Stars Swim Upstream at Shark Tank

While the Dallas Stars spent a perfect week on the road in San Jose's Shark Tank, the Philadelphia Flyers kept sinking on home ice. <br/><br/>Joel Lundqvist and Stu Barnes scored early goals, and the

Friday, February 2nd 2007, 6:46 am

By: News On 6

While the Dallas Stars spent a perfect week on the road in San Jose's Shark Tank, the Philadelphia Flyers kept sinking on home ice.

Joel Lundqvist and Stu Barnes scored early goals, and the Stars posted a 4-2 victory against San Jose on Thursday night _ their second win over the Sharks on enemy ice in three days.

``It was a good week for us,'' Stars coach Dave Tippett said. ``We got some team-building in, but we had to come in here with the intention of playing well. If we're going to get ourselves to the level in the standings that San Jose is, then these were very important games, and we gained three points on them.''

It can sometimes take weeks for the Flyers to pick up three points. At home the story is even worse.

Brad Lukowich scored with 49.5 seconds left in overtime and the New Jersey Devils beat Philadelphia 6-5 Thursday, extending the Flyers' franchise-worst, home-losing streak to 12 games.

They dropped to 3-15-3-3 at home and haven't won there since Nov. 24 when the Flyers spoiled the Columbus debut of deposed coach Ken Hitchcock.

New Jersey improved to 5-0 against the Flyers and has one fewer win in Philadelphia this season than the team that calls the town home.

Zach Parise scored the tying goal with 31.8 seconds left in regulation after Peter Forsberg gave the Flyers a 5-4 lead with 4:10 left.

``It's frustrating,'' Forsberg said. ``We played well, but we screwed up at the end. It's hard to lose this way.''

In other NHL games, it was: Buffalo 3, Boston 1; Tampa Bay 4, Carolina 0; the New York Islanders 5, Atlanta 2; Pittsburgh 5, Montreal 4 in a shootout; Florida 6, Washington 3; Minnesota 5, Colorado 3; Phoenix 3, Nashville 2; Vancouver 5, Edmonton 3; and Chicago 3, Los Angeles 2 in overtime.

The Stars had four full days during their business trip to San Jose. They worked out together, got in some rest, and took in tours of San Francisco. Not to mention getting out of town with two wins over the high-powered Sharks _ the team right above them in the Pacific Division.

``We get down in a hurry, and we've got some people who look like they're trying to do the right things, and it's just awful,'' Sharks coach Ron Wilson said. ``Why, all of a sudden, we go from great to awful in 48 hours. It's unbelievable.''

The Flyers found the awful level early this season and haven't come close to getting out of it. They are last in the NHL with 12 wins and 31 points.

Lightning 4, Hurricanes 1

At Raleigh, N.C., Johan Holmqvist made 31 saves in his first NHL shutout, and Tampa Bay extended its franchise-record, road-winning streak to seven.

Ryan Craig and Doug Janik scored 4 minutes apart in the second period, and Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis each scored their 32nd goal early in the third.

Holmqvist won for the eighth time in 10 starts for the Lightning, who beat the Hurricanes for the second time in 13 days.

Sabres 3, Bruins 1

At Boston, Chris Drury scored twice and Martin Biron made 33 saves to lift Buffalo.

Biron, starting in place of All-Star goalie Ryan Miller for the second straight game, beat Boston for the second time in three days.

Biron has won five straight starts against Boston, and the Sabres are 5-0-1 against the Bruins this season. After allowing an early goal to Marco Sturm, Biron was perfect. He stopped 14 shots in the second period and 12 more in the third.

Islanders 5, Thrashers 2

At Atlanta, Jason Blake scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period and Miroslav Satan had a goal and two assists for New York.

After blowing a 3-0 lead in the third period on Wednesday and losing to Detroit in overtime, the Islanders couldn't hold a 2-1 advantage as Jim Slater scored with 10:23 remaining.

Blake bailed out New York with a breakaway goal 2:19 later, his fourth tally in five games.

Panthers 6, Capitals 3

At Sunrise, Fla., Jozef Stumpel and Martin Gelinas each scored two goals for the Panthers.

Ville Peltonen and Juraj Kolnik also scored for Florida, 7-1-2 in its last 10 home games.

Chris Clark, Alex Ovechkin and Dainius Zubrus scored for Washington, 2-7 in its last nine. Ovechkin scored for the fourth consecutive game and extended his point streak to 13 games, the longest in the NHL this season. He leads the league with 33 goals.

Penguins 5, Canadiens 4, SO

At Pittsburgh, the Penguins squandered a two-goal lead late in the third period, but Evgeni Malkin won the shootout by deftly faking out David Aebischer _ giving the home team its fifth consecutive victory.

Erik Christensen also put the puck past Aebischer for the Penguins, who won their second shootout in a row after losing five of their first six. Montreal lost its fifth in nine shootouts.

Mike Johnson and Radek Bonk scored short-handed goals for Montreal.

Coyotes 3, Predators 2

At Glendale, Ariz., Yanic Perreault broke a third-period tie with 5:29 left, lifting the Coyotes at home.

Perreault redirected defenseman Nick Boynton's pass behind goalie Tomas Vokoun, snapping a 2-2 deadlock and ending Phoenix's two-game losing streak.

Steve Sullivan scored a short-handed goal and assisted on Jason Arnott's power-play tally in the third for Nashville, which lost two leads.

Wild 5, Avalanche 3

Mikko Koivu and Marian Gaborik each scored two goals in the Wild's road win. Pierre-Marc Bouchard also scored, and Niklas Backstrom made 27 saves.

The Wild took the lead three times through the first two periods only to have the Avalanche counter.

Blackhawks 3, Kings 2, OT

Defenseman Lasse Kukkonen scored 57 seconds into overtime and the visiting Blackhawks also got goals from Martin Havlat and Jeff Hamilton to win the matchup of the Western Conference's worst teams.

Nikolai Khabibulin made 31 saves for the Blackhawks, who have won two in a row after losing 10 straight.

Alexander Frolov and newly acquired Jamie Lundmark scored for Los Angeles. The Kings' 40 points are the fewest in the conference and four shy of Chicago. They have lost 10 of 11 and five straight at home.

Canucks 5, Oilers 3

At Vancouver, British Columbia, Markus Naslund's goal with 1:57 left helped the Canucks survive a wild four-goal flurry in the final 3 minutes and win.

Marc Chouinard put the Canucks ahead 3-1 on a two-man breakaway 7 minutes into the third, but Toby Peterson closed the gap by jamming a puck under goalie Roberto Luongo with 2:44 left.

Naslund answered 47 seconds later before Joffrey Lupul scored with 36.6 seconds left. Jan Bulis sealed the dramatic win with an empty-net goal with 17.7 seconds to go.