Stars Blow Away Leafs 5-1

DALLAS -- Toronto's Felix Potvin, one of the NHL's hottest goaltenders, was cooled off by the Dallas Stars.

Darryl Sydor had a goal and three assists for a career-high four points as the Stars stretched their winning streak to five games with a 5-1 victory over the Maple Leafs.

"Potvin didn't have a chance on any of the five goals," said Stars coach Ken Hitchcock after Dallas sent 38 shots at the Toronto net. "As a team, we just played very well."

Toronto had its three game winning streak snapped. Potvin had won twice by road shutouts over that span and had allowed only two goals in the three games before the Stars broke through.

Jere Lehtinen, former Maple Leafs draft choice Grant Marshall, Sergei Zubov and Benoit Hogue added goals for the Stars, 12-2-4 in their last 18 games to extend their league-best point total to 74.

The Stars' two previous wins had come against their Western Conference rivals, the Colorado Avalanche, and Hitchcock was concerned that his team might look past the Maple Leafs, who are fighting for a playoff spot.

"It was important that we not take a step back," said Sydor. "Toronto had been playing well. We didn't play our style in the first period, but we stepped it up from there."

Stars goaltender Ed Belfour stopped 26 shots to improve his record to 26-7-8. Belfour made a run at his eighth shutout of the season until Fredrik Modin's sixth goal with 5:11 left.

Maple Leafs coach Mike Murphy was displeased with everyone on his team except Potvin.

"Dallas is the best team in the league, but our effort was sub-par," Murphy said. "We left our goalie hung out to dry. Dallas had four big lines and we didn't have any."

Sydor got the only goal of the first period, scoring his 10th from the right circle off a feed from Jamie Langenbrunner from behind the net. Sydor has already surpassed his career high for goals.

Lehtinen made it 2-0 after only 1:30 had been played in the second period, skating up the slot and sending Mike Modano's feed past Potvin for his 18th.

Marshall's fifth at 13:31 of the scond period while Dallas was on the power play boosted the Stars' lead to 3-0, then Zubov got his seventh and Dallas' second power-play goal of the night at 1:35 of the third.

Hogue's fifth goal with 1:59 left extended Dallas' lead to 5-1.