PREVIEW 9:45 AM CST
Taking to the ice for the third time in four night and in desperate need of goals, the Dallas Stars (11-8-0) will attempt to break their five-game losing streak tonight when they play the Edmonton Oilers (10-7-2). The game starts at 7:30 PM CST (9:30 PM PST) and will be broadcast locally on Fox Sports Southwest.
This is the first of four meetings between the clubs this season. Last year, the Stars were on a hot streak when they caught a struggling Oilers team three times in a 15-day span. Dallas won all three games by a combined 10-5 score. However, the Stars were dismantled by the Oilers, 4-1, shortly after the All-Star break, as Edmonton ended a 14-game losing streak and an injury-riddled Stars club was hurt by a late second period goal by Shawn Horcoff and an Ales Hemsky tally in the opening half-minute of the third period.
The Stars enter this game having scored just one goal in the last 10 periods. If there is any bright spot, it is that the team played a greatly improved third period in Saturday's loss to San Jose and perhaps can build on it heading into tonight. The club will need to be up on its skates against the young and speedy Oilers.
Dallas' forecheck, puck support, discipline and defensive coverages have been a mess ever since the third period of the game in Detroit. The Stars have taken too many penalties (pretty much all season), drawn too few and given little help to their goaltenders. That needs to change drastically for the club to regularly resume winning.
Edmonton, meanwhile, lost four games in a row before going into Chicago on Saturday night and skating circles around the Blackhawks in what turned out to be a 9-2 shellacking.
So far this season, the Oilers are averaging a moderate 2.56 goals per game with most of the damage coming on the power play (22.4 percent). With the Stars having struggled on the PK of late and dropping to 80.6 percent on the season in that department, it is critical for the team to play with increased discipline tonight.
Edmonton has also killed penalties at a solid 86.2 rate, while the Stars have had very few power plays of their own of late and have dropped overall to a middling 18 percent success rate. It will be important for the Stars to be the better team at even strength tonight, establish good habits early, and build from there.
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