ANAHEIM, Calif. – It would be easy to single out the line of Brenden Morrow, Mike Ribeiro and Jere Lehtinen for its role in a 5-0 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Monday.

After all, the trio kept up its meteoric scoring pace by finding the net three times, giving it 17 of the team's last 23 goals.

But to say the Ribeiro line dominated the contest would be to miss out on the beauty and simplicity of a team game that featured some of the best individual performances of the season.

Rookie Matt Niskanen and veteran Sergei Zubov were nearly flawless, playing off of each other and artfully dodging the Ducks' forecheck. Marty Turco made some big stops early and seemed at ease in goal while stopping 19 shots for the shutout.

The second line of Jussi Jokinen, Mike Modano and Chris Conner created several scoring opportunities, and the fourth line of Todd Fedoruk, Steve Ott and Krys Barch answered the physical bell against a tough Ducks team that last season led the NHL in fighting majors.

Mix in the most physical game of the year by defenseman Mattias Norstrom and another great penalty-killing night for Niklas Hagman, and you have as close to perfect as you could ask.

The only thing that was missing was Modano tying the record for points by an American-born player. Modano was held off of the scoresheet, so his pursuit of Phil Housley's 1,232 points (he's one point short) will resume Wednesday, when the Stars play at San Jose.

But nobody seemed to mind that one missing detail.

AP

The Dallas Stars celebrate a goal by Jere Lehtinen (second from right) in the first period.

Instead, the focus was on a team that broke a three-game losing streak, one that marched into the house of the defending Stanley Cup champions and dominated. Dallas has won two games this season against the Ducks, three in a row and five of the last six. The one loss in that run came in overtime.

Monday's performance was what the team needed to shake off a funk that was weighing heavy on every player.

"It was the kind of game we needed, because we had been searching for our identity," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "We played a hard-checking game, we were good in our own end, and that led to some scoring opportunities."

Dallas actually built from some of the positives of its 5-0 loss to Phoenix on Friday at home. The Stars showed some of the same great chemistry in the lines and also created some impressive scoring chances, but they did it out of a system that stressed defense first.

"The last game, we had some good chances, but we cheated too much," said Lehtinen, who had a goal and two assists. "This game, we created our chances off of our defense. We played well first in our own zone."

That good play started with Turco, who had 11 saves in the first period and finished with 19 for the game. He stretched his franchise record for career shutouts to 31.

"They were timely saves," Tippett said. "That's what you need – timely saves."

The timely goals didn't hurt, either. Ribeiro scored with 24 seconds left in the first period. Lehtinen scored with 3.6 seconds left in the second. Those goals proved to be back-breakers for the Ducks, who had won their two previous games and were 5-2-1 at home before Monday.