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Stars Gameday: 4/9/13 vs. Kings

April 9, 2013, 12:29 AM ET [4 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Dallas Stars Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
PREVIEW 11:00 p.m. CDT (4/8/13)

With 10 games remaining on their schedule, the Dallas Stars (18-17-3) are 10th in the Western Conference, four points out of the eighth and final postseason berth. On Tuesday night, Dallas will play host to the defending Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings (22-13-4) at the American Airlines Center. Game time is 7:30 p.m. CDT and the match will be televised locally on Fox Sports Southwest-Plus.

This is the fourth of five meetings between the teams this season, and the fourth since March 7. The Stars won the first two games in LA, 5-2 and 2-0, largely behind stellar goaltending from Kari Lehtonen. In the most recent game, the Kings returned the favor in Dallas, nipping the Stars by a 3-2 count.

The Stars have won back-to-back divisional games heading into this game. On Sunday afternoon in San Jose, the Stars battled back from a pair of two-goal deficits (2-0 and 4-2) to force overtime and then capture a second point via shootout in a 5-4 victory over the Sharks.

Promising young forward Alex Chiasson, who has scored in each of the last two games, tallied a pair of goals for the Stars against San Jose. Dallas also got goals from Eric Nystrom and Loui Eriksson. Top-line center Jamie Benn broke out of a three-game pointless streak with two assists and the lone goal either team scored in the shootout. Lehtonen made 32 regulation and overtime saves and then stopped all three shots he faced in the post-overtime skills competition.

The Kings, who are an unimpressive 5-3-2 over their last 10 games after a torrid stretch of play, are coming off a 4-3 shootout loss in Anaheim on Sunday. The silver lining for the Kings was that they were able to come back from three separate one goal deficits to earn a point, and a Dustin Brown goal with less than four minutes remaining in the third period forced overtime. Jonathan Bernier stopped 19 of 22 shots in regulation and overtime before getting beaten by all three shooters he faced (Bobby Ryan, Saku Koivu and Corey Perry) in the shootout.

On the injury front, Dallas may still be without recently acquired Lane MacDermid, who missed the game in San Jose with an upper body injury after leaving the previous tilt in Anaheim in the second period. For Los Angeles, out-of-favor winger Dustin Penner is questionable with a lowernbody injury.

Roster note: The Stars have recalled defenseman Jordie Benn from their AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars. Benn, who has dressed in 23 games with the big club this season (1G, 5A, 10 PIM, -3) will serve as the seventh defenseman. There are no new injuries on the blueline among the six players who have been starting recently.

PROJECTED LINEUPS (subject to change)

STARS

13 Ray Whitney - 14 Jamie Benn - 12 Alex Chiasson
21 Loui Eriksson - 20 Cody Eakin - 25 Matt Fraser
24 Eric Nystrom - 38 Vernon Fiddler - 72 Erik Cole
60 Antoine Roussel - 23 Tom Wandell - 40 Ryan Garbutt

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

32 Kari Lehtonen
[31 Richard Bachman]


KINGS (per Dailyfaceoff.com)

23 Dustin Brown - 11 Anze Kopitar - 14 Justin Williams
13 Kyle Clifford - Mike Richards - 77 Jeff Carter
76 Dwight King - 28 Jarret Stoll - 22 Trevor Lewis
15 Brad Richardson - 24 Colin Fraser - 71 Jordan Nolan

44 Robyn Regehr - 8 Drew Doughty
7 Rob Scuderi - 26 Slava Voynov
6 Jake Muzzin - 5 Keaton Ellerby

#32 Jonathan Quick
[#45 Jonathan Bernier]

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