Get ready for flying forwards, sailing octopi and all those transplanted Michiganders wearing Detroit Red Wings jerseys.

With their quadruple-overtime 2-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks in Game 6, the Dallas Stars have advanced to the Western Conference finals.

Their opponent will be Detroit, the bitter rival the Dallas Stars last faced in the playoffs 10 years ago in another West final. The Red Wings swept Colorado, stopping the Avalanche, 8-2, in Game 4 on Thursday.

Some of the names are familiar even a decade later. Mike Modano, Jere Lehtinen and Sergei Zubov have important roles for the Stars just like they did then. Detroit defenseman Niklas Lidstrom has won five Norris Trophies since then as the league’s top defenseman. Goaltender Chris Osgood, who allowed Jamie Langenbrunner to score a winning shot from center ice in Game 5 of their 1998 playoff series, has taken over for Dominik Hasek as Detroit’s starter.

“A little bit of history there but a lot of new faces, and we’re in a new situation now,” Modano said. “That was probably the beginning of everything for us, that conference final against them. That was the beginning of a lot of success for us … They are just as good now as they were then.”

Back then, Detroit defeated the Stars in six games and went on to beat the Washington Capitals in the Stanley Cup finals. The Stars rebounded the next season to claim the 1999 Stanley Cup championship.

Detroit, which finished the regular season with a league best 115 points, will undoubtedly be favored.

That’s fine with the Stars, who seem to be relishing their underdog status.

“Nobody gave us a chance against Anaheim, and nobody gave us a chance against San Jose,” Stars coach Dave Tippett said. “The guys in there just believe in each other.”

Expect the early spotlight to be on Stars goaltender Marty Turco and the Red Wings' skilled young forwards.

“We saw the last series was tough,” Turco said. “This is going to be even tougher.”

Turco is 2-10-5 against the Red Wings and hasn’t won at Joe Louis Arena since his college days, when he was wearing Michigan’s maize-and-blue.

One of Turco’s two wins came this season, a 1-0 shutout at the American Airlines Center.

“That's one team that's had my number,” Turco said at the time. “It's going to take a while to catch up, but that's my goal."

Two of the reasons why Turco – and for that matter nearly the entire NHL – has struggled against the Red Wings are forwards Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg. The two have combined for 74 goals and 189 points this season.

Their skill and puck possession will present an extreme matchup for the Stars' young defensemen. Detroit won three of the four head-to-head meetings this season, outscoring the Stars, 12-5.

Zetterberg has three goals and 21 point in 18 career games against the Stars. Datsyuk has been similarly productive, with nine goals and 19 points in 19 games.

"When you watch Zetterberg and Datsyuk go out there and dominate the game, that's frustrating," Tippett said after a 5-3 loss in Detroit on March 13. "These guys are setting the bar for the Western Conference, so we better raise our bar. We better raise our bar, or we're in trouble."

If the Stars didn’t have enough to worry about, 6-3, 220-pound Johan Franzen had nine goals in four games against Colorado, breaking a long-standing record held by Gordie Howe.