Through the first 40 minutes special teams were playing a big role as the Stars trailed 1-0 to the Anaheim Ducks. An early power play goal by Anaheim's Corey Perry and the Stars' power power play inability to mount much of an attack on  four chances against the Ducks' penalty kill were key up to that point. Other than that it was a tightly played game between the two teams with very few chances either way.

"It was tight. There weren't many opportunities out there," Modano said. "We said let's just get the first one and tie it up. When we did the momentum changed."

The momentum changed big time in the third thanks to the Stars' fifth power play of the game, which came after Ducks defenseman Mathieu Schneider was penalized for shooting the puck over the glass.

This time the Stars power play got going, put some great pressure on the Ducks and the end result was a scrambling Travis Moen throwing another puck over the glass. That put Dallas a five-on-three for 45 seconds. Stars coach Dave Tippett used his timeout for what was a pivotal point in the game and the Stars came through.

After taking a cross-ice pass from Sergei Zubov, Modano scored off a wicked one-timer from the right faceoff circle to tie the game at 1-1.

"You can win a lot of games with that power play if you're working it well," Modano said. "The first [goal] was a big one to get the momentum going."

The Stars struck again 41 seconds later on the five-on-four part of the power play when Matt Niskanen put a hard shot on net and Niklas Hagman scored on the rebound.

In the end both teams had six power play chances and the Stars scored on two of theirs and the Ducks got just one. There is your final score.

The Stars had to hang a bit at the end as the Ducks stepped up the pressure but Mike Smith, making his third straight start, held his ground. Smith was solid again, stopping 17 of 18 shots to win his third straight game. He's know stopped 56 of 58 shots in those three wins.

"He is competing well and making some big saves," Tippett said of Smith.

Smith is getting a lot of help from his mates right now. The Stars' team defense has been superb the last three games. The number of shots and chances have dropped dramatically. The Stars' special teams continue to come up big. The penalty kill allowed a goal early, but it stopped five straight Anaheim power plays the rest of the way.

But on this night, the night the team honored Mike Modano, it was Modano who led the charge. He scored the goal that shifted momentum. He ended up logging a season high 22:35 of ice time, winning nine of seven draws and playing a typical superb all-around Mike Modano game.

As Smith said afterwards: "Mo led the charge."

• Stars coach Dave Tippett won his 200th NHL game. He did it in his 349th contest, becoming the third fastest to the 200-win mark.
• Mike Modano's goal was the 513th of his career.
• Sergei Zubov's assist in the game was the 600th of his career.
• Brenden Morrow's assist ran his points streak to six games (three goals, five assists).
• The Stars' power play is 8-16 over the last five games.
• The Ducks have not scored an even strength goal against Dallas in three games this season.
• The Stars have put forward Todd Fedoruk on re-entry waivers.