ANAHEIM, Calif. – Teemu Selanne's exile from the Anaheim Ducks lineup was voluntary.

Jere Lehtinen's absence from the Stars was because of a pain in his gut.

Though they were sidelined for different reasons, the recent returns of the two Finns, who are friends, have lifted their respective teams.

The Stars' 4-2 victory Friday was Anaheim's first loss in six games since Selanne decided to end his 56-game retirement. The Stars are 7-1-0 with Lehtinen back.

"It's amazing how that guy took so much time off and is right up there," Lehtinen said before Friday's game.

Selanne said he believed he had played his final game after the Ducks won the Stanley Cup. The decision was puzzling. Even though Selanne was 36 at the time, he was fresh off a 48-goal season.

Lehtinen talked regularly with Selanne and, initially, also believed his friend was finished with hockey. As the season progressed, Selanne decided he missed hockey too much and returned.

So far, he looks as fast ever. The home fans gave him a standing ovation Friday night in his season debut at the Honda Center. There are the expected timing issues that come with not playing for eight months. Selanne hopes to be back to himself by the playoffs.

"It's a tough task for me and for our team to repeat what we did last year," Selanne said. "There's a lot of work ahead. I think we have all the tools we need."

Lehtinen played his eighth game since missing two months with an abdominal strain. His relatively quick recovery has been a plus. Similar injuries have sidelined players for a full season or longer.

"Everything went pretty well; no setbacks," said Lehtinen, who has two goals and five assists in his first eight games back. "I was pretty careful the first couple of weeks and then started rebabbing it."

Coach Dave Tippett has given Lehtinen a few practices off but has played him about 19 minutes a game, including back-to-backs.

"He's clicking right along," Tippett said.

Jokinen adjusting, scoring: Jussi Jokinen doesn't immediately come to mind when talking about Stars players who are having career seasons.

Despite missing 13 games with a sprained knee, Jokinen entered Friday's contest with 14 goals, just three short of the career high he set in 2005-06.

He's also coping with wearing a knee brace. He talked to teammates like Lehtinen and Mattias Norstrom, who told him it would be awful.

"It hasn't been as bad as I thought," said Jokinen, who admitted it still hasn't become second nature.

The more things change: After the Stars saw their seven-game winning streak snapped Thursday at Phoenix, Mike Modano summed up the team's troubles in the 5-2 loss.

If you were unaware of the context, the quote sounded eerily similar to what Stars personnel was saying back in the late 1990s, during the Ken Hitchcock Era.

"More nights than not, skill isn't going to win us a lot of games," Modano said. "In order to win, everybody has to play at such a high level and play well and be disciplined. A lot of things go in to us being successful."

Briefly: The Stars' Brad Winchester and Joel Lundqvist were healthy scratches Friday.