PREVIEW 7:00 AM CST
Two teams in dire need of wins will meet tonight at the American Airlines Center, when the Dallas Stars (24-19-2) take on the Tampa Bay Lightning (18-23-4). The game starts at 7:30 PM CST and will be broadcast locally on Fox Sports Southwest.
This is the lone meeting of the season between the teams. Early last season, the Stars traveled to Tampa and lost 5-4. Dallas was unable to hold an early lead and then fell short in a desperate third-period comeback bid after falling behind, 5-2.
Guy Boucher's Lightning have been one of the NHL's biggest disappointments in the pre-All Star break portion of the season. An Eastern Conference finalist last season before bowing out to Boston, the Bolts are currently in 14th place in the East, 12 points out of the last playoff spot.
Tampa has won just 3 of its last 10 games, but is coming off a rousing 5-3 win over the Bruins on Tuesday. Tampa Bay broke a 3-3 tie on a third-period goal by Dominic Moore (who tallied a pair of goals in the game against the Stars last season). Later, Steven Stamkos added an empty-netter for his NHL-leading 31st goal of the season.
The Stars came up empty in their recent three-game-in-four-night stretch of games against Colorado (home), St. Louis (away) and Detroit (home). On Tuesday, Richard Bachman stole a point for his undermanned team, but the team ultimately lost 3-2 to the Red Wings via shootout. Loui Eriksson and Brenden Morrow scored for Dallas.
Kari Lehtonen will be back in goal tonight for the Stars. The team is slated to welcome rookie defenseman Philip Larsen back into the lineup tonight after he was activated from the IR list yesterday. However, the club remains without top two centers Jamie Benn and Mike Ribeiro.
Per NHL.com, Dana Tyrell (lower body) and Marc-Andre Bergeron (upper body) are both questionable for tonight's game. Victor Hedman (IR, concussion) Adam Hall (IR, forearm), J.T. Wyman (IR, lacerated right pinky) and Ryan Shannon (IR, lower body) are all out.
The Stars have struggled on special teams for much of the season. Tampa has struggled even worse, dragging a 13.7 percent power play success ratio and 79.2 percent penalty killing ratio into tonight's game. Tampa has also been plagued by goaltending problems.
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