GLENDALE, Arizona - Mix a little luck with a few good plays and some desperation, and the Stars came out of the Glendale Arena on Saturday night a different team.

After a 5-3 win over the Phoenix Coyotes, there wasn't near the depression of the past week, there wasn't near the negativity, and there wasn't near the frustration.

"We needed this," center Stu Barnes said. "It was big for the whole team, because you had scoring spread around, you had big plays spread around, you had everyone in the lineup contributing. And when you can do that, it's a big win."

The Stars received goals from superstars Mike Modano and Sergei Zubov and goals from role players Barnes and Niko Kapanen (who scored his first in almost two calendar years).

Backup goalie Johan Hedberg overcame a shaky start to get his second win against no losses. And Stephane Robidas and Jaroslav Svoboda stepped up in place of an injured Bill Guerin (back spasms) and played some of their best hockey this year.

"It was a good team win all around," Stars coach Dave Tippett said.

Dallas overcame deficits of 2-0 and 3-1 and finally received the lucky break they've been missing for most of the season. Fifty-eight seconds into the third period, Zubov gloved a puck out of the air in the neutral zone, skated in over the blue line and flipped a wrister on net from about 60 feet away. The puck skittered past Phoenix goalie Curtis Joseph and tied the game 3-3.

"It seems like the other teams have been getting breaks like that, and sometimes you need a little push like that to get over the hump," Tippett said.

But, mostly, the Stars made their breaks. Barnes' opening goal, for instance, was a masterpiece of puck handling and patience. Svoboda, who had rotated back to play the point while a defenseman pinched forward, kept a puck in the offensive zone with an outstanding effort. Barnes picked up the puck and then beat a defender, drew Joseph out and flipped a wrister between his legs to give the Stars new life after Phoenix had taken a 2-0 lead.

Modano's goal was equally game-changing. The Stars had played a wonderful second period, yet still had allowed Phoenix to stretch its lead to 3-1. After a 5-on-3 power play fizzled, and with the one-man advantage starting to run down, Modano took a tic-tac-toe pass from Jason Arnott, stopped the puck with his forehand and then swept it in with his backhand. The quickness of Modano's move made it one of the more fascinating goals of the season.

"You look for your great players to make great plays, and that was as good a backhand as you will see," Tippett said.

The goal was Modano's fourth of the year and his team-leading 12th point.

That gave the Stars momentum heading into the third period, and then Zubov seemed to change everything with his prayer of a shot.

Tied 3-3, the Stars received the winner nine minutes later on a hard-working shift by a makeshift line. Robidas, normally a defenseman, moved up to right wing to take some of Guerin's minutes, while Kapanen gobbled up the extra responsibility and made the most of it. Kapanen, this time, made a heads-up play to keep a puck onside and Robidas absorbed a monster hit trying to play the puck. Robidas drew Phoenix defenseman Derek Morris out of position, and when he did, Antti Miettinen forced a turnover in the slot that Kapanen turned into the game-winner.

But the excitement wasn't over yet. Hedberg bobbled a few pucks in the second period and was forced to scramble for much of the game.

"Scramble is the right word," Hedberg said. "It was a weird game. There were a lot of shots where I didn't have a clue where they were. But we stayed in the game and fought, and it paid off for us."

The Stars even had to kill a late penalty, and pulled that off. In a previous loss to Edmonton, the late penalty killed the team.

"That was huge," Hedberg said. "Three minutes left in the game and I thought their PP was pretty good tonight - and I don't think they even got a shot through. Everybody showed a lot of urgency and heart and showed how much this game meant to us."

It meant a lot. The team had lost three of four and was starting to question itself on every possible topic. Now, they finish an uneven October at 6-4-1 with a positive feeling about where they could be headed.

"There was pressure," Tippett said of the chance for another loss. "But you now look at guys like Barnes and Kapanen and Svoboda and Robidas, we had some guys who seized the opportunity and really played well. There's a lot of positives there."

Briefly: The Stars wore their alternate sweaters for the second of eight times this season, and Stars captain Mike Modano said he wasn't feeling too good about them when the team was down, 2-0, 10 minutes into the game. "We needed to come back. If not, just take those jerseys and have a ceremonial burning down at city hall," Modano said ... Kapanen's last goal came Nov. 2, 2003. This was his seventh in 169 games with the Stars ... Jere Lehtinen added an empty-netter, his team-leading seventh goal of the season ... The Stars won 44-of-63 face-offs. Modano won 19-of-25 ... Dallas had a season-high 41 shots on goal.

E-mail mheika@dallasnews.com