Flyers at Stars
The Philadelphia Flyers have answered a dismal 1-6-1 mark with a five-game point streak (3-0-2), although Sunday's 5-4 overtime loss to Pittsburgh didn't do them many favors in the standings. The Flyers look to secure more points on Tuesday as they continue their three-game trek against the spiraling Dallas Stars, who are mired in the longest winless skid (0-6-2) since the team moved to Dallas.
"The point is big. We needed the two points, but at least we can build on this and move forward," said Philadelphia forward Sean Couturier, who forged a tie by scoring with 42.6 seconds remaining in regulation on Sunday. The 25-year-old has eight points (two goals, six assists) in his past seven games for the Flyers, who pulled even in points with third-place Columbus but remains on the wrong end of the third tiebreaker (point differential). Dallas has been finding itself on the negative side of a lot of things of late, namely an offense that has scored just 18 goals during its eight-game slide and a defense that has permitted 10 power-play tallies in that stretch. "We don't deserve to win right now," Stars defenseman John Klingberg told reporters. "... We don't have any confidence at all the way we are playing right now, on D-zone, neutral zone and O-zone. We didn't do anything right and you can tell there is no confidence now."
TV: 8:30 p.m. ET, NBCS Philadelphia, FS Southwest Plus (Dallas)
ABOUT THE FLYERS (38-25-13): Shayne Gostisbehere, who capped a two-goal performance by scoring 3:50 into overtime in Philadelphia's 2-1 win over Dallas on Dec. 16, has 24 points (four goals, 20 assists) in his past 26 games. The 24-year-old isn't the lone defenseman getting in on the offense, as Travis Sanheim and Brandon Manning each scored in the first period against the Penguins to give the Flyers 46 goals from blue-liners - their most since 1992-93. Ivan Provorov has accounted for 13 of those, although the workhorse defenseman has shown signs of fatigue with a minus-6 rating over his last 16 games.
ABOUT THE STARS (38-30-8): Mattias Janmark scored on a breakaway in the first period on Sunday for his second short-handed goal of the season and Dallas' second in as many games. The 25-year-old Swede has two tallies in his last four games overall after mustering just one and two points overall in his previous 13 contests. Tyler Seguin, who leads the team in goals (personal-best 39) and points (71), resides two points shy of 500 for his career.
OVERTIME
1. Philadelphia captain C Claude Giroux has eight assists in his last four games and 33 points (11 goals, 22 assists) in his last 23.
2. The Stars' winless skid is their longest since dropping 10 in a row from Feb. 1-20, 1976, when the team was known as the Minnesota North Stars.
3. Flyers RW Jakub Voracek has scored three goals and set up two others in his last five games heading into Tuesday's tilt versus Dallas, against which he had two assists in the previous encounter.