EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) -- It took the NHL playoffs for Dallas Stars forward Benoit Hogue to come up with the heroics.
Hogue scored twice Wednesday night -- including his second consecutive game-winning goal -- as Dallas dumped the Edmonton Oilers 3-1.
"Benoit has been phenomenal," said Stars center Mike Modano, who has been held scoreless in the series. "That's what you need, a sleeper to come in and really step up.
"And in the last two games he has had key goals, which has taken the pressure off me and a few of us other guys who are looked upon to score."
Dallas holds a commanding 3-1 series lead in its best-of-7 Western Conference semifinal. Game 5 is in Dallas on Saturday.
Hogue, who now has four playoff goals, sealed the win for Dallas at 11:45 of the third period. He beat Edmonton goaltender Curtis Joseph high on the stick side with a wicked drive from the top of the faceoff circle.
"I was surprised it went in," said a beaming Hogue, who scored the winner in overtime in Game 3. "You never expect to get two game-winners on the road. Some great things are happening to me and I'm enjoying it.
"I have had a lot of ice time. ... The more ice time you get, the more confidence you get. I just hope nothing stops it."
Joseph had little chance on the shot as Oilers defenseman Greg DeVries screened the Edmonton goaltender.
"It's what we wanted, to go back home 3-1," said Hogue. "We're in a good situation right now and we have to make the most of it."
The Oilers did come back from a 3-1 series deficit in the opening round against the Colorado Avalanche. But heading to Dallas to face the determined and defensive Stars poses a much bigger challenge for Edmonton.
Brian Skrudland said the team planned to savor the win for a short while, but it had to avoid falling victim to overconfidence.
"We're going to talk about not coming back to Edmonton," said Skrudland. "We know they're a proud bunch. They believe because they've done it before."
Dallas had 31 shots and a 2-1 lead in the first two periods of Game 4. And without the heroics of Joseph, the Oilers would have found themselves trailing by more than a goal in the hard-hitting, freewheeling game.
Edmonton center Doug Weight said the Oilers are thinking too much and not just playing the game.
"We've got to go back into Dallas with confidence," he said. "We won the last one there (Game 2) and we're going to try to take one at a time.
"It's going to be the same as against Colorado ... Down 3-1 against a good team. It's going to be difficult."
Dallas took a 2-1 lead at 14:52 of the second period when Hogue beat Joseph on a breakaway.
Oilers defenseman Janne Niinimaa strayed deep into Dallas' end and got caught on a quick up-ice pass to Hogue from defenseman Derian Hatcher. Hogue ripped a shot under the arm of Joseph, quieting the rowdy sellout crowd of 17,099.
Dallas veteran Guy Carbonneau scored his first goal of the playoffs at 8:46 of the opening period. He rifled a low shot past Joseph for a short-lived 1-0 lead.
Edmonton's Scott Fraser struck back 97 seconds later when his quick shot from the high slot handcuffed Dallas goalie Ed Belfour. It was Fraser's first of the postseason.
#3 DETROIT RED WINGS vs #4 ST. LOUIS BLUES
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Sergei Fedorov, who stands to get a $12 million check if the Detroit Red Wings make it to the Western Conference finals, showed he was a money player.Fedorov had two goals and an assist in the third period Thursday night, helping Detroit pull away for a 5-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues and a 3-1 series lead. The Red Wings are a game away from finishing off the Blues for the third straight year in the playoffs.
"He's definitely a game-breaker, there's no doubt about that," said Kris Draper, who assisted on Fedorov's short-handed goal in the third. "It's exciting to see Sergei get the puck in open ice."
Brendan Shanahan and Joey Kocur added goals for Detroit and Draper had two assists. The Red Wings, who won the third game 3-2 in double overtime, swept the two games in St. Louis. They can end the series in Game 5 at home on Sunday.
"It looks like an insurmountable task, especially the way Detroit's playing," Blues coach Joel Quenneville said. "But you can't look at the broad picture.
"You've got to look at the short-term picture."
It took the Red Wings six games to eliminate the Blues in the first round last season and seven games two years ago in the second round. They're not counting on a quick finish this year.
"Nothing is over until it's over," Fedorov said. "It's a famous phrase out there on TV."
Special teams hurt the Blues, who were 0-for-6 on the power play and gave up a short-handed goal. Another blah game from Brett Hull, who has one goal and only 13 shots in the series, also hurt.
Hull, who can be an unrestricted free agent after the season, was booed a couple of times near the end of what could be his final home game in St. Louis.
"In Game 1, I had the game-winner, and since then it's been a blank," Hull said. "I've got to take a lot of the responsibility. It's just a struggle out there right now for me."
The Blues, once down 2-0, tied it with 6.4 seconds left in the second period when Pierre Turgeon scored on a 3-on-2 break. Turgeon faked Chris Osgood out of position with a backhand move and then got his fourth goal of the playoffs on a shot to the wide side.
"That kind of shook us and woke us back up," Shanahan said. "We all realized we weren't playing good hockey. We'd gotten away from that."
It didn't take the Red Wings long to answer on Slava Kozlov's third goal of the playoffs at 1:12 of the third. Fedorov set up the play with a pass to Tomas Holmstrom while sitting on the ice and surrounded by two Blues players, and Kozlov scored on a quick shot.
Fedorov got loose for a short-handed goal -- his seventh of the playoffs -- to make it 4-2 at 8:05 of the third. He tacked on an empty net goal with 45.2 seconds to go for his eighth of the playoffs, matching his total from last year's Stanley Cup run.
A sellout crowd of 20,681, the largest of the season at the Kiel Center, tried to rattle Osgood by chanting his name from the opening faceoff. But the Blues' only consistent pressure came in the second period, when they scored twice and nearly had a third goal.
Shanahan, the former Blues star who got the game-winner in the second overtime in Game 3, started the scoring in Game 4 with an improbable power-play goal. Shanahan was almost even with the end line when he somehow rifled a shot past Grant Fuhr at 9:20 of the first period.
"It was a bad goal," Fuhr said. "There were probably a couple of them that I should have had. But there's nothing I can do about it now."
Kocur emerged from the penalty box after being sent off for high-sticking and skated in alone on Fuhr, scoring his third goal of the playoffs at 54 seconds of the second to put Detroit up 2-0.
The Blues answered 22 seconds later when Jim Campbell shoveled the rebound of his own shot past Osgood for his sixth goal of the playoffs. The Blues nearly scored at the 16-minute mark when Craig Conroy's backhander deflected off Pavol Demitra's stick, Osgood's helmet and the goal post.
