DALLAS — Three games into the Western Conference finals, the fifth-seeded Dallas Stars sure look like overachievers who are just lucky to be here.

Not even being back home could help them.

Pavel Datsyuk got the first hat trick of his career and Henrik Zetterberg added two assists and a devastating short-handed goal, leading the Detroit Red Wings past the Stars 5-2 Monday night and to the brink of the Stanley Cup finals.

Detroit leads the series 3-0 going into Game 4 Wednesday night. As much as Dallas would like to win, just getting a lead would be nice. The Stars haven’t even managed that in 180 minutes so far.

“Are they beatable? Yeah, but we have to play a lot better than we are,” Dallas captain Brenden Morrow said. “We can’t give Datsyuk point-blank chances, turning pucks over, not being strong in the corners and leaving (goaltender Marty Turco) out to dry. We’re not going to get too many opportunities because they don’t make a whole lot of mistakes.”

That’s an understatement.

The Red Wings won their ninth straight playoff game, the best streak in a single season in their franchise’s proud history. It’s also the longest in the NHL since Montreal won 11 in a row on its way to winning the Stanley Cup in 1993.

They’ve also done it without Johan Franzen playing the last two games because of concussion-like symptoms. All Franzen has done of late is score 27 goals in his last 27 games, including an NHL-best 12 this postseason.

“It shows we have a lot of depth,” Zetterberg said. “We have four lines that really can play in all situations. The longer the game goes, the more advantage for us it is.”

Franzen might have plenty of time to rest up. Detroit goes into Game 4 on Wednesday night with the chance to skate into the Cup finals for the fourth time in 11 seasons.

“There’s a lot of experience in here,” center Kris Draper said. “We’re not getting caught up in the little things. We have a chance to eliminate a great hockey team. We have to get focused and be ready to play a great game Wednesday night.”

As promised, Detroit players came out more focused on the scoreboard than settling a score with Mike Ribeiro for his two-handed baseball swing of his stick into the chest of Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood as Game 2 ended. Ribeiro was ticked off that Osgood popped him in the chops with the handle of his stick. The league fined both players, but neither was suspended.

Instead, the early energy came from the Stars being home, where they’d won four of their last five games, the last one coming in quadruple-overtime against San Jose to end the previous round.

Dallas responded with strong play early, but couldn’t get the puck past Osgood. Then Datsyuk beat Turco midway through the opening period — and again later in the period, just 37 seconds after the Stars tied it.

Dallas tied it at 2 on a goal that actually was a pass redirected by a defenseman’s skate. The Red Wings shrugged it off, though, going back ahead for good when Jiri Hudler corralled a long outlet pass from Niklas Kronvall, skated right at Turco and beat him with a backhanded shot. The Stars had a good chance to tie it yet again when they got a power play 18 seconds into the third period, but Zetterberg wound up being the one to score.

Then Datsyuk capped the scoring with his third goal. Funny thing is, he’s gotten into the habit of scoring a lot in the playoff games he scores in; he’s had multiple goals in four of the last five postseason games in which he’s scored. But this was his first three-goal effort in 518 career NHL games.

“His lowest level is really high,” Zetterberg said. “He plays real good for us night-in and night-out. You know you can really trust him because he will play good offense and good defense for us every time he is out there.”

Now Dallas is facing the long odds of trying to wipe out an 0-3 deficit, something that’s happened only three times in NHL history.

“We tried to clean up the execution but it wasn’t there,” said Mike Modano, who set up Dallas’ first goal. “Breakdowns here and there you can’t afford against those guys. You pretty much need to play a mistake-free game.”

Turco fell to 2-4-3 against Detroit at home and 2-13-5 against the Red Wings overall. He blamed himself for the team getting stomped.

“I don’t feel I’ve given our guys enough of a chance to win,” Turco said. “But it’s a seven-game series so we’ll see what happens.”

Notes: Dallas was missing all-around star Jere Lehtinen from its top line because of a leg injury. Steve Ott filled in most of the time. ... Detroit has led after the first period in 11 of its 13 playoff games. ... Modano went to the dressing room with 2:48 left in the second period, but returned after intermission. Morrow went in after twisting his arm on a hard hit midway through the third, but he also returned. ... The Red Wings won 11 straight postseason games over the 1952 and ’53 postseasons, then matched it in 1998 and ’99. ... Ribeiro took just one shot in 24:30 and went 0-for-2 on faceoffs.