PHILADELPHIA // The Philadelphia Flyers scored a goal in each period to beat the Dallas Stars 3-1 in a battle of division leaders.
The Atlantic Division-leading Flyers claimed their second win in a row while the Stars, pacesetters in the Pacific Division, have now lost three successive games since the All-Star break.
Andrej Meszaros fired a wrist shot high over the glove of Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen to open the scoring with 1:20 remaining in the first period and Darroll Powe scored shorthanded 1:19 into the second, beating Lehtonen high on the glove side as he broke down the right wing.
"It was nice to get the gorilla off my back," said Powe, who had not scored since November 15.
"It's nice for the fourth-line guys to chip in offensively. It might give the team a boost. Our line's been playing pretty well the last few games, so it's nice to kind of get rewarded. Our job is to create energy and get pucks to the net, and if we can help offensively, it's a nice bonus."
Brenden Morrow, standing at the side of the net, tapped in a perfect pass from Mike Ribeiro to trim the Flyers' lead heading into the final period.
However, Jeff Carter knocked down a high pass from Claude Giroux and quickly snapped a shot through the legs of Lehtonen midway through the third period to seal victory for the Flyers, who increased their division lead to three points.
"We're happy with our effort, we're disappointed with the result," said Morrow. "We put in probably four good periods in the last two games, that doesn't add up to many wins. Part of us may be happy with the effort, but most of us is disappointed with the results."
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