Pavelski, Oettinger lead Sharks over Flyers 5-1

By KEVIN COONEY
Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Joe Pavelski scored a goal and added two assists and Jake Oettinger recorded 37 saves to lead the Dallas Stars to a 5-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday.

Matej Blumel, Esa Lindel, Luke Glendening and Jason Robertson all scored for Dallas, which snapped a two-game losing streak in the first game of a three-game Eastern Conference road swing.

“For whatever reason the last couple of games, it felt like we hadn’t had the energy when we had gone out on the ice,” Pavelski said. “We battled and it was a good response from the group to go out there, stop the bleeding and do the little things well.”

Travis Konecny recorded his sixth goal of the season for Philadelphia, which lost its third game in a row and fifth in its last seven contests. Felix Sandstrom had 26 saves for the Flyers.

“I don’t look at the score, but I have to coach the team on what’s going on,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said. “You can call it lopsided, but I don’t look at it that way. We have some things we have to improve — special teams is one of them — but I like our energy and our effort.”

Despite playing his entire 17-year career in the Western Conference with San Jose and Dallas, Pavelski has thrived against Philadelphia — 23 points (15 goals, eight assists) in just 22 career games.

After assisting on Blumel’s first career goal early in the first, Pavelski added a power-play tally midway through the third when he tipped a point shot from Miro Heiskanen just under Sandstrom’s pad to make it 3-1.

It was Pavelski’s eighth goal of the season and 429th in his career — tying Bill Guerin for eighth-most among US-born players in NHL history.

“You are just trying to get sticks on it,” Pavelski said. “There are times when you just have to get a little lucky, too.”

Pavelski would later poke a pass to Robertson midway through the third that the veteran would slide past Sandstrom for the game’s final scoring play. Lindell had two assists to go along with his first-period goal.

Oettinger entered play Sunday with an NHL-best 1.91 goals against average.

He had missed four games due to a lower-body injury earlier this month, struggled in his return to action Friday in a 5-4 loss at home to San Jose and was tested by Philadelphia’s offense in spurts.

But Oettinger didn’t yield any deep rebounds or second chances, only the goal from Konecny, who completed a brilliant tic-tac-toe passing clinic from Owen Tippett and Kevin Hayes to the stick side. Oettinger was also instrumental in keeping the Flyers’ power play to 0 for 6 on the afternoon.

“He was dialed in,” Stars coach Peter DeBour said. “He was there before the puck was there. And you can tell when he was in the zone like that.”

Glendening scored a short-handed goal just 57 seconds into the third period that deflated the building and ended Philadelphia’s shot at a comeback.

“I thought we were right there going into the third,” Tortorella said. “That fourth one — the shorthanded goal — that’s hard to recover from.”

INJURY UPDATE

Flyers: Forward Wade Allison missed Sunday’s game after suffering an apparent lower body injury in Saturday’s 4-1 loss to Ottawa. Allison has three goals and an assists in 14 games for the Flyers.

UP NEXT

Stars: Continue three-game trip at Tampa Bay on Tuesday.

Flyers: Begin a three-game trip in Columbus on Tuesday.

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports