DETROIT – In the theater of sports, the Dallas Stars are ready for their close-up.

Fresh from Saturday's 2-1 defeat of the Detroit Red Wings, they bring the Western Conference finals of the Stanley Cup playoffs back to American Airlines Center on Monday for an unlikely Game 6.

The Stars, trying to win a third consecutive playoff series as the underdog, have given North Texas some postseason excitement it has not seen in years.

"It's overdue," said Tommy Hicks, vice president of Hicks Sports Group and the son of owner Tom Hicks.

Before this season, the Stars had exited the playoffs in the first round for three straight years. The Cowboys have lost first-round playoff games two years running. The Mavericks followed their meltdown in the 2006 NBA Finals with two first-round exits. And the Texas Rangers, also part of the Hicks Sports Group, haven't played a playoff game in this century.

"Dallas has needed something with their sports teams," Stars captain Brenden Morrow said Saturday.

The Stars had trailed this series 3-0 to Detroit, which had the league's best regular-season record and had swept its previous playoff opponent.

Of the 153 National Hockey League best-of-seven playoff series in which a team built a 3-0 lead, 92 percent have ended within five games. Only five have made it to seven games. Only two have seen the trailing team rally to win the series.

"We expect a lot of excitement [on Monday], and it's up to us to give them something to cheer about," Morrow said.

The Stars certainly have made for good theater. After taking a 3-0 series lead in the second round against San Jose, the Stars staggered briefly and needed six games in all to advance to the conference finals.

They're now adopting the numerical oddity that San Jose leaned on during its attempted comeback: Thirty-three years separated the only successful 3-0 NHL comebacks – by the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs and the 1975 New York Islanders – and it has been 33 years since the Islanders' feat.

"We like that 33-year thing," Stars forward Steve Ott said. "Why can't that be us?"

The Stars needed a four-overtime victory that ended at 1:24 a.m. to eliminate San Jose. That revived Stars fans who had been awaiting a rebirth of playoff success since the team won the Stanley Cup in 1999 and returned to the NHL Finals in 2000.

"I think a lot of people fell in love with this team then," said Tommy Hicks. "And the thing is, this is an easy team to love. They work so hard, and they have so much character. They're just never going to give up."

But all of the good seemed to be tempered when Detroit, the most hated rival for many Stars fans, won the series' first three games. Stars fans seemed resigned to calling this a good season and moving on with the hope that a core of young players would continue to improve.

But Dallas fought for a 3-1 win in Game 4 at AAC on Wednesday, then returned to Detroit – where Stars goalie Marty Turco had never beaten the Red Wings – and prevailed.

A victory Monday night would force a seventh game in Detroit.

"I think it's going to be unbelievable," Stars coach Dave Tippett said of Monday night's game. "I thought it was the loudest I'd ever heard it last game [in Dallas], and I think there will be even more energy this time.

"That's why it's great, not just for the players, but for the fans," he said. "There are a lot of people who get swept up in the emotion of this, and it makes it a fascinating time."