Stars Get Even With Flyers

Mike Modano found the opening he was looking for.

Modano scored with 30.7 seconds left in the third period to give the defending Stanley Cup champion Dallas Stars a 1-1 tie with the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night at Philadelphia.

With Dallas goalie Ed Belfour lifted for an extra attacker, Modano pushed a backhand shot off goalie John Vanbiesbrouck’s pads for the Dallas forward’s seventh goal.

“There tends to be a lot of bodies in front of the net there at the end,” Modano said. “I just tried to step off to the side and get away from the crowd. I got a good pass and was able to get my stick on it.”

Vanbiesbrouck stopped 24 shots, including close-range attempts by Mike Keane in the first period and Modano in the third.

“When you give up a goal with 30 seconds left, you’re certainly not too elated,” Vanbiesbrouck said.

“We did a pretty good job all night against a pretty good power play. It was kind of a fluky goal. They poked at it and I got my pad on it, but not enough to keep it out of the net.”

Dallas outshot the Flyers, 3-2, in overtime, but the Flyers missed the best opportunity when Daniel McGillis fired wide of the goal from the slot.

Nashville 6, Montreal 1--Kimmo Timonen scored on the first penalty shot in Nashville’s short NHL history as the Predators beat the Canadiens at Nashville.

Nashville, which has won three of its last four games, scored the first two goals and never trailed against the struggling Canadiens en route to its highest goal total of the season.

Rob Valicevic scored twice, Cliff Ronning had an unassisted goal, and Scott Walker and Mark Mowers added their first goals of the season.

San Jose 4, Ottawa 1--Vincent Damphousse and Dave Lowry scored late in the third period for the Sharks at Kanata, Canada.

Damphousse scored his seventh of the season to give San Jose a 3-1 lead with 3:45 remaining, and Lowry added his first goal of the season with 2:40 left.

St. Louis 3, Florida 0--Pavol Demitra scored two goals in a 1:04 span in the third period at St. Louis.

Roman Turek made 27 saves for his first shutout of the season as the Blues ended the Panthers’ four-game winning streak in a game matching two of the NHL’s stingiest defenses. Florida, which leads the Southeast Division, has given up 45 goals in 19 games, and the Blues have given up 43 in 19.

Tampa Bay 2, Pittsburgh 1--Kevin Hodson made 26 saves and Robert Petrovicky and Pavel Kubina scored first-period goals for the Lightning at Tampa, Fla.

Jaromir Jagr returned to the Pittsburgh lineup after missing most of the Penguins’ last game because of an upper-leg injury.

Boston 5, New York Rangers 3--Jason Allison, Boston’s scoring leader last season, scored his first goal of the season at Boston.

Byron Dafoe made 24 saves for the Bruins, 9-1-2 in their last 12 games and 5-0-3 in their last eight home games.

Around the League

St. Louis left wing Geoff Courtnall, unable to shake the effects of post-concussion syndrome after a month-long layoff, retired. Courtnall had 799 points and 1,465 penalty minutes in 1,048 games over 17 seasons, but has missed most of the last two seasons because of concussions. . . . The Chicago Blackhawks released forward Wendel Clark, who fell out of favor with the team and had only two goals in 13 games. . . . Free-agent defenseman Grant Ledyard signed a multiyear contract with the Ottawa Senators. Ledyard played with Boston last season.