DALLAS (AP) -- Jamie Langenbrunner bailed out the Dallas Stars with a goal when they needed it most.

The Stars recovered from a shell-shocked second period as Langenbrunner's goal broke a 3-3 tie with 17:08 remaining for a 4-3 victory over the Florida Panthers.

	Dallas Jamie Langenbrunner keeps the puck away from Florida's Bret Hedican on Friday. Langenbrunner scored the winning goal in the third period.

Florida rallied late in the second period for three goals over a span of 1:42, the fastest three goals in team history, after Dallas had built a 3-0 first-period lead.

But the Stars took the initiative early in the final period. Langenbrunner skated up the right side and fired a blast from the circle through the pads of Florida goaltender Mikhail Shtalenkov for his sixth goal of the season.

"In the second period we sat around and made it hard on ourselves," said Langenbrunner. "But between periods we had a chance to regroup and get our focus back. We rallied around our leaders and got back to our kind of game."

Dallas is 6-1-0 in its last seven games. Before Friday, Florida was 9-3-0 in its previous 12.

The Stars had their first three-goal lead since the regular-season opener on Oct. 1, driving starting goaltender Trevor Kidd to the bench at 12:37 after Mike Modano made it 3-0.

But Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock saw his team get away from its defensive-oriented style, and that's when the Panthers were able to climb back into the game.

"When you get a 3-0 lead, you start playing finesse, looking for the fourth," Hitchcock said. "We made a lot of soft plays on the puck in the second period and they have guys who can eat you up. We were really swimming in the second. But I thought we played great in the first and third periods. Actually the third was better than the first."

Sergei Zubov's 30-foot blast on the power play made it 1-0 at 4:10. Dallas hadn't scored in its previous 14 chances with a man advantage.

Joe Nieuwendyk added his seventh through a screen at 10:55. Modano scored his 10th on a backhander off a solo rush against Kidd, who hadn't allowed more than three goals in a game this season. Kidd was replaced by Shtalenkov, but defensive breakdowns were equally responsible for Dallas' fast start.

"Execution on our part is the area that's helped us to get success and we did not execute well defensively in the first 10 minutes," Florida coach Terry Murray said. "Dallas gets a couple of power plays to keep them on the attack and we were on our heels early."

Scott Mellanby got the second-period flurry started for the Panthers with his fifth goal at 17:14. Paul Laus followed 1:02 later with his first goal since Dec. 28, 1998, while a member of the New York Islanders.

Hitchcock pulled starting goaltender Manny Fernandez after the Laus goal, replacing Fernandez with Ed Belfour. The move didn't help, however, as Viktor Koslov notched the tying goal with 1:04 left in the second period, his fifth of the season.

"It was too bad about Fernandez," said Hitchcock of the goalie change. "It was less about Manny and more about (giving the team) a wakeup call."

Florida held a 14-3 shots-on-goal advantage in the second period, but the Panthers couldn't carry that second-period dominance into the final 20 minutes.

"We didn't parlay it into the third period because they came out pretty good, came back and got us on our heels again," Mellanby said.