Marty Turco picked the perfect time for his first NHL victory at Joe Louis Arena. Turco made 38 saves to lift the Dallas Stars to a 2-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday in Game 5, extending the Western Conference finals.
"It's probably the best I've felt in this building ever," he said.
Trevor Daley scored in the first period and Joel Lundqvist had a go-ahead goal in the second to help the Stars pull to 3-2 in the series after losing the first three games.
Game 6 is Monday night in Dallas. If necessary, the final game will be Wednesday night in Detroit.
Turco had been 0-9-2 as a pro at The Joe after starring in college at Michigan. While in goal for the Wolverines, he was 18-5 in the arena.
Turco seemed to build confidence after turning away Dan Cleary's shot about a minute into the game.
"It was Marty's night," Daley said. "He was a special player and basically won that game for us."
Detroit's Jiri Hudler scored late in the first period, but that was the only shot the NHL's top-seeded team got past Turco in its 27 shots through two periods.
"We had lots of shots on net and we missed the net 19 more times," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "And we had three quality chances that we didn't even get a shot on net."
Chris Osgood made 19 saves for the Red Wings after helping Detroit win a franchise-record nine straight playoff games before losing 3-1 Wednesday night in Dallas.
The Western Conference finals are starting to look like the Stars' previous matchup in the playoffs, but they hope to stop the similarities soon.
Dallas won the first three games in the second round against the San Jose Sharks before they rallied with two straight wins. The Stars put San Jose away in the fourth overtime of Game 6.
Detroit was 7-0 at home in the playoffs, outscoring opponents 24-10.
The Red Wings were without center Johan Franzen for the fourth straight game because of concussionlike symptoms. Franzen, who has been cleared for light workouts off the ice, leads the NHL with 12 playoff goals that broke a team single-postseason record.
