If they can play like this down the stretch and into the playoffs, the other teams in the Western Conference better start to worry about the Dallas Stars.

In one of their most dominating and complete efforts this season, the Stars delivered an impressive performance in defeating the Pacific Division-leading Anaheim Ducks 4-1 Friday night at the American Airlines Center.

The victory pulled the Stars to within five points of the Ducks, currently the West's second seed, and to within three of San Jose for second in the Pacific and fifth in the Western Conference and showed that they could match up well with the NHL's best. The fact that the Stars hold two games in hand on Anaheim provides them the opportunity to get even closer if they can win those extra games.

The Stars are now 10-4-1 in their last 15 and 7-1-1 in their last nine here at the American Airlines Center.

Dallas received contributions from virtually everyone, getting goals from three different forward lines, and excellent goaltending. Rookie Mike Smith got the start in net, his fifth appearance in the last seven contests, and he once again came up with an outstanding outing, making 24 saves.

"It was as good of team effort as we've had all year," Smith said. "A couple of months ago, first place seemed out of the question, but now, we're right there with them, and we've beaten them, and we play them two more times. This is a huge game for us. It was an overall great team win. It makes my life easy when the guys are playing like they did tonight. We want to win the division and tonight's win goes a long way in that."

Jussi Jokinen and rookie Krys Barch scored a goal and assist each, and Ladislav Nagy and Jere Lehtinen also added goals for the Stars.

After losing three straight games against the Ducks in which they were outscored 13-3, the Stars, with Smith in net, have now defeated Anaheim in two straight.

"We've had some games against that team where we have chased the game," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "Tonight, I thought we dictated play. "We had some good bounces on goals, but we earned those goals and those bounces. I thought everybody had some real purpose in the game. We had contributions from everybody throughout the lineup and for us to win consistently, that's what we're going to need to happen."

Beginning the third period with a 3-0 lead and short-handed, the Stars quickly killed off the remainder of Mike Modano's hooking penalty and then added another goal just 14 seconds after it expired. The Ducks still had the puck in the Dallas zone and Francois Beauchemin wound up for a slap shot from the blue line. Lehtinen blocked the shot and took off after the puck, which ricocheted out to center ice. Racing in on a breakaway, Lehtinen lifted a wicked wrist shot from the slot over the shoulder of Anaheim goaltender J.S. Giguere for his team-leading 20th goal of the season.

The Stars continued to attack, and Antti Miettinen rang a wrist shot off the crossbar five and a half minutes into the period while Dallas enjoyed a power play.

Smith lost his bid for his fourth shutout of the season when Corey Perry scored at 15:15 of the third. He stole the puck from defenseman Jaroslav Modry in the right corner, then skated straight at the crease, making a deke around Smith and beating him with a backhander.

Smith admitted he started thinking about the shutout in the third period and was mildly disappointed not to achieve it.

"I try not to (think about a shutout), but it's kind of hard not to," he acknowledged. "It creeps in the back of your mind. You try to sing a song or something to get it out of there. Obviously, you don't want to let any goals in, but the win's the most important thing. If we win 4-1 or if we win 6-5, it's still a win and our team needs them right now."

Leading 2-0 going into the second, the Stars continued to apply considerable offensive pressure on the Ducks. Giguere made several impressive stops early, denying rookie Joel Lundqvist's slap shot from the slot with an arm save and stopping Mike Ribeiro's nifty wrist shot from the high slot.

The Stars were so thoroughly dominating the action that Ducks didn't register their first shot of the period until 10 minutes had elapsed.

Dallas extended the lead to 3-0 when Jokinen scored his 12th of the season at 13:47. Miettinen controlled the puck deep in the Anaheim zone, carrying around the net and up the right-side boards before he quickly pivoted and fired a perfect cross-ice pass to Jokinen on the far side of the crease. Jokinen re-directed it past Giguere with his skate, prompting a video review, but since he didn't use a distinct kicking motion,' the goal was allowed to stand.

As with the first Stars' tally, Anaheim responded by playing their best hockey of the game, generating three straight power plays, including a 17-second 5-on-3, forcing Smith to be at his best for the remainder of the period. He made outstanding saves on Ryan Getzlaf's in-close backhander and on two Chris Pronger laser beam slap shots from the blue line in a 50-second span with about three minutes to go.

Teemu Selanne, who has four goals this season already against the Stars, ripped a slap shot from the left circle that Smith thwarted with 1:34 left in the period.

Despite not allowing a shot for the first half of the second, Dallas was still outshot 12-4 in the period, and was fortunate to escape to the intermission with a three-goal lead when the Ducks scored just after the final buzzer sounded. Perry skated out from behind the net into the right circle and fired a wrist shot that Chris Kunitz deflected up and over Smith's shoulder, but the puck entered the net a split-second too late.

"It was kind of a weird game for me, it just seemed like shots came in flurries," Smith said. "When they had the power plays there, it was pretty hard, four or five in a row, they hemmed you in your own end. They're a pretty good team with the puck. We weathered the storm there in the second, and we got a good two points."

The Stars got on the board first on Nagy's first goal (and point) as a Star off a nice set-up by rookie Loui Eriksson. With 6:57 gone in the first period, Eriksson carried the puck into the Ducks' zone, evaded a check into the boards from Anaheim defenseman Beauchemin, and then slid a nice pass into the slot, where it rebounded off Nagy's skate and in.

"I'm happy, it was a great pass from Loui, and I didn't have to do anything," said Nagy, who skated on a new line with Ribeiro and Eriksson. "It hit my skate, touched my tip of my stick and went in. We got a lot of chances after that, even though we didn't score, but it was good to have a lot of chances."

Anaheim came charging back after that and Smith had to turn away several prime scoring chances. Just 30 seconds after Dallas took the lead, Smith made a stellar kick save on Rob Niedermayer's point-blank shot from the slot. About 15 seconds after that, he denied Andy McDonald's quick wrister from the top of the face-off circles, and then about a minute later made a sprawling save on Selanne alone in close.

Those saves allowed the Stars to then take a two-goal lead right after that as Barch scored his second NHL goal at 10:14. Philippe Boucher unleashed his booming slap shot from the blue line and Barch, in the high slot, managed to get his stick on it, deflecting it past a screened Giguere.

"Just going to the net, just keeping your stick on the ice and hoping the puck hits it," Barch said of the goal.

Dallas dodged a bullet with 1:07 remaining in the first when Anaheim's Shawn Thornton hit the post with a backhander while staring at an open net. A slap shot from the right point sailed wide of the net, and Thornton, all alone to the left of the crease, had the open side of the goal to shoot at, but clanged it off the iron.

The Stars are right back on the ice with a Sunday afternoon matinee against Northwest Division-leading Vancouver (2:30pm, my27). The Canucks are already in town and their coaching staff were in attendance to scout the Ducks contest, so they are sure to be well-prepared.

Turco will probably start in goal for Dallas, giving the Stars two solid options now to choose from in net.

"Our goaltending has been excellent that last two games," Tippett said. "It's good to have those two guys playing well. If you go back to training camp, that's what we wanted, and right now, we have that."

STARGAZING

# Dan Ellis made 37 saves and stopped four of five shootout attempts, and Junior Lessard netted the deciding shootout tally, as the Iowa Stars defeated the Houston Aeros 3-2 Friday. Newcomer Shane Endicott and Chris Conner scored in regulation for Iowa (29-24-3-1), which knocked off Houston 3-2 on Thursday and moved into a fourth-place tie with Peoria.

# Lehtinen has now compiled seven 20-goal seasons in his career, all with the Stars, which is the third-most in franchise history. Only Modano (with 14) and Brian Bellows (10) have more. "His consistency is remarkable," Tippett said of Lehtinen. "He's one of the easiest players I've ever coached. He does the little things well and does everything that you ask of him."

# Jokinen's two point game gives him eight (two goals, six assists) in his last seven games.

# Eriksson's assist on Nagy's goal follows a stretch where he had just one assist in his previous 12 games.

# Ribeiro also earned an assist on Nagy's goal, marking his sixth point (three goals, three assists) in his last five contests.

# With his assist on Jokinen's goal, Miettinen now has three assists in last four games, after registering just two assists in his previous 14.

# Smith has now allowed just one goal in three meetings against the Ducks this season, stopping 62 of 63 shots he's faced in 139:41 of ice time. In his last five outings overall, Smith is 4-1-0 with a 1.15 goals-against average and a .957 save percentage, including one shutout.

# Anaheim had gone to overtime in each of their four previous games, going 2-2 in them, 1-1 in OT and 1-1 in a shootout.

yes, I'm a wing fan and I'm quit "worried" from what I saw lately