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Stars Gameday: 2/4/13 @ Avalanche

February 4, 2013, 10:57 AM ET [6 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Dallas Stars Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
PREVIEW 9:30 AM CST

In the middle game of a three-game road trip and a three-game-in-four night gauntlet, the Dallas Stars (3-5-1) head to the Mile High City tonight to take on the Colorado Avalance (4-4-0). The game starts at 8 PM CST and will be broadcast nationally on NBC Sports Network.

This is the first of three meetings between the teams this season. Last year, the teams split the four-game season series with two wins apiece and each won once on the other's home ice.

The Stars are coming off a home-and-home split with the Phoenix Coyotes, prevailing 4-3 via shootout on Friday and then getting shut out in Phoenix by a 2-0 count on Saturday. Kari Lehtonen, who got the second game of the back-to-back set off (as is the norm in Glen Gulutzan's goalie rotation), will return to the net tonight.

On Saturday, Dallas was missing two-thirds of its projected second line, and has not all six members of its projected top two lines in the lineup at the same time. Once Jamie Benn got signed to a new contract and Jaromir Jagr returned from a one-game absence due to back spasms, the Stars lost Derek Roy to a groin pull and then Ray Whitney to a broken bone in his foot. Tonight, Roy is set to return to the lineup but Whitney will be out for an extended period of time.

The Stars have had a variety of issues this season. They struggle to score goals. They struggle to draw power plays and they take too many penalties. Thus far, Benn (0 goals, 1 assist in four games) has yet to recover his game but it's just a matter of time until he gets re-acclimated. Thus far, however, Benn and Jagr have not clicked together on the ice.

Dallas' best player on a game-in-and-game-out basis has been goaltender Lehtonen. That has been a constant over the last two-plus season. He has kept the club close in some games that would otherwise have been blowout losses.

Colorado has won its last two games. On Saturday, the Avalanche downed Edmonton 3-1. The red-hot P.A. Parenteau tallied his sixth goal of the season to trigger an outburst of three unanswered goals. Four of Parenteau's goals have come over the last four games.

The Avalanche have some key injuries of their own. Last season's Calder Trophy winner, Gabriel Landeskog is on injured reserve with a head injury. Agitating forward Steve Downie is out for the rest of the season after tearing his ACL. Forward David Jones is also on IR with a less serious variety of knee injury.


PROJECTED LINEUPS (subject to change)

STARS

21 Loui Eriksson - 14 Jamie Benn- 68 Jaromir Jagr
10 Brendan Morrow - 11 Derek Roy - 73 Michael Ryder
24 Eric Nystrom- 38 Vern Fiddler - 81 Tomas Vincour
18 Reilly Smith - 20 Cody Eakin - 60 Antoine Roussel/ 40 Ryan Garbutt

4 Brenden Dillon - 3 Stephane Robidas
33 Alex Goligoski - 43 Jamie Oleksiak
58 Jordie Benn - 6 Trevor Daley

32 Kari Lehtonen
[31 Richard Bachman]

Healthy scratches: Tom Wandell, Philip Larsen, Aaron Rome.
Injuries: Ray Whitney (foot, IR), Cristopher Nilstorp (groin, day-to-day).


AVALANCHE

11 Jamie McGinn - 9 Matt Duchene - 15 P.A. Parenteau
7 John Mitchell - 26 Paul Stastny - 23 Milan Hejduk
17 Chuck Kobasew - 43 Michael Sgarbossa - 7 David Van Der Gulik
55 Cody McLeod - 40 Mark Olver - 58 Patrick Bordeleau

6 Erik Johnson - 22 Matt Hunwick
41 Tyson Barrie - 8 Jan Hejda
4 Greg Zanon - 3 Ryan O'Byrne

1 Semyon Varlamov
[35 Jean-Sabastien Giguere]

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