DALLAS (Ticker) -- This may have been the game Mike Modano needed to snap out of his season-long slump.
Modano scored just his sixth goal and assisted on two others to lead the Dallas Stars to a 5-2 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes.
"I'm finally able to get something that I can build on. It gives me some confidence and makes you feel good as a player to get things pointed in the right direction," Modano said.
He got the Stars going 2:20 into the game with a power-play goal and Jason Arnott added another man-advantage tally - also his sixth - with 47 seconds left in the period for a 2-0 lead.
"We've stressed it before games all year. You're going to win a lot of games this way," added Modano. "We took advantage of opportunities when we had them."
Dallas converted on 3-of-7 power-play opportunities.
Dallas coach Dave Tippett assessed Modano's situation.
"He looks like he's got that jump again," Tippett said. "Whether it's confidence, or (Jere) Lehtinen beside him, he's around the puck a lot, and that's a good sign for us."
Defenseman Cale Hulse and Landon Wilson sandwiched goals for Phoenix around Steve Ott's tally in the first five minutes of the second period.
"On the road, late in the game, a team like Dallas is going to keep it simple," said Hulse, who scored his first goal of the season. "That makes it hard to get anything going."
Ott also scored his first goal of the season.
"I was lucky it was a big goal for my first," he said. "I was trying to get the legs going and get into a position to score. Three goals every night should be enough to win games. Three goals tonight was huge for us."
Lehtinen restored Dallas' two-goal lead with a power-play goal, his fourth, with 11 seconds to go in the period.
Stu Barnes scored his sixth goal into an empty net with 1:24 left in the third, as the Stars stretched their unbeaten streak against Phoenix to eight games (5-0-3).
"Everybody has got to stay focused and when they get the opportunity, be ready to go," Barnes said.
The Coyotes fell to 0-5-4-1 in their last 10 road games since a 2-1 win at Florida on October 15.
"We needed a big play at the right time and we didn't get it," goalie Sean Burke said. "We had a couple of unfortunate bounces on the power play. It's not like they dominated us."
Marty Turco stopped 20 shots for his eighth win of the season.
