Brett Ritchie might invite Mike Modano to the Cedar Park Center more often.

Before the Stars 5-1 win against the Lake Erie Monsters on Friday, Modano came in and talked to the team after pre-game warm-ups.

Then during the pre-game ceremonies, career highlights of Modano darting and dodging around defenders during his 1,374-point career flashed on the video board before the legend dropped the ceremonial face-off.

Once the game started, Ritchie did his best Modano impression on his way to a franchise-record four goals and franchise-tying five-point night.

“Everybody has those games where it seems like you have little more time out there,” Ritchie said. “It didn’t necessarily feel like that at the start, but once I scored that second one I started feeling that.”

It was Ritchie’s eighth-career multi-point game and he said it was his best game since he had a six-point game in the OHL with the Niagara IceDogs.

Like most goal scorers, he got a little bit of luck to start his goal-scoring run.

He tried to connect with Brendan Ranford on a pass in the first period, but it was knocked into the Monsters net by a Lake Erie defenseman.

His second and third goals were certainly Modano-esque.

He gave Texas a 2-1 lead on a swooping, hard-skating drive to the net where he slipped the puck around Sami Aittokallio’s right pad.

“He’s skating well, I didn’t know the big man could move like that,” Mike Hedden jabbed at Ritchie after the game.

As if to prove his talkative linemate wrong, Ritchie did it again to complete the hat trick.

With extra space thanks to the power play, Ritchie cut across the hashmarks and completed a forehand-to-backhand move to bring down an avalanche of hats.

“I don’t know if he was watching the Modano video, but that was a quite a video to start it,” Stars coach Willie Desjardins said. “He had a couple real good ones tonight. He made some good plays and went hard to the net.”

That’s what happened on his fourth goal, as Ritchie drove hard to the crease and slammed home a pass from Hedden.

The record-breaking night helped put an exclamation point on the Hedden- Justin Dowling-Ritchie line’s importance late in the season.

With new bodies coming in and still learning the system (Radek Faksa and Alex Guptill amongst others), Desjardins has relied on the line’s consistency to provide an offensive safety net.

“They’re a good line and they’ve given us a lot,” Desjardins said. “We’ve had a lot of different combinations, while that (is) one (that) stayed together the whole year. They’ve all played well.”

The strong play could help Ritchie establish himself as a favorite to make the NHL roster next season, while Dowling and Hedden could expand their potential future and earnings in the organization.

Dowling already has his new contract, a two-year deal that starts next season, while Hedden could be the next player to turn AHL success into a two-way contract with Dallas.