Stars end skid with overtime win over Flyers

The Dallas Stars are back in the win column.
Alexander Radulov's goal 40 seconds into overtime lifted the Stars to a 3-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers at American Airlines Center Tuesday night, snapping the team's eight-game losing streak.

WATCH: [All Stars vs. Flyers highlights]
"Well, it was huge for us," said Radulov. "It's always hard to lose, and I feel like the team was all down, but nobody gave up. We tried to work and battle through."

"It's just nice to be on the winning side of a real emotional game. We've had a lot of them lately," said Stars center Tyler Seguin, who set Radulov's game-winner. "They've been piling up on the losing side, and we're not feeling sorry for ourselves because obviously no one else is. Now, it's nice to be on the right side of it and get two points."
Radulov's winner came on a 2-on-0 rush with Seguin. After the Flyers lost the puck in the Dallas end on a rush chance, Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen chipped the puck to defenseman John Klingberg, who sent a long pass to Seguin at the Flyers blue line. Seguin skated in on the net and set up Radulov, who scored from close range to give the Stars their first win since the Mar. 9 win over Anaheim at the AAC.
Lehtonen came up big in goal for the Stars, stopping 31 of 33 shots, including all 14 shots he faced in the third period when the game was tied 2-2.

"He was phenomenal," said Seguin. "Not just in the third, but all night he was making key saves for us. We've got a lot of confidence in him."
"I just feel good for him," Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said of Lehtonen. "It's easy to make someone the target. I felt good for him. I've said this before; a lot of the games we've lost we've had the puck on our stick a lot of times to score. That bails a goalie out or helps the goalie get a win, and we weren't able to do that. Tonight, he helped us, and we ended up helping him. It was a good sign."
Radek Faksa and Brett Ritchie also scored for the Stars (39-30-8), who gained one point in the playoff race and are now five points out of the second wild-card spot with five games remaining.

"We needed that one. Now we have five games left, and we have to take them one-by-one," Radulov said. "We have to give everything we've got, and we will see what will happen."
The Flyers (38-25-14) saw their points streak extend to six games (3-0-3). The Flyers remained in the first wild-card spot in the East and have a five-point lead over ninth-place Florida, which has three games in hand.
"We are fighting hard for points and we fought hard for this one tonight in a tough building on the road," said Flyers coach Dave Hakstol. "I don't like the way we gave up the second point. We tried to do too much in OT and sometimes when you try to do too much 3-on-3, things like that happen."

The Stars had the better of play in the first half of the first period and scored at the 10:50 mark to take a 1-0 lead. Antoine Roussel deflected a Dan Hamhuis shot wide of the net and Faksa scored on the rebound.
The Flyers pushed back late in the period and tied the game at the 16:51 mark. After some extended time in the Dallas zone, Travis Konecny skated into the right circle and scored off a wrist shot.
The Flyers took a 2-1 lead early in the second when defenseman Ivan Provorov scored from the slot on the rush at the 2:03 mark.

The Stars answered with a power-play goal midway through the second. Just 19 seconds into the man-advantage, Ritchie redirected an Radulov shot from the left circle into the net to make it a 2-2 game at 10:11 of the period.
Lehtonen came up big in the third, helping keep it a 2-2 game as the Flyers outshot the Stars 14-6. That sent the game to overtime where Seguin set up Radulov, and the Stars were back in the win column for the first time in two-and-a-half weeks.
"It was a good feeling -- something that this room really needed," said Lehtonen. "Things have been a bit tough, but we just kept going and got rewarded at the end, so it was really sweet."

Notes

What's Next

The Stars play at Minnesota on Thursday. It will be Game 1 of a home-and-home series for the two teams, who play in Dallas on Saturday. The Stars are 1-1-0 against the Wild this season, losing 4-2 in Minnesota on Dec. 27 and winning 6-1 in Dallas on Feb. 3

Stars Lineup

Jamie Benn - Tyler Seguin - Alexander Radulov
Antoine Roussel - Radek Faksa - Tyler Pitlick
Mattias Janmark - Devin Shore - Brett Ritchie
Jason Dickinson - Jason Spezza
Esa Lindell - John Klingberg
Dan Hamhuis - Greg Pateryn
Marc Methot - Stephen Johns
Julius Honka
Kari Lehtonen
Mike McKenna
Scratched:Curtis McKenzie, Remi Elie, Gemel Smith, Dillon Heatherington
Injured: Ben Bishop (knee), Martin Hanzal (back)

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mark Stepneski is an independent writer whose posts on DallasStars.com reflect his own opinions and do not represent official statements from the Dallas Stars. You can follow him on Twitter @StarsInsideEdge.