Stars Beat Flyers
DALLAS — In a game where goals were hard to come by for much of the evening, the Dallas Stars erupted for two goals 3:22 apart in the second period, one from rookie center Mattias Janmark and another from left winger Antoine Roussel, the eventual-game winner in a 3-1 victory against the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday at American Airlines Center.
“Most of my goals came from the blue paint or within like three feet of it,” Roussel said. “That’s how you get goals these days in the NHL. It’s not the pretty stuff.”
Roussel scored his fifth goal of the season 2:32 before the second intermission by poking a rebound through the legs of Flyers goaltender Michal Neuvirth, who stopped 41 of 43 shots. Neuvirth denied a wrist shot from the slot by Stars center Cody Eakin to set up the carom.
“Yeah, the puck was under me,” Neuvirth said. “We got to be tougher in front of our net.”
The Stars also got an empty-net goal from left winger and captain Jamie Benn with 52.4 seconds remaining. Neuvirth left the ice with 1:26 remaining in regulation.
Stars goaltender Antti Niemi stopped 19 of 20 shots for Dallas, who finished its two-game homestand at 2-0-0.
“I thought we were much sharper tonight than we’ve been the last couple (games),” Stars center Jason Spezza said. “In the third period, with a 2-1 lead I thought we stuck to the gameplan. We played with a lot of confidence in the third. You know the other team’s going to make a push, but I thought for the most part we had good puck
possession, still kept making plays.”
Dallas (22-5-2), which outshot Philadelphia 44-20, finished its homestand with a 2-0-0 record, snapping the Flyers’ four-game road winning streak.
“I thought we played maybe our best all-around game when it comes to puck movement,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. “Playing in their own end I thought, did a lot of great things in the game.”
The Stars complete the back-to-back on Saturday at St. Louis.
Philadelphia (12-12-6) got its goal from defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere in the second period.
“Well, first two periods, we spent a lot of energy killing penalties, but we were working hard in a lot of areas,” Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said. “Obviously, the two goals we gave up little more than three minutes apart were the difference in the hockey game. We pushed as hard as we could in the third period to generate, but unfortunately couldn’t take advantage of (Neuvirth)’s performance, which was outstanding tonight.”
After a scoreless opening 20 minutes, Philadelphia drew first blood when Gostisbehere scored a power-play goal at 9:23 of the second period. Gostisbehere beat Niemi far post with a one-timer from the high slot for his fifth goal this season, four of which are on the power play.
“It was just a good setup again. (Simmonds) got his (Niemi’s) eyes of course, so made it easy on me and it was a good quick pass from (Giroux),” Gostisbehere said of his goal.
Gostisbehere also drew a penalty resulting in a power play at 8:32 of the second period when Eakin was whistled for holding Gostisbehere’s stick behind the Dallas goal.
The Stars pulled even at 14:06 of the second period when Janmark scored his sixth goal of the season on a wrist shot from the left circle that deflected in off the right skate of Flyers right winger Wayne Simmonds to the delight of the Dallas fans.
Simmonds heard a round of boos in the first period when he was called for two penalties, including a hard cross-check on Stars right winger Valeri Nichushkin in front of the Flyers’ bench that upset Dallas fans.
The Flyers, who took the first game of the back-to-back with a 4-1 win on Thursday night in St. Louis, finish their quick two-game road trip at 1-1-0.
