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PHILADELPHIA -- Things are going so well for the Philadelphia Flyers right now that they dont even need to be at their best to come out on top. Wayne Simmonds scored two goals and the Flyers beat the Dallas Stars 4-2 Thursday night for their fourth straight win. Mark Streit and Michael Raffl also scored for Philadelphia, which improved to 11-2-1 in its last 14 games while maintaining its hold on second place in the Metropolitan Division. Despite the victory, head coach Craig Berube was concerned with the teams "sloppy" play, particularly the second period when Philadelphia allowed 17 shots and three power plays. "Tonight wasnt as good, for sure," Berube said. "We were sloppy tonight, at times. Overall our team is competing hard, working hard and playing like a team, and thats what you have to do. They know it wasnt good enough tonight, but we won." Jamie Benn scored twice for Dallas, which lost its fourth straight. The Stars began the day two points behind Phoenix for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Stars coach Lindy Ruff actually saw positives in the defeat. "If we play like that night after night, well win," Ruff said. "We didnt give up a lot in the game. We gave up four goals but we didnt give up four goals on a lot of opportunities and zone time. Our puck movement was good. The margin of victory, that game couldve went either way real fast." Simmonds scored his second of the game with 7:39 left to put Philadelphia ahead 3-1. After skating across the blue line, Simmonds fired a wrist shot that beat Tim Thomas to the stick side. "Thats a save I should make," Thomas said. "The team really needed it at the time, and I really feel bad for the guys for the game they played. Thats hockey. But I can guarantee Im going to be better for the guys from here on out." Just 30 seconds later, Benn scored his second of the contest by finishing a rebound from in front of the crease after Tyler Seguins shot followed a poor Philadelphia turnover in its own end. It was the 29th goal of the season for Benn, who has points in eight of his last nine games. Raffl provided some insurance for Philadelphia by beating Thomas with a backhander on a breakaway with 3:12 to play. The Flyers took a 2-0 lead after one period. Streit opened the scoring with 9:37 left in the first when he beat Thomas to the glove side with a one-timed slap shot from the top of the left circle. Thomas, Dallas backup, got the start because he entered 14-4-2 with a 2.21 goals-against average and .934 save percentage in his career against Philadelphia. The Stars starting goalie, Kari Lehtonen, is 0-10-2 with a 3.50 goals-against and .891 save percentage lifetime against the Flyers. Simmonds scored on a rebound on the power play just under three minutes later to put Philadelphia in front 2-0. Jakub Voraceks shot from the blue line first hit the right post, then the back of Thomas leg and then the left post before deflecting in front to a wide-open Simmonds, who easily finished from lose range. After Steve Mason stopped Alex Chiasson and Benn on a 5-on-3 power play with 8 minutes remaining in the second period, Benn got the Stars on the board with 7:12 left in the period on a 5-on-4 advantage by beating Mason through the five-hole from right in front of the goal to pull Dallas within 2-1. It was the first power-play goal allowed by the Flyers in their last 20 penalty kills. And despite dominating the period, Dallas entered the third down one goal. "We got on our toes and skated well," Ruff said of the second period. "You have to give Mason a lot of credit. We couldve built some momentum and he made a couple timely saves." Tyler Seguin finished with two assists, giving him 14 points (six goals, eight assists) in his last eight games while extending his career-high total to 72 points. NOTES: Dallas lost for the fourth straight time in Philadelphia, with the Stars last victory a 4-1 win on Dec. 1, 2007. ... Mason returned to the goal after getting a break in Tuesdays 3-2 overtime win over Chicago when backup Ray Emery made 23 saves. Mason had started eight straight games prior to Tuesday. ... The Stars won the only other matchup this season when Seguin got a natural hat trick in a 5-1 win on Dec. 7 in Dallas. Devin Booker Jersey . As a follow-up, TSN.ca offers you the opportunity to chime in on all the big issues with our insiders. Read up on all the questions and answers, and put in your own two cents on our popular Your Call feature. Leandro Barbosa Jersey .6 seconds left to give the Toronto Raptors a 92-89 victory over the Boston Celtics in an exhibition game Wednesday night. http://www.cheapsunsjerseys.com/ . -- Omar Infante walked past the visiting clubhouse at Kauffman Stadium, where he dressed so many times as a member of the Detroit Tigers, and slipped on a crisp, new Kansas City Royals jersey. Grant Hill Jersey . -- Los Angeles Angels outfielder Josh Hamilton will be sidelined for at least two weeks because of a strained calf muscle, and pitcher C. Jason Kidd Jersey . Like a magic trick, the puck popped out behind Stalock in the San Jose net. While Sharks coach Todd McLellan decried the legality of the tiebreaking goal, the Los Angeles Kings celebrated their latest, greatest escape yet. HOUSTON -- The last time the Houston Rockets scored more than 70 points in a first half they followed it with a franchise-low 19 points after halftime. They had no such letdown Monday night against the Portland Trail Blazers. Chandler Parsons scored a season-high 31 points and Dwight Howard added 24 to lead the Rockets to a 126-113 win over Portland that snapped the Trail Blazers five-game winning streak. The Rockets scored a season-high to win their second straight, building a big lead early and answering every time Portland made a run. James Harden added 22 points and had five assists and Patrick Beverley returned from a broken hand to score 17 points. Parsons added 10 rebounds and seven assists while finishing one point shy of his career-high. Harden talked about the difference between Monday night and last weeks loss to Oklahoma City, when they set an NBA record for the largest scoring differential between two halves. "We just held our composure," Harden said. "We couldnt worry about what they were doing or anything. We had to figure out a way to fight through it and play harder, push the tempo a little harder and play defence." LaMarcus Aldridge had 27 points and 20 rebounds for the Trail Blazers, who have won seven of their last 11 games. "We got close and we just couldnt get over that hump," Aldridge said. "Our shots didnt fall for us and they made tough shots and were able to get the win." Houston was up by 18 points after a 3-pointer by Harden with about eight minutes left. The Trail Blazers used a 9-2 run over the next two minutes to cut it to 115-104. The Rockets struggled in that stretch, missing two layups and committing a turnover. Houston missed two 3-pointers on one possession after that before Beverley hit a jump shot. Howard gave Houston a 119-104 lead when he grabbed an alley-oop from Harden and finished with a two-handed slam. Damian Lillard added 24 points for Portland and Wesley Matthews had 18. A 7-0 run by Portland midway through the third quarter got the Trail Blazers within six points. The Rockets scored the next seven straight to pad their lead to 93-80. "They made a run in the third quarter and instead of us complaining, we got to thee bench and we talked about what we needed to do and we got a good win against a very, very good team," Howard said.dddddddddddd Jeremy Lin made a 3-pointer with less than 10 seconds left in the third quarter to make it 106-91 entering the fourth. Harden was fouled on a 3-point attempt and made all three free throws before hitting a 3-pointer for a 6-0 run that pushed Houstons lead to 79-61 early in the third quarter. The Trail Blazers answered with a 9-0 spurt to cut the lead to 79-70. Aldridge had a 3-point play during that stretch and Lillard capped it with two free throws when he was fouled by Howard, who also got a technical on the play. The Rockets scored for the first time in almost three minutes on a layup by Parsons with about seven minutes left in the quarter. Nicolas Batum made a layup before Parsons added a 3-pointer to extend Houstons lead to 84-72. Mo Williams got Portland within seven points when he opened the second quarter with a jump shot. But Houston countered with eight straight points powered by two 3-pointers from Omri Casspi to push the lead to 45-30. Five straight points by Matthews a couple of minutes later cut Houstons lead to 12 points. The Rockets responded again, scoring seven points in a row to extend the lead to 60-41. Casspi scored five quick points soon after that to extend Houstons lead to 71-49. Portland scored the last seven points of the half to get within 71-56 at the break. The Rockets made 10 of 13 3-pointers in the first half to help them to score more than 70 points in a half for the second time in a week. Houston scored on its first 11 possessions to build a 25-11 lead. Beverley, who returned to the starting lineup after missing 14 games following surgery to repair a broken right hand, had two 3-pointers in that span and Harden had one. NOTES: Houstons Terrence Jones, who scored a career-high 36 points in the last game, sat out with a deep thigh bruise. Donatas Motiejunas started in his place and finished with nine points and nine rebounds. ... The Trail Blazers have scored at least 98 points in 29 games in a row. ... Batum injured one of his fingers and said he "felt it crack" but wasnt sure of the extent of the injury after the game. ' ' '