By Rob Riches, Sports Talk Philly Contributor
All good things must come to an end.
The Flyers learned that age-old adage the hard way, as their offense stumbled in a 3-1 loss Saturday to the Dallas Stars. Despite taking a first-period lead and firing 32 shots on Antti Niemi, the Flyers' winning streak comes to an end at 10 games.
Adam Cracknell's fourth goal at 2:27 of the third period, on a rebound from John Klingberg's shot, put the Stars ahead. Niemi stifled the Orange and Black at every turn from there — save for two Ivan Provorov shots that rang off the post late in the period — and Jordie Benn's empty-net goal with 17.1 seconds left in regulation confirmed the end of the streak.
Radek Faksa evened the score for the Stars early in the second stanza, burying a rebound in the slot from an Antoine Roussel shot. The Stars continued to out-work the Flyers for the rest of the period, taking a 14-7 shots advantage into the dressing room at the end of the period.
Steve Mason held as steady as he could for the Flyers, stopping 25 of 27 shots. Ultimately, he's saddled with his first loss since Nov. 25 (a 3-2 Flyers loss to the New York Rangers, their last before the streak).
One bright spot for the Flyers came at 16:44 of the first period, as Taylor Leier netted his first NHL goal. Just a game removed from his first-career point against Colorado, Leier crashed the net to bury a Nick Cousins rebound. The goal comes in his 11th game as a Flyer, and fifth since being called up.
The Flyers return home on Monday, taking on Peter Laviolette and the Nashville Predators.
