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Stars Gameday: 2/17/13 vs. Flames

February 17, 2013, 11:56 AM ET [1 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Dallas Stars Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
PREVIEW 10:30 AM CST

Coming off a rousing comeback win in Vancouver that capped off a successful western Canada road trip, the Dallas Stars (8-6-1) return home to the American Airlines Center tonight for a rematch with the Calgary Flames (4-5-3). The game starts at 5 PM CST and will be televised locally on Fox Sports Southwest.

Five days ago, the Stars were on the receiving end of a 7-4 pasting in Calgary. Michael Cammalleri led the attack against beleaguered backup goaltender Richard Bachman, notching a hat trick. Brenden Morrow tallied a pair for the Stars in a losing cause.

It looks like the Stars will be without their most important player for awhile. Starting goaltender Kari Lehtonen (7-2-1, 2.12 GAA, .934 save percentage) went down with a groin pull in the first period of the Vancouver game. Bachman finished out, and did not look very good despite ultimately being the winning goaltender.

The team has recalled Cristopher Nilstorp from the Texas Stars. Nilstorp had an excellent NHL debut in Minnesota, but was the victim of no goal support in a 1-0 loss. He was merely average in his second start until he suffered a groin pull that ultimately forced him to leave the game and shelved him on injured reserve. Upon his activation, he was returned to the AHL team for more playing time. Nilstorp has played well at the AHL level this season.

The Stars are 5-1-1 in their last seven games. Early on, the top line of Jamie Benn, Jaromir Jagr and Morrow was carrying the team offensively. Of late, the offense has been spread around a little bit more, with role players being especially critical in keying the win in Vancouver on Friday night.

Apart from the Lehtonen injury, the Stars remain without second-line forward Ray Whitney (foot). Michael Ryder, who is notoriously streaky offensively, has gone seven games without a goal but has shown some recent signs of getting close to breaking out. He does have three assists over the last two games.

The Stars would also like to get Loui Eriksson going offensively. The two-way standout has just one goal in his last eight games, and only one point (an assist) during the three-game road trip of the past week.

As with Dallas, Calgary is dealing with issues in net. With long-tenured starter Miikka Kiprusoff out with a knee injury, Leland Irving struggled in his opportunity to claim the starting job and ended up being sent to the AHL. The club claimed veteran backup Joey MacDonald off waivers and brought up Danny Taylor from the farm.

The Flames broke loose offensively in the game against Dallas last week, pretty much shredding Dallas' team defense and firing one shot after another upstairs over the diminutive Bachman from point blank range. But Calgary returned to its struggling ways against the Blues, looking bad all around in a 5-2 home loss.

After today's game, the Stars will enjoy their first three-day schedule break of the season. They will pick up again on Thursday when the Vancouver Canucks come to town.


PROJECTED LINEUPS (Subject to change)

STARS

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

4 Brenden Dillon - 3 Stephane Robidas
36 Philip Larsen - 33 Alex Goligoski
6 Trevor Daley - 27 Aaron Rome

41 Cristopher Nilstorp
[31 Richard Bachman]


FLAMES (per Dailyfaceoff.com)

20 Curtis Glencross - 51 Roman Horak - 12 Jarome Iginla
24 Jiri Hudler - 40 Alex Tanguay - 10 Roman Cervenka
13 Mike Cammalleri - 28 Matt Stajan - 22 Lee Stempniak
17 Blake Comeau - 19 Blair Jones - 15 Tim Jackman

5 Mark Giordano - 4 Jay Bouwmeester
7 T.J. Brodie - 26 Dennis Wideman
44 Chris Butler - 6 Cory Sarich

Danny Taylor/ 35 Joey MacDonald

*******

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