The Red Wings took one minor penalty and gave the Stars, who entered the game ranked fourth in the NHL on the power play at 29.6 percent, 51 seconds with the extra man. They finished strong after the Bertuzzi goal, keeping the puck in the Dallas end.
"Once we got the lead, I thought we played with confidence and poise," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "And for a team that hasn't won nearly enough, I think that's a great sign."
Smith gave the Stars a 1-0 lead at 11:44 of the first period. Mantha tied it 1-1 at 4:44 of the second with his first goal in nine games.
"A goal for Anthony's a big goal," Blashill said. "He's a guy who prides himself on being an offensive player, and it's hard to have tons of confidence if you don't produce. I don't like them to think about production. I like them to think about their process and their play, but the reality is, when you score and when you produce, you gain confidence in yourself."
Bertuzzi's goal was an example of creating your own luck.
"Ben Bishop plays the puck great," Blashill said. "We talked about keeping the puck away from him. One of the things that's important in that is when the [defenseman] goes to put it in, they've got to get up off the glass. You have to. And Kronwall did that. Certainly, we weren't saying get it off the glass and then you'll get lucky, you'll get the goal in front of the net. But I just think you get rewarded when you do things right."
Ericsson extended the lead to 3-1 at 9:20 of the third period. It was Detroit's first two-goal lead of the season.
"We were just slow," Stars coach Jim Montgomery said. "We were slow thinking, we were slow skating, and it led to a poor performance."
Faksa cut it to 3-2 with 37 seconds left and Bishop pulled for an extra attacker, but Abdelkader scored into an empty net with 24 seconds left to make it 4-2.
"Felt pretty good," Bernier said. "Sometimes you forget how good it feels to win, so I think everyone's going to sleep well tonight."
