the 8-3 spanking the Stars pasted on them last week in Dallas. The Stars will have to regroup quickly.

“It’s a matter of working harder and tomorrow night’s game will be a good chance for us to rebound from this," said Ribeiro.

• Defenseman Sergei Zubov missed Wednesday's game with a hand injury. He did not make the trip with the team, is expected to miss Thursday's game against Minnesota and is listed as day-to-day.
• The Stars were 3-3 on the penalty kill and have now killed 24 in a row.
• The Stars were 0-3 on the power play and are 0-13 over the last three games and have failed to score on the power play in five of their last six games.
• Stars defenseman Mark Fistric picked up his first NHL point, assisting on Loui Eriksson's third period goal. He was also the only Dallas player to end up with a plus-rating in Wednesday's game.