Monday, November 24, 2008

Philadelphia Flyers 4, Dallas Stars 3

By Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

The Dallas Stars overcame a slow start and overcame one-goal deficits three times Monday night in Philadelphia, but they still got a familiar result. The Flyers scored a late goal off a Dallas turnover and beat the Stars 4-3 at Wachovia Center.

"It's definitely frustrating," said Stars defenseman Trevor Daley. "This is an organization that is about winning and we are not doing that. But it is what it is, and we will work our way through this. We have to find a way to overcome and limit our mistakes."

The loss was the third straight (0-2-1) for the Stars and their sixth in the last seven games (1-4-2). They hit the 20-game mark of the season with a 6-10-4 record and were last in the league overall with 16 points.

Turnovers hurt the Stars in this game. Philadelphia's game winning goal with 5:08 remaining came Flyers forward Simon Gagne stripped Stars defenseman Doug Janik of the puck at the Dallas blue line and the end result was Flyers captain Mike Richards setting up Mike Knuble from about 15 feet out.

The Flyers snapped a 2-2 tie after a Janik turnover behind the net led to a goal by Jeff Carter, who moved into a tie for the league lead in goal scoring with his 15th of the season.

"Those are ones that I classify as unearned chances," said Tippett. "It's one thing if they beat you on a great play but when you are giving them chances, those are the ones you'd like to eliminate from your game. Unfortunately, we gave up a couple tonight."

Special teams again let down the Stars. Officially the Stars were 0-5 on the power play, but one of Mike Modano's two goals on the night came just as a power play expired.

But the Stars missed on back-to-back chances in the third with the game tied 3-3 and then failed to create any chances in the final minute of the game when they were on another power play and needed a goal to tie.

"Not generating enough. Not finding lanes," said Tippett. "The execution is poor. It's as simple as that."

Said Modano: "At the end there we were just running around too much on the perimeter and were never able to get it into the guts of the ice."

The Stars got off to a slow start in the game, falling behind early when Scottie Upshall put the Flyers up 1-0 early in the first period. But a Landon Wilson tied the game when he scored off the rebound a little more than midway through the period to make it a 1-1 game. Knuble's first goal of the game made it 2-1 Flyers through the first period.

"We didn't start the game very well. We had a lot of guys who were deer in the headlights," Tippett said. "Once we got our feet under us and got going, we engaged in the game. It was a competitive game."

The Stars dominated the second period, getting two goals from Modano to offset the Carter goal and make it 3-3 after the first 40 minutes. Modano scored off a rebound just after a Dallas power play expired to tie the game at 2-1 and scored again off a nice feed from behind the net by Daley to tie it at 3-3.

But the Stars missed on the power play chances in the third and the Flyers cashed in on the turnover to win their fifth straight game and run their points streak to seven games (6-0-1). The Flyers, who started the season 0-3-3, are now 10-6-1.

“We came out pretty strong in the first period,” said Carter. “[We had] a little let up in the second, but we managed to pull it out in the third and get two points.”

The Stars wrap up their short two-game road trip in Minnesota Wednesday.

Notes: The Stars announced Monday that forward Steve Ott is expected to miss one month due to a broken right hand suffered during a fight with Anaheim's Steve Montador Saturday night. Ott will have surgery on the hand. Chris Conner, who was called up from Peoria of the AHL on Sunday, took Ott's spot in the lineup on Monday.

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