DETROIT — Nicklas Lidstrom has seen the Detroit Red Wings at their best, helping them win three Stanley Cups in a six-year stretch.

After Detroit drilled the Dallas Stars 4-1 in the Western Conference finals opener for its seventh straight win, Lidstrom said the Red Wings are as dominant as ever.

"I think it's very comparable to some of the teams we had back in the '90s," the five-time Norris Trophy winner said Thursday night.

It didn't take long to see the Red Wings were still rolling, not rusty, playing for the first time since sweeping the Colorado Avalanche.

"It's been a week and we were really anxious to get back into playing," Lidstrom said. "Keeping a lot of focus on that and talking a lot about it I think really helped the team to set the tone early on."

Power plays helped, too.

Johan Franzen, Brian Rafalski and Tomas Holmstrom took advantage of Dallas' penalty-filled start, helping the Red Wings lead by four goals in the second period.

The Stars couldn't recover.

They simply looked tired.

Dallas advanced past the San Jose Sharks in one of the longest games in NHL history — ending Monday morning in a fourth overtime — after playing three other OT games.

Turco took the brunt of that as Detroit scored on two of its first seven shots.

"Whether it's fatigue or whatever, we just weren't at the level we needed to be," coach Dave Tippett said.

After Valtteri Filppula put the top-seeded Red Wings ahead 4-0, Brenden Morrow scored with a minute left in the second period to prevent the fifth-seeded Stars from getting shut out.