Three of the Dallas Stars' best players rank among the top 20 in NHL scoring right now.
Jamie Benn, who won the scoring title last season with just 87 points — six more than Jakub Voracek — had a goal and an assist in Tuesday’s 2-1 victory over the Flyers.
Benn now has six goals and 10 points, which temporarily gives him the league lead in scoring.
He played on Tyler Seguin’s line with Patrick Sharp and they single-handedly won the game for Dallas with both goals (see game recap).
“I think we were just trying to push each other was the biggest thing and just trying to be the best players and be leaders out there for this team,” Benn said.
“When we play the right way we’re going to get our own chances and it’s just taking advantage of them. We had a good start to the second period, got a goal first shift and they kind of came out a certain way in the third and then our game kind of got a little slow there, but we managed to squeak out a win and got what we came for.”
You’d never guess it by the way he was skating in this game, but Benn had surgery to both hips in the offseason.
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“I feel pretty good,” he said. “Obviously, I did what I had to do this summer to be ready for this season and it was a lot of hard work.
“It’s pretty frustrating sometimes but it was really just doing the right things this summer to get myself ready and I feel good out there.”
Dallas’ first goal in the final minute of the opening period was a bouncing puck that went from Benn to Seguin.
“It was one of those. I thought Jamie was going to get it,” Seguin said. “It was just bouncing like crazy. At the end of the period we know, obviously, the ice was going to be bad then. Once it came close to me, I just tried to whack it anywhere short side and kind of knuckled-pucked it.”
While their line provided the offense, Antti Niemi was all the defense the Stars needed in goal. He came into the game with a lifetime goals-against average of 1.83 against the Flyers in three previous games.
“We were good,” Niemi said. “Made some big saves and felt really good in the beginning of the game getting some saves.”
Dallas had 12 blocked shots.
Vernon Fiddler had a critical save on Wayne Simmonds’ rebound during the Flyers' fourth and final power play in the third period.
“We did a good job blocking shots and getting our sticks in front of the net,” Niemi said, adding he’d credit Fiddler with a save there.