Flyers lose to Dallas as Stars clinch playoff spot

DALLAS -- The Flyers had a chance Tuesday night to delay a playoff-clinching performance by the Dallas Stars at the sold-out American Airlines Center.

Didn’t happen.

Instead, they followed a now-familiar script: Fall behind early and chase the game the rest of the way.

In the game’s first 4 minutes, 14 seconds, Dallas scored two goals on its first two shots against Cam Talbot en route to a 6-2 win over the Flyers, who lost for the eighth time in the last 11 games.

Alexander Radulov had two goals and two assists as Dallas took advantage of Flyers defensive breakdowns and secured a Western Conference playoff berth.

Dallas scored two goals -- one on Talbot’s poor goaltending, the other after a Shayne Gostisbehere turnover -- 10 seconds apart midway through a Stars-dominated third period to take a 6-2 lead and seal the outcome.

“The score looks bad, but I thought we played better than it looks,” center Sean Couturier said. “We had our chances. But at the same time, we can’t go down two early in the game."

The Flyers fell into a 2-0 hole for the 30th time in 80 games, a whopping 37.5 percent of their schedule. They have won four of those 30 games.

“I didn’t know the stat, but when you’re down two in 30 games out of 80, it’s tough to make the playoffs,” Couturier said.

After a miscommunication by Scott Laughton and Jake Voracek on accepting a pass from Ivan Provorov, Jason Dickinson gave Dallas a 1-0 lead with 18:26 left in the first as he ripped a right-circle shot past Talbot, who made his third (and final) start of the season with the Flyers.

Talbot, a prospective free agent July 1, is auditioning for a job next season. He didn’t remind anybody of Bernie Parent.

With 15:46 left in the first and the Stars on a power play, rookie defenseman Phil Myers was slow to cover Esa Lindell in front, and his clever redirection got past Talbot to make it 2-0.

“It didn’t start the way I wanted it to, but I settled down a little bit and then gave a couple more at the end of the second when we needed a save or two,” Talbot said.

Oskar Lindblom’s 15th goal of the season, scored on a rebound after Nolan Patrick took the puck away on the forecheck and crashed the net, got the Flyers to within 2-1 with 18:47 to go in the second period.

Lindblom is sixth among NHL rookie goal scorers, and Patrick’s assist was his first point in nine games.

Twenty-eight seconds after Lindblom’s goal, the Flyers appeared to tie it at 2-2, but the tally was disallowed because of a quick whistle.

Gostisbehere fired a power-play point drive that got past a screened goalie Anton Khudobin with 8:27 remaining in the second, knotting the score at 2-all.

Talbot made his best best save of the night when he denied an all-alone Tyler Pitlick in front after he took a feed with 5:35 left in the second.

Dallas however, regained the lead as Radulov took a cross-ice pass from Tyler Sequin (two assists) and beat Talbot with a backhander with 3:21 left in the second, giving the Stars their second power-play goal.

"We take stupid penalties and they score,” said Lindblom, whose team has lost five of its last six games in Dallas.

The Stars were 2 for 6 on the power play, and one of the infractions was a bench penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. Interim coach Scott Gordon said he wasn’t sure if that penalty was on him or one of his players who was complaining about getting slashed.

“For whatever reason, we had one referee who wanted to make some calls against us that I can’t say were very good calls,” Gordon said.

About two minutes after Radulov’s goal, Pitlick made it 4-2 as he took a pass between Provorov and Travis Sanheim and scored from the slot.

That gave the Stars four goals on just 13 shots. They took a 4-2 lead into the third despite being outshot, 24-13. The Flyers thoroughly outplayed the Stars in the second, but still trailed by two after the session.

The Flyers were coming off a listless 3-0 loss to the New York Rangers on Sunday, a day after they were eliminated from post-season consideration and appeared to have a playoff hangover.