"We talked about Turco being one of our best players. But I though all our best players stood up tonight," said Stars coach Dave Tippett.

Turco led the way with an outstanding 33-save performance. He was especially sharp in the second and third period, when the Red Wings created some good chances. He was a wall late in the game with the Red Wings on a power play and Chris Osgood on the bench for an extra attacker. And then there was another penalty and it was a six-on-three for the final 35 seconds,  but Turco and his mates held the fort.

"He came up with a heck of a game for us tonight," said Tippett.

Modano shifted to the wing on a line with Brad Richards and Niklas Hagman, and delivered the game-winner on the power play, an area of the Stars' game that has been sorely missed in this series.

"He jumped in there with Richards, and was very good," Tippett said of Modano.

Morrow, who suffered what looked like a nasty arm/wrist injury in Game 3, was back in high gear Wednesday night, registering four shots, seven hits and delivering the big insurance goal with a blast from the slot off a nice feed from Mike Ribeiro.

"I thought Morrow and Ribeiro, that's the first game that they played, they played minutes, but that looks like the first game where their legs are starting to come back from the last series," said Tippett. "So that's a positive sign."

Sergei Zubov chipped in a couple of assists on the night,  adding another top player to chip in to the effort.

But the Stars got some big help down the lineup. Toby Petersen centered a line with Loui Eriksson and Joel Lundqvist. That trio went head-to-head a lot of the night with the Detroit's top line and fared well. One turnover led to a goal by Henrik Zetterberg, but the Stars were able to overcome that.

"Petersen's line was excellent for us," said Tippett.

With Ribeiro centering that line late in the second, Eriksson chipped in with a goal, giving the Stars their first lead of the series. It was short-lived, but it was still a lead. What the Stars did after Detroit tied early in the third was probably the story of their effort.

"This team is mentally tough. We fought through that," said Morrow.

"I thought they handled it unbelievably," Tippett said of his team bouncing back from Detroit tying the game. "It was talked about by the players on the bench, this was not going to deter us."

Modano's power play goal, which came at 5:35 of the third, gave the Stars the lead for good.

"Having the lead finally for once in the whole series was to see finally," said Modano. "It kind of changed our feelings about things."

The Stars finally caught a few breaks in the series. Red Wings forward Dan Cleary broke his stick on the that Dallas power play in the third, making it almost a five-on-three. Give the Stars credit for recognizing it and taking advantage. Detroit lost a power play goal about seven-and-a-half minutes into the second period when a Pavel Datsyuk score was waved off because it was ruled Tomas Holmstrom was in the crease and interfering with Turco. Replays showed Holmstrom was outside the crease. It would have given Detroit the lead and was a key turning point. Although it's hard to argue how much it would have affected the outcome, it would have given Detroit that all important lead.

But the bottom line is the Stars finally got a win in this series. They got some positives going in the series after three straight losses. The Stars played with the lead. The power play delivered a timely goal. The penalty kill came up big. Turco and other top players were superb.

"It was a pretty intense, desperate game from everyone on our side," said Turco. "We needed that to be successful. We'll have to continue like that just to have a chance."

So now the Stars have a couple of days to recharge and head back to Detroit for Game 5. The Stars  had a 3-0 lead against San Jose and dropped a game and then a second. They are hoping to give the Red Wings a dose of that medicine.

"I learned you can get nervous when the other team starts winning. That's where we were," said Tippett. "We talked this morning that we need a thread of life. Now, we've got a thread of life. The two days off will really help us. We've got some momentum. So we've got to use that to our advantage now. You go in there and steal a game out of there. Now you got it to 3-2. Now the ball's rolling the right way. We'll see what happens."

• In the second period the Red Wings appear to score on their first power play of the game, but the goal is waved off because the referee rules Tomas Holmstrom interfered with Marty Turco. That denies the Red Wings the chance to take the lead in the game.
   
• Loui Eriksson scores with 23 seconds left in the second period to give the Stars their first lead in the series.
   
• After Henrik Zetterberg scores early in the third period to tie the game, the Stars go on a power play, Detroit forward Dan Cleary breaks his stick and the Stars take advantage as Mike Modano scores from the slot to give the Stars the lead for good.