"The coaches just asked me what I'm going to say to the media," Stars coach Dave Tippett said, "and I said I'll say the goalie was really blanking good."

Yes, Stars goalie Mike Smith was outstanding. He stopped 39 of 41 shots in the game.

The Stars also made the most of their opportunities, which weren't exactly high in number through the first 40 minutes of the game.

"I think we had two scoring opportunities in the first two periods and were 2-for-2," Tippett said.

And then with the game tied heading into the third, the Stars played a strong final 20 minutes and got a big power play goal and pulled out a 3-2 win to open their six-game road trip.

"I thought the third period was our best by far," said Tippett.

Overall, it wasn't the prettiest of wins but it showed some resiliency on the Stars' part and in the end they found a way to win.

"We looked like we stuck in the mud there for a little bit," Tippett said. "But give our guys credit, they kept hanging around."

Smith kept them in the game with big saves throughout and a couple of big breakaway goals by Jussi Jokinen and Loui Eriksson had the Stars tied 2-2 with about 28 minutes left in the game.

Jokinen's goal, which came with less than a minute to go in the first was started by a sharp defensive play at the other end by Stephane Robidas, who made a diving poke check on Scott Gomez, who seemed on his way to a scoring chance in the slot.

Eriksson's breakaway, which came on the Stars' first full power play, was set up by a nice pass by Sergei Zubov and changed momentum in the game, or at least it stopped the Rangers onslaught. The Stars seemed to settle down a bit and get back to their game.

"We didn't carry much of the play at all tonight," Stars captain Brenden Morrow said. "We didn't sustain any pressure and they had it in our end and Smitty was a wall for us and he gave us a chance to win. We talked about it after two periods and it's a pretty good situation considering how bad were playing."

And then it was Morrow who scored on the Stars' second full power play chance early in the third to put the Stars up for good. He finished off what was a slick play by Mike Ribeiro, who shook Rangers defenseman Daniel Girardi along the left boards and then whipped the puck to a charging Morrow, who put it into the open side of the net.

Once the Stars got the lead they played well, and Smith came up with some more big stops. But in the end the Stars knew they dodged some bullets on this afternoon.

"It seemed like the ice was tilted for a lot of the game, but we found a way to win and that's what you've got to do on the road," Smith said. "Sometimes it's not pretty."

Said Tippett: "That's kind of the way our team is a little bit, we hang around games but we're going to have to be much better on this trip."

They'll get than chance on Monday when they take on the New York Islanders, who have won 12 of 20 games to start the season.

"Early on in the season we weren't having much success on it," Stars captain Brenden Morrow said of the power play. "Right now it seems like we're getting that timely goal when the game is on the line and we're finding ways to get it in the net."

The Stars power play is 10-21 over the last six games. The penalty kill, meanwhile. improved to 26-27 over the last seven games with a 6-7 performance Sunday. A couple of the Rangers' chances were abbreviated, but the Stars ended up killing off 8:19 of New York power play time Sunday.

• Brenden Morrow ran his points streak to a career-high eight games. He has four goals and ten assists.
• Loui Eriksson's goal was his first of the season. His last goal came on March 27.
• Brad Winchester and Joel Lundqvist, both called up from Iowa on Saturday, were in the lineup Sunday.
• Jere Lehtinen (abdomen), Antti Miettinen (groin) and Mattias Norstrom (eye) were the Stars who missed the game due to injury. Krys Barch was a healthy scratch.