• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Stars' second-period flurry fells Flyers

Dec 2, 2007 - 5:10 AM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- Once a safe haven, the Wachovia Center continues to be a house of horrors of late for the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Dallas Stars benefited from three second-period goals to defeat the Flyers, 4-1, on Saturday.

The loss was the fifth in a row at home for Philadelphia, which ironically opened the season with six straight wins in the City of Brotherly Love.

"We played well at home at the start of the year. Now, it seems like it is going the other way," Flyers goaltender Martin Biron said. "The other teams are coming in here and putting their best foot forward. We have to match that, and it's for us to get the job done."

With the game tied at 1-1, Jussi Jokinen scored just 1:42 into the second period to give Dallas a lead it would not relinquish. Jokinen deflected defenseman Philippe Boucher's shot past Biron for his 10th goal of the season.

"Boucher saw me in front of the net," Jokinen said. "He put a good wrist shot, I got a good tip with my stick and there was no chance for Biron."

Antti Miettinen and Mike Ribeiro netted power-play goals less than two minutes apart to give the Stars a three-goal bulge.

"We passed the puck better on the power play," Ribeiro said. "We had a hard time setting up and getting control of it. Tonight, we did a great job of it."

"It's one thing to draw the penalties, but when you're scoring on them, that's a key part of the game," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "We had to maximize our energy on the special teams, and we did a good job."

Miettinen skated into the left faceoff circle and wristed a low shot past Biron to give the Stars a 3-1 advantage with 6:38 remaining in the second.

Just 1:54 later, Dallas captain Brenden Morrow stole the puck at the blue line and alertly fed Ribeiro in front. Ribeiro quickly deked Biron and easily slid the puck into the vacant net for his 11th goal of the season.

"I was ready to go off the ice for a change," Ribeiro said. "Brenden made the play. Biron saw that I had my back turned, and that's why he tried to poke it. I was at the right place at the right moment."

Defenseman Randy Jones opened the scoring just 41 seconds into the game.

After the Flyers established an odd-man rush, Mike Richards was unable to get a shot on net. The puck went into the left corner, but Jones collected it and fired it in off the glove of prone netminder Marty Turco for his second tally of the campaign.

"All I know is that it went off of my glove and went in," Turco said. "I don't know how it got through me. I saw Jones get in the corner and I knew that he was going to throw it to the net because I was laying down. So I decided to stay there, and it backfired."

That was all Turco allowed as he finished with 18 saves.

"Tonight was a great team effort," Turco said. "It was nothing spectacular, but great nonetheless. We did the little things to win the hockey game."

"We got overwhelmed with their work tonight," Flyers coach John Stevens said. "They didn't play a very good game last night and they came in here to make amends - and we didn't welcome the work."

The Flyers' frustration showed late in the third, when Riley Cote received a match penalty for a high elbow on Dallas defenseman Matt Niskanen. Cote expects to receive a call from the league to address the hit.

"I know it's coming," Cote said. "It looks terrible, especially from a guy like me. I need to be smarter than that. I had no intentions of hurting anyone. I was just trying to do my job and I made a mistake."

Jeff Halpern leveled the game with 4:35 remaining in the period. Steve Ott wristed a shot from inside the right circle that Halpern deflected past Biron to tie it at 1-1.

Biron finished with 26 saves.