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DALLAS (AP) -- Sergei Zubov wasn't looking for a pretty goal, just a big one.

The Dallas defenseman scored the tiebreaking goal from outside the blue line with 3:07 left and the Stars rallied from two goals down in the third period to beat the Ottawa Senators 5-3 Wednesday night.

Zubov dumped the puck toward the Ottawa net from midway between the red and blue lines, and goaltender Patrick Lalime fumbled the puck, which skittered toward the goal line.

Bill Guerin skated to the net to try to tap the puck over the line and was originally credited with the goal. But replays showed Ottawa defenseman Brian Polthier's stick actually sent the puck over the line and, after the game, the official scorer credited Zubov with his sixth goal.

"I was just trying to put it on net and hope for a rebound," Zubov said. "We had two guys going (to the net), so hopefully it would come out and we'd get a shot at the rebound."

Scott Young added an insurance goal from the left circle 74 seconds later, giving Dallas a 5-3 edge.

Mike Modano and Pierre Turgeon had goals in a 65-second span early in the third period to pull the Stars even at 3.

"Especially on the road, you get a two-goal lead and you know they're going to come back," Lalime said. "But what am I going to say, it's bad to lose that way."

Martin Havlat and Wade Redden had second-period goals during a five-minute power play, and Peter Schaefer added a short-handed tally later in the same period to give the Senators a 3-1 lead.

But Modano got a power-play goal from the right circle at 1:56 of the third period, then Turgeon backhanded a rebound into an open net at 3:01 to tie it.

Modano broke a streak of nine games without a goal and gave his team a spark.

"That lifted everybody for the rest of the game," Young said.

The Senators are 14-3-4 in their last 21 games.

Dallas is 11-4-5 over its last 20 games.

The Stars got the only goal of the first period on David Oliver's fourth of the season at 3:23.

Ottawa got a five-minute power play early in the second period when Dallas' Steve Ott received a major penalty for charging.

Ott plowed into Senators defenseman Curtis Leschyshyn along the boards, and Leschyshyn left for the night with a cut on his forehead that required 22 stitches. Ott also received a game misconduct for the hit.

"It was a little excessive," Leschyshyn said of Ott's check.

The Senators cashed in on the power play for the first time at 2:32 when Radek Bonk's centering pass went into the net off Havlat's skate. Ottawa took a 2-1 lead 3:02 later when Redden got his 12th goal from the slot.

Schaefer added his 12th at 12:05 of the second period while the Stars were on a power play. Schaefer skated alone into the Dallas zone, and Stars goaltender Marty Turco skated out to the middle of the right circle to play the puck.

Schaefer got there first, chipping the puck over the fallen goaltender and into the net.

Dallas responded with its first four-goal period of the season.

"The second period, their power play wore us down," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "But in the third period our team found a way to score enough to win."

Ottawa coach Jacques Martin felt his team let down after building its two-goal lead.

"It's surprising, but in some ways no, because after we took the lead in the second period I didn't think we were very good," Martin said. "I think we tried to be too fancy and gave them some good chances."

Game notes

Young returned to the lineup after missing the previous five games with back spasms. ... Ottawa has at least one power-play goal in 12 of its last 13 games. ... The teams played each other for the only time this season.