Cracknell helps Stars end Flyers' 10-game win streak
DALLAS - Adam Cracknell scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period to lead the Dallas Stars to a 3-1 victory over Philadelphia on Saturday, ending the Flyers' 10-game winning streak.
Radek Faksa and Jordie Benn also scored for the Stars and Antti Niemi stopped 31 shots, including three during a Flyers power play in the closing minutes.
Cracknell broke a 1-1 tie at 2:27 of the third. Flyers goalie Steve Mason stopped a shot by John Klingberg, but the puck rebounded to Cracknell's feet and he put it on his stick and sent a wrist shot into the net.
Benn, whose penalty gave Philadelphia its only power play with 2:58 left, scored into an empty net with 18 seconds to go.
Dallas' Ivan Provorov also hit a goalpost for the second time in the third period.
Taylor Leier scored his first NHL goal in the first period for the Flyers, and Mason finished with 25 saves to end a personal eight-game winning streak.
Niemi improved to 7-2-1 at home this season, and 5-1 against Philadelphia in his career.
Each team had good scoring chances in the first period. The Flyers struck first with 3:16 left. Nick Cousins fired a wrist shot at Niemi from the top of the right faceoff. The goalie made the save but the puck went out to Leier, who wristed it in from just outside the paint.
Philadelphia outshot Dallas 10-7 in a first period without a penalty.
The first penalties came 1:53 into the second when the Stars' Jason Spezza and Flyers' Brandon Manning went off for fighting.
Dallas tied it at 4:48 of the second. Antoine Roussel shot from the left faceoff dot. Mason made the save, but the puck rebounded to Faksa in the slot and he buried a wrist shot.
The Stars applied more pressure and outshot Philadelphia 14-7 in the period. In a 4-second span with 5 1/2 minutes remaining, the Stars' Brett Ritchie had two shots saved by Mason and a third sent wide of the net.
The Flyers killed the only power play during the second, holding Dallas without a shot.
NOTES: Dallas C Cody Eakin served the first game of a four-game suspension for charging Rangers G Henrik Lundqvist on Thursday. ... LW Curtis McKenzie returning after missing two games with an upper-body injury.... Leier's goal came in his 11th NHL game. He had his first assist on Wednesday at Colorado. ... The Flyers' winning streak was their longest since a team-record 13-game streak from Oct. 19 to Nov. 11 in 1985.
UP NEXT:
Flyers: Host Nashville on Monday night.
Stars: Host St. Louis on Tuesday night in the fourth game of a five-game homestand.