DALLAS (AP) -- With 18 regular season games remaining, Dallas Stars goaltender Ed Belfour is beginning to lock into his playoff mode.

Belfour stopped 25 shots for his 49th career shutout and Mike Modano scored his 30th goal as the Stars beat the Philadelphia Flyers 2-0 on Wednesday night.

	Dallas goalie Ed Belfour made 25 saves to frustrate Simon Gagne's Flyers.

Belfour registered his 303rd career victory and fourth shutout of the season, improving his record to 27-17-5.

"It's definitely important for us to gear up for the better teams," said Belfour, whose steady play led the Stars to their first Stanley Cup title last season. "You want to get into a groove and keep it going into the playoffs."

Belfour stopped 10 shots in the third period and withstood a six-on-four Flyers manpower advantage over the game's final 1:33 when the Stars were killing a penalty and Philadelphia pulled goaltender Brian Boucher for a sixth attacker.

"Belfour made four or five really big saves," said Flyers defenseman Eric Desjardins. "He kept them in the game."

The Stars improved to 5-2-1-1 in their last nine games, and they also got some good news from the trainer's room when they found out that a left knee injury to No. 2 defenseman Richard Matvichuk wasn't as serious as first thought.

Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said Matvichuk would be lost for seven to 10 days with a sprained ligament.

Matvichuk had to be helped from the ice with 1:27 left in the first period with and didn't return. Keith Jones of the Flyers slid into the back of Matvichuk's leg on a play to the left of the Stars goal, causing Matvichuk's knee to buckle. Teammate Derian Hatcher helped Matvichuk to the tunnel leading to the Dallas locker room where Matvichuk's condition was being evaluated.

Matvichuk has already missed six games this season due to two separate injuries to the same knee he hurt on Wednesday night.

The Stars are also missing injured players Joe Nieuwendyk, Jere Lehtinen, Blake Sloan, Shawn Chambers and Brian Skrudland.

Philadelphia was without injured players Eric Lindros, Keith Primeau, Dan McGillis, Luke Richardson and Ulf Samuelsson.

The Stars played a sound overall game against one of the top Eastern Conference contenders.

"We took this as a playoff game," said left wing Aaron Gavey, who scored Dallas' second goal. "We're trying to get ourselves ready for the playoffs by playing well against the top teams."

Said Flyers coach Craig Ramsay: "This is the top team. They're well-coached, and they keep coming at you. They have solid goaltending, they're solid at the blue line. We competed with them but they created a couple of breaks and cashed in."

Modano knocked the rebound of his own shot past Boucher at 6:10 of the second period. Modano has 341 career goals, all for the Stars, leaving him one short of Brian Bellows' club record.

Modano has 30 or more goals in seven seasons. Bellows and Dino Ciccarelli are the only other players in franchise history to score 30 or more goals seven times.

Gavey's fourth goal at 5:02 of the third period pushed Dallas' lead to 2-0. Gavey stole the puck from Philadelphia defenseman Zarley Zalapski, skated in alone and beat Boucher for an unassisted goal.