PREVIEW 8 AM CST
Beginning a three-game-in-four-night jaunt through the New York metropolitan area, the Dallas Stars (16-11-1) head to Manhattan tonight to take on the New York Rangers (17-6-4) at Madison Square Garden. The game starts at 6 PM CST (7 PM EST) and will be broadcast locally on Fox Sports Southwest.
The game marks the lone meeting of the season between the two clubs. Last season, on Jan. 7, 2011, the teams met in Dallas. The Blueshirts prevailed via shootout, 3-2. In that match, Dallas held leads of 1-0 (after the first period) and 2-1 (at the second intermission) but were unable to nail down the game.
From a media standpoint, the big story from tonight's game is that it marks Brad Richards' first game against the Stars since leaving the team as a free agent over the summer and signing with John Tortorella's Rangers. Richards (11 G, 14 A in 27 GP) is currently tied with Marian Gaborik (15 G, 10 A) for New York's team scoring lead.
The Rangers enter this game having won its last two games after blowing a late 3rd period lead and losing a home tilt to Tampa. Henrik Lundqvist (2.08 GAA, .932 save percentage) is making a strong early case for Vezina Trophy and the team in front of him usually plays solid defense.
Relative to the majority of NHL teams, the Blueshirts have enjoyed remarkably good health as a team so far this season. All nine of its leading scorers and 13 players overall have dressed in every game this season. However, the club is currently without key defenseman Marc Staal (concussion). In addition, defenseman Michael Sauer (concussion) and fowards Michael Rupp (knee surgery) and Wojtek Wolski (sports hernia) remain out of the lineup.
The Stars, conversely, have been racked with key injuries for much of the last month but have finally started to get healthier over the last week to 10 days. Kari Lehtonen (groin) and Adam Burish (broken hand) are still out of the lineup but the rest of the lineup is intact, except for Mark Fistric, who is serving the third and final game of his NHL-mandated suspension for charging the Islanders' Nino Niederreiter.
In Los Angeles on Saturday, the Stars managed to play from ahead most of the night and got an outstanding performance in goal from Richard Bachman in his first NHL start. Dallas' power play continued to struggle but the Stars benefited in the latter stages from spending much of the game on the man advantage. They also got a fortunate early-game power play from struggling Jamie Benn on a deflection off his skate as he drove to the net.
Bachman will get the call again tonight. It will be imperative for him not to allow anything soft and for Dallas to score first because the Rangers (notwithstanding the Tampa game) are one of the toughest teams in the NHL against whom to play from behind, especially after two periods.
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In conjunction with our sponsor, Hockeytickets.ca, I am pleased to announce our first random drawing to win a pair of free Dallas Stars tickets. The winner will receive two seats to see the Stars host the current Eastern Conference-leading Philadelphia Flyers at the American Airlines Center on Wed. December 21.
To enter the contest, simply send an email to
[email protected] with Flyers-Stars ticket contest in the subject line. A winner will be chosen in a random on Thursday evening and announced on Friday.
The contest is open to Stars and Flyers fans alike. However, please note that the contest is for the tickets ONLY. We cannot provide transportation or other accommodations if the contest winner is someone who has to travel to Texas for the game.
If you enter the contest, PLEASE make sure you will be able to use the tickets on Dec. 21 or else we will have to draw an alternate winner.
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