Robidas ended the night with two power play goals, a power play assist, four hits and two blocked shots to show for his 23:10 of ice time.

He's been logging big minutes on the Stars power play since Sergei Zubov went out and he's been producing. He now has five power play goals over the last 12 games.

"Robi, through injuries, has gotten more opportunities on the power play and two big shots tonight found their way in," said Stars coach Dave Tippett.

Stars goalie Marty Turco said it's more than just Robidas' play on the power play or his two goals in the game that helped the Stars win.

"Robidas did help me out. The obvious ones were the goals (he scored), but I don't think everyone realizes three, if not four plays, he made backdoor on me that were sure goals, Turco said. "One in the third there, there was a tip coming up, he broke his stick and (cleared) two more rebounds that were just lying there.

"People don’t realize some of the plays Robi makes. He cleans up rebounds and plays solid every night and deserves all the ice time he gets. He is making a major difference for us."

Robidas wasn't alone in helping Turco out. Jussi Jokinen cleared a puck from in front of the goal in the first period when Turco got caught behind the net. Trevor Daley made a nice play to tip a puck away from Teemu Selanne, who was looking at a wide open side of the net from close range early in the second period.

Those were big plays in the game. So was Krys Barch dropping the gloves with Travis Moen in the first, which seemed to shift a little momentum to the Stars side.

But this game was ultimately decided on special teams and the Ducks' rough and tumble style got the better of them on this night.

Both the Stars' five-on-three power play goals came as the result of undisciplined penalties on part of the Ducks. The first one came as the result of two roughing penalties, one of them drawn by Steve Ott, who drew the ire of the Ducks early in the game. That goal allowed the Stars to tie the game 1-1 late in the first period.

The second one, which put the Stars up 3-1 in the second period, came as the result of back-to-back cross checking penalties.

Sandwiched in between those two was a hooking call on Ryan Getzlaf, which led to a five-on-four chance that the Stars capitalized on as well.

All told, six chances for the Stars and they cashed in on three of them. That was the difference in the game.

"You've got different ways to win a game and tonight we needed our power play to win the game. That's the bottom line," said Tippett. "We had opportunities on the power play and we capitalized. That's just what we needed to do."

The Stars' penalty kill was effective again, killing off all four Anaheim chances including two back-to-back chances in the second period with the Stars holding a 2-1 lead.

The Stars got a good game from Turco, although he dodged a couple of close calls on the puckhandling front. He won his 200th career game.

Overall, it was a good bounce back effort from the Stars, who were flat the night before in Phoenix. The win was the eighth in the last nine games for the Stars and pushed them six points ahead of the Ducks and seven ahead of the Sharks in the Pacific Division.

Now they head home for another measuring stick game, this one against a Detroit team that is suddenly struggling. The Red Wings have lost five straight as they come to Dallas for a nationally televised game on Sunday afternoon.