Dallas beats Detroit to stay alive

DALLAS (Reuters) - The Dallas Stars staved off elimination in the best-of-seven Western Conference finals by beating the Detroit Red Wings 3-1 on Wednesday.

The Stars, who lost the first three games of the series, used third-period goals from Mike Modano and Brenden Morrow to snap a 1-1 tie and keep their Stanley Cup hopes alive.

The series goes back to Detroit for Game Five on Saturday with the Red Wings needing one more win to advance to the finals against the winner of the Eastern Conference series between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers.

The Penguins lead the Flyers 3-0 with the fourth game on Thursday in Philadelphia.

Dallas took their first lead of the series when Loui Eriksson swept a rebound of a Stephane Robidas shot past Detroit goalie Chris Osgood with just 22.7 seconds left in the second period.

The lead was short-lived, however, as Henrik Zetterberg blasted in an equalizer less than a minute into the third period.

"When they scored 50 seconds into the third, you start to think 'Oh no, here we go again'," Morrow told reporters. "But we were mentally tough, got out and took advantage of the power play and got a couple of breaks."

TRIPPING PENALTY

A tripping penalty against Brian Rafalski set the stage for the Stars and they cashed in when Sergei Zubov fed Modina, who one-timed the puck past Osgood at the 5:35 mark.

Morrow provided a cushion when he beat Osgood with five minutes 26 seconds left in the game.

Detroit appeared to have scored the opening goal in the second period on a drive by Pavel Datsyuk that got past Marty Turco who was screened by Tomas Holmstrom.

The referee, however, disallowed the goal, ruling goaltender interference against Holmstrom for straying into the blue paint area in front of the net. Video replays indicated Holmstrom was positioned outside the blue.

"The guy's not in the paint," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "The guy's out of the paint. It's disappointing."

"He's a good referee. He just blew the call. That's life."

Dallas coach Dave Tippett said an earlier Detroit goal in the series should have been disallowed for the same reason.

"Those are things that happen during a game," Tippett said. "Some bounces go for you, some go against you."

Babcock said the Wings had their chances.

"We didn't shoot the puck in the net," said Babcock, whose team outshot the Stars 34-22. "We had every opportunity in the world to score and we didn't. The goalie was good and they were desperate."

(Writing by Larry Fine in New York; Editing by Ed Osmond)