Flyers  3    Stars  2

Recap: Dallas vs. Philadelphia

Sports Network | March 19, 2010

Dallas, TX (Sports Network) - Scott Hartnell picked up the winner early in the third period, and Brian Boucher stopped 27 shots, as Philadelphia clipped Dallas, 3-2, at American Airlines Center.

Simon Gagne and Mike Richards also scored for the Flyers, who snapped a two- game slide and pulled into a tie with Ottawa for fifth place in the Eastern Conference.

"We battled for 60 minutes," Hartnell said. "It says a lot on the road. I don't think we've won here [in Dallas] 13 years. It was a big W for us to get that monkey off our back."

Boucher made his first start since December 21 and earned his first win since December 14 with the effort. The 33-year-old will be pressed into service for the foreseeable future, as the club learned that previous starting netminder Michael Leighton will miss 8-to-10 weeks with a high left ankle sprain suffered in Tuesday's loss at Nashville.

Steve Ott picked up both goals for the Stars, who have dropped four of five. Kari Lehtonen yielded all three goals on 31 shots in defeat.

The Flyers moved ahead by a goal at 7:55 of the third period. Jeff Carter's blast from the slot sailed high but hit Hartnell, who battled a Stars defenseman at the right post, and dropped behind Lehtonen just across the goal line.

Boucher made several key stops down the stretch, including a quick right-pad stop on Brad Richards with less than two minutes to go.

Lehtonen was called to the bench for an extra attacker with 1:18 remaining, but Dallas couldn't score despite a power play for the final 29 seconds.

Ott's power-play wrister 9:41 into the contest put the Stars ahead, then Gagne equalized on a rebound in the crease with 4:59 left in the first.

Ott, though, restored Dallas' one-goal edge with 2:05 to play in the period.

Mike Richards took an errant feed from Gagne in a 4-on-4 situation and slid a backhander through Lehtonen's pads to tie the game at 5:27 of the second.

"I hate losing as much as anybody, but when there's pride in losing and character in losing, that's what tonight was," Ott said. "Every single line played very well. Kari (Lehtonen) played great, the D played good. It's pretty hard to be super upset when the guys put so much pride and character into it."

This was the Flyers' first win in Dallas since a 6-3 decision on December 6, 1996...Philadelphia improved to 2-5-3 in the Lone Star State since the Stars moved there in 1993...Ott recorded his third multi-goal game of the season, with the last coming on January 12 at Philadelphia.