Stars 4, Blues 1

DALLAS (AP) -The Dallas Stars signed Eric Lindros to a free-agent contract over the summer to put the puck in the net. After acting as an effective setup man, the big winger finally flashed that ability Wednesday night.

Lindros scored two goals, Mike Modano added a goal and an assist and the Stars beat the St. Louis Blues 4-1 to get off to the best start in franchise history.

Lindros had seven assists in his first 11 games in a Stars uniform, but only one goal. Against St. Louis, he used his 6-foot-4, 240-pound frame to score once on a deflection and a second from close range.

"Eric is a hard guy to contain when he's playing like he played tonight," Modano said. "His M.O. since he came into the league has been to create space and make things happen and he did that tonight."

Marty Turco stopped 23 shots and Jussi Jokinen had a goal and an assist for Dallas (10-2). The Stars' best previous 12-game mark was 9-2-1 in 1996-97 and 1982-83.

With the game tied at 1, Modano scored at 7:13 of the second period, skating hard to the net and converting Jokinen's centering pass for his eighth goal of the season and 493rd of his career.

Jokinen made it 3-1 at 12:55 of the third period, striking from just below the right circle off a feed from Modano. Lindros registered his second goal of the night and third of the season at 15:00 of the final period from close range to give Dallas a three-goal edge.

"Sooner or later they were going to go in," said Lindros, who has 370 career goals. "Over the course (of my career), there's been some ugly ones, some pretty ones, but sooner or later, things start to happen. Those weren't pretty goals for me, but they all count the same."

Turco denied Dallas Drake on a breakaway midway through the second period to preserve the 2-1 advantage.

Keith Tkachuk scored and Curtis Sanford stopped 27 shots for the Blues (3-5-3).

Dallas improved to 9-2-2 in its last 13 meetings with St. Louis.

Bill Guerin, who played the last three seasons for the Stars before signing a free-agent deal with the Blues in July after Dallas paid a $4.4 million buyout, did not figure in the scoring.

"It felt good to be back," Guerin said. "I heard some positive things from the fans and that put me at ease."

Seconds after teammate Petr Cajanek's shot rang off the right goal post, Tkachuk gave the Blues the early edge when he scored from the left circle at 1:16 of the opening period.

The Blues dominated the first 10 minutes, but Lindros' deflection of Philippe Boucher's power-play slap shot from just inside the blue line got past Sanford at 10:17 of the first to tie it at 1.

"You can't make mistakes like we did," Sanford said. "Mistakes came back to bite us. At the start we were buzzing good, but we couldn't sustain it. You can't sit on a one-goal lead."

After the Stars built their three-goal pad, the game turned ugly with six fighting majors and three misconducts.

"The end was a little chippy but both teams played hard," Guerin said.

Notes: Injured Blues D Barret Jackman (sprained knee) and Jay McKee (broken hand) are skating with the team. Jackman could be back in the lineup in two weeks, but McKee will miss as many as six more weeks. ... C Patrik Stefan played his first game for the Stars. Acquired from Atlanta in an offseason trade, Stefan was scratched from his first 11 games with Dallas this season. ... Jere Lehtinen's assist on Modano's goal was his 400th career point.