Patient Stars Keep Winning

Patience is paying off for Mike Modano and the Dallas Stars.

Modano and Scott Thornton scored goals as Dallas beat the Colorado Avalanche, 2-1, Sunday at Denver. It was the defending Stanley Cup champion Stars’ seventh victory in nine games.

“It has just been a lot of patience and not really expecting too much going into the game,” said Modano, who scored his 26th goal midway through the third period. He has 10 goals and nine assists in his last 13 games.

Modano’s goal was proof of that patience. Rather than shooting, Sergei Zubov waited for goalie Marc Denis to go down to the ice before feeding Modano for a better scoring chance.

Ed Belfour made 23 saves for the Stars, yielding only Alex Tanguay’s power-play goal with 11 seconds left.

Colorado’s second-ranked power-play unit was one for four and managed only four shots with the man advantage.

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Philadelphia 3, New York Rangers 2--John LeClair scored his 30th goal midway through the third period at Madison Square Garden in the Flyers’ first game without Coach Roger Neilson.

Neilson, 65, has multiple myeloma--a rare form of bone marrow cancer--and will be away from the team for the remainder of the regular season and at least through one round of the playoffs while undergoing treatment.

New York, clinging to the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, is 0-4-1 in its last five games. The Rangers, one point ahead of ninth-place Buffalo, are 1-5-2 since the all-star break.

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Phoenix 4, Atlanta 2--The Coyotes remained two points behind first-place Dallas in the Pacific Division with their 32nd win--a franchise-best after 58 games.

It was the first meeting between the teams. They were scheduled to play in Atlanta on Jan. 26, but the game was postponed until next month because of a snowstorm.

It was the Thrashers’ season-high 12th consecutive loss and 14th in 16 games (0-14-2).

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Chicago 6, Detroit 4--Alexei Zhamnov, playing his fifth game after sitting out eight because of a pulled hamstring, scored two goals in a 6:11 span in the third period at Chicago.

Zhamnov, who also had an assist, gave Chicago a 4-3 lead at 7:08, scoring off a rebound of Tony Amonte’s shot. He made it 5-3 with 6:41 left, racing up the slot and beating goalie Ken Wregget on the short side.

Chicago, last in the Western Conference at 20-31-7, finished its season series against the Red Wings 3-2-1.