They're ready to eliminate the Dallas Stars today in Game 5 and earn a spot in the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since winning a title in 2002.

"We want to finish them off as soon as we can," Detroit forward Tomas Holmstrom said Friday. "We want to take care of it right away.

"Otherwise, we would be stupid."

The Stars, of course, hope to ruin the Red Wings' plans.

"This is huge," Dallas goaltender Marty Turco said. "They don't want to bring it back here for a Game 6, obviously, and we don't want to die."

Detroit set a franchise record by winning nine straight games in a postseason before losing 3-1 Wednesday night in Dallas.

The Red Wings will be without their best playoff performer, center Johan Franzen, who will miss his fourth straight game with concussion-like symptoms. Franzen has been cleared for light workouts off the ice but does not appear to be close to returning to the ice.

The Stars have four banged-up players out for Game 5: Stu Barnes, Jere Lehtinen, Philippe Boucher and Mark Fistric.

Franzen leads the NHL with 12 playoff goals, but Detroit still has plenty of firepower without him in Henrik Zetterberg (19 playoff points) and Pavel Datsyuk (18).