"We didn't have much answer for those two tonight," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "Those two are a rare breed. You look at them as a line you should be checking, but in fact they are a checking line. Those are a rare couple players."

The two, who are both Selke Candidates because of the their defensive abilities, are top offensive players as well, and they put on a display at the AAC.

Zetterberg's three points (one goal, two assists) moved him into the playoff scoring lead with 18 points. Datsyuk's three goals put him into a tie for second with 17 points.

"They're good players, and good players play when it counts," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "That's what they do."

"You just want to let those guys loose," Detroit's Kris Draper said.

They were on the loose Monday night, delivering big plays in what was a big game. A must win game for the Stars. And a game in which the Red Wings could push the Stars to the brink of elimination. In a game where top players needed to be top players, Datsyuk and Zetterberg delivered.

Datsyuk scored the game's first goal and then after the Stars tied it and seemed poised to grab some momentum, he struck again to give Detroit the lead 37 seconds later. That was a momentum killer.

"I thought it gave us the momentum right back," Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom said. "They got the crowd into it, but to get that second goal was very important for our team and got our bench going. I thought it was a momentum-swinging goal for us."

Tippett called it "demoralizing" for his team.

Zetterberg delivered a big dagger early in the third period when the Stars were trying to tie the game with a power play chance. Zetterberg busted into the Dallas zone one-on-one with Brad Richards, got the Stars center all turned around, skated to the left circle and beat Marty Turco with a wrist shot to make it a 4-2 game and basically put it out of reach.

"Once they got that short-handed goal in the third period, all we did was chase," said Tippett.

And the two combined on one final goal to make it a 5-2 final, a last stamp on another Detroit win in the series to push their lead to 3-0.

Those are just the goals they scored. There's all those other little things that often go unnoticed. It's the things that the Red Wings do as a team, and it's the reason they are a tough team to beat.

The Stars were in the game for the first half, but another big play midway through the game gave Detroit the lead for good. And Datsyuk and Zetterberg were watching from the bench on this one. The Stars got caught on a sloppy change, leaving Jiri Hudler all alone at the Dallas blue line. After Detroit forward Dallas Drake won a puck battle in his own zone he got the puck to defenseman Nicklas Kronwall, whose long pass sent Hudler in on a breakaway. A backhand shot that beat Marty Turco high gave the Red Wings the lead and they took control after that.

"Some bad changes caused the Hudler goal," Stars center Mike Modano said. "Some breakdowns here and there, and you can't afford that against these guys. You're pretty much expected to play a mistake-free game and everybody needs to be at such a high level."

The Stars have had their moments against the Red Wings in the series, but it's been spotty. They haven't even been able to play with the lead in the series.

"We want to get a lead in this series," Richards said. "We still haven't had that. A 2-2 hockey game on home ice in the second period, you'd like to think you could get a lead."

On this night the Stars were playing catch up and they needed the power play. It didn't deliver, including three chances when the score was 3-2. It was 0-6 and gave up the shorthanded goal to Zetterberg. The special teams battle has gone to the Red Wings.

So has the goaltending battle. Chris Osgood has been a rock for the Red Wings, but Turco has struggled in this series against Detroit, giving up 11 goals over the three games. It's not all him though. Some of the chances have been very good.

The bottom line is the Red Wings have been the better team in just about all areas. It's all added up to an 0-3 deficit for the Stars, who are vowing to fight on.

"Belief is what we need to have," Turco said. "We've won four games [in a row] plenty of times, and we're not going to focus and rely on bounces and hope-fors. There's only one way to do this, and that's just make it happen. It's going to be a tall order, but
it's one at a time."

• The Stars get some good early pressure and have a puck go off the crossbar, but the Red Wings score first off the rush after a Dallas turnover at the Detroit blue line.
   
• After a great shift that led to Niklas Grossman's game-tying goal, the Stars give up a goal 37 seconds later to lose momentum and give Detroit the lead again.
   
• With the game timed 2-2 midway through the second, Red Wings forward Jiri Hudler scores on a breakaway to give Detroit a 3-2 lead.
   
• The Stars get a power play early in the third period, but Henrik Zetterberg scores shorthanded to make it a 4-2 game.