Western conference final: Awful refereeing gives Dallas a new life.

Tonight, game four of the Western conference final was presented and the Dallas Stars were down 0-3 in this series and were facing elimination. But the story of the game was the discussable quality of the referees.

For many reasons, the Detroit Red Wings have all the rights to blame the referees for their contribution to the Stars victory. During the first period, Dallas benefited of three straight man-advantages but were not able to convert on either of them. Then later in the period, a goal from Pavel Datsyuk was disallowed because the referee judged that Tomas Holmstrom was standing in the goaltender's crease. But it was clear on the replay that Holmstrom was not inside the blue paint.

Then late into the second period, after the referees equalized the penalties stats by calling three straight infractions to the home team, the Dallas Stars opened the score with a goal from Loui Eriksson.

The Red Wings tied the game at 1-1 during the first minute of the third period when Henrik Zetterberg scored his tenth goal of the playoffs. But Mike Modano scored the game-winner during a penalty to Brian Rafalski five minutes into the period. Brenden Morrow scored the insurance goal ten minutes later with his ninth goal of the playoffs.

Final score: Dallas Stars 3 - Detroit Red Wings 1 (Detroit leads the series by 3-1)

The ''first star of the game'' could be awarded to the referees. Their judgement was simply awful during the whole course of this game and their pitiful work should be the main topic tomorrow in Detroit.

Game five will be played at the Joe Louis Arena, Stars' goaltender Marty Turco is still looking for his first career victory in Detroit.

(Picture: Getty Images.)