Benn Leads Stars Past Flames

DALLAS (AP) - Jamie Benn scored twice, Kari Lehtonen made 35 saves, and the Dallas Stars beat the Calgary Flames 4-1 on Saturday in a matchup of Western Conference playoff contenders.

Michael Ryder also scored for the Stars, who improved to 87 points and are in the middle of a six-team scramble along with the Flames (83 points) for one of the final two playoff spots.

The Stars had moved into the Pacific Division lead with a 10-0-1 run, but they'd lost three of their previous four to tumble out of the top spot in the division and hurt their playoff hopes.

Brenden Morrow tapped in an empty-netter at 18:32 of the third period to clinch the win for Dallas.

Mike Cammalleri scored and Miikka Kiprusoff stopped 16 shots for the Flames, who had lost their previous three games in overtime or shootouts.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)