Bang, bang, bang, bang. In rapid-fire fashion, the Detroit Red Wings sucked the remaining life out of the Dallas Stars' improbable playoff run.

The early barrage propelled Detroit to a 4-1 victory Monday night at American Airlines Center and into the Stanley Cup Finals, thanks to a more-difficult-than-expected 4-2 series win over the persistent Stars.

Game 6 was a microcosm of these Western Conference finals and the Stars' season. A standing-room-only crowd of 18,584 watched Dallas try to become only the sixth team in NHL history to lose the first three games of a series, then rally to force a Game 7.

But Detroit scored three times in the opening 16 minutes, and then took a 4-0 lead just three minutes into the second period. The Stars, backed by a raucous crowd, played fiercely in the third period, but managed only one goal.

"This is going to hurt for a while," said center Brad Richards, who joined the Stars in a Feb. 26 trade. "But it's going to be fun to start a new quest.

"I think it's going to be neat around here for a while, with the young core group that is going to be around. A lot of character in that group."

Despite the disappointment of coming out flat with a chance to even the series, neither the Stars nor the fans forgot the bigger picture.

The Stars entered the playoffs as the Western Conference's No. 5 seed. In the opening round, Dallas knocked off defending Stanley Cup champion Anaheim. In the second round, the Stars toppled No. 2 seed San Jose.

"We're headed in the right direction, and that's a key," said Brett Hull, who was elevated to interim co-general manager after the early-season firing of Doug Armstrong. "We have a lot of upset guys in there, and that's a very good thing, especially coming out of the right people."

Hull played on the Stars' 1999 Stanley Cup champion team, as well as Detroit's 2002 title team.

Monday's game was Dallas' 100th of the season, including 18 playoff games. Given the way this series started, few expected the Stars to be alive for Monday's first blast of summer-like weather.

"It shows the character we have," Hull said. "Like I said, we're going the right way. Take a page out of their [the Red Wings] book and build a team the way they have. That's how you do it."

Earlier in the series, owner Tom Hicks talked about how the Stars had reconnected with local hockey fans. Entering this season, the Stars had lost three straight first-round playoff series.

Hicks said that in order to break even financially, Dallas would have to reach the second round. Each home playoff game is worth about $2 million in revenue for the Stars, so the playoff run was a windfall on and off the ice.

"If you start looking at the benefits of that, TV ratings go up, you create new fans," Stars president Jeff Cogen said. "We've introduced a lot of people who hadn't seen us, and we've reconnected with a lot of people who used to be with us.

"It's our job to take this relative success and turn it into opportunity next year."

Staff writer Chuck Carlton contributed to this story.