PREVIEW 7:00 AM CDT
No longer in control of their own increasingly remote playoff hopes, all the Dallas Stars (22-20-4) can do at this point is try to take care of business in their two remaining games at the American Airlines Center. It would take a minor miracle for the Stars to get into the Western Conference playoffs at this point.
Tonight, the 10th-place Stars host the ninth-place Columbus Blue Jackets (22-17-7). The game starts at 7:30 p.m. CDT and will be televised locally on Fox Sports Southwest Plus.
This is the third and final meeting between the teams this season, and the lone match in Dallas. They have split the first two games.
On Jan. 28, the Blue Jackets broke a four-game losing streak with a 2-1 regulation win on home ice. Veteran forward Vaclav "Vinny" Prospal broke a 1-1 deadlock early in the third period, while winning goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky made 24 saves on 25 shots to the 25 saves on 27 shots made by Kari Lehtonen. Philip Larsen's second-period power play goal was the lone tally for Dallas. Since-traded Derek Dorsett had the first CBJ tally.
On Feb. 26, the momentum see-sawed throughout the game in a 5-4 Dallas win in overtime. Playing the second half of consecutive-night games, which has frequently presented problems for the Stars the last two seasons, Dallas built four separate one-goal leads. Each time, the opportunistic Blue Jackets came back to tie the game.
The conclusion of the game was dramatic. A goal by R.J. Umberger with 1:34 left in the third period forced overtime. Finally, Loui Eriksson outworked two CBJ players to claim a Derek Roy rebound, move laterally and tuck home the game winner. Neither Vezina Trophy candidate Bobrovsky (34 saves) nor Stars backup Richard Bachman (16 saves) were especially good in goal in this game. Both goalies let in a pair of seemingly stoppable shots among the four each yielded in regulation.
Tonight's game figures to be an even harder-fought contest, with both teams fighting for their playoff lives. The Stars enter tonight's game three points behind the Blue Jackets and four points in back of eighth-seeded Detroit. All three clubs have two games remaining on their schedules.
Apart from winning their own games. the Stars will need a lot of help from the Draft-lottery bound Nashville Predators to get into the playoffs. The Stars must defeat Columbus tonight and the Red Wings on Saturday in regulation. Overtime or shootout wins will still eliminate Dallas. In addition, the Stars need for Detroit to lose tonight's game in Nashville in regulation. Finally, the Stars need Columbus to lose to at home to Nashville on Saturday.
If all four of those desired outcomes happen, Dallas would get into the playoffs over Detroit via tie-breaker. Anything short of that and the Stars will lose out on the playoffs in the final week for the third straight season.
Although tonight's game is in Dallas, playing on the road has not been a problem of late for the Blue Jackets. This is the final game of a stretch of six straight on the road for the club, and they have won four of the first five (4-1-0). The Stars are winless in their last three games (0-2-1).
Dallas is coming off a devastating 3-2 loss in San Jose on Tuesday. The Stars nursed a 2-1 lead into the latter stages of the third period only to see the Sharks score twice in 30 seconds. The Stars had been outplayed for much of the game but Lehtonen almost singlehandedly willed the club to the brink of victory. The Dallas netminder had zero chance to stop any of the three Sharks goals. The first and final goals were point blank shots by wide-open attackers. The middle goal was a deflection from right in front of the net. Antoine Roussel and Loui Eriksson scored for the Stars.
The Stars cannot afford any lingering psychological effect from the late-game collapse in San Jose. That may not be easy for a team with a lot of young players, as well as veterans who have been part of the final-week letdowns that have knocked the Stars out of the playoffs in each of the last seasons. Even if the Blue Jackets go ahead early or if they rally back from a deficit, the Stars cannot afford to lose their discipline or let their energy level and attention to detail drop.
Goaltending will, of course, stand front and center as a key factor tonight. Former Philadelphia backup Bobrovsky has had a breakout year in the lower-pressure Columbus market, and has arguably been the best goaltender in the NHL this year. When healthy, Lehtonen has been the Stars' most valuable player.
On the Dallas injury front, highlt promising rookie Alex Chiasson (shoulder injury) has been upgraded to questionable for tonight. Given the vital importance of the game, he will play if at all possible. For Columbus, forwards Artem Anisimov (concussion) and Matt Calvert (broken finger) as well as defensemen Nikita Nikitin (lower body) Ryan Murray (shoulder) are out of the lineup.
PROJECTED LINEUPS (Subject to change)
STARS
13 Ray Whitney - 14 Jamie Benn - 21 Loui Eriksson
18 Reilly Smith - 20 Cody Eakin - 40 Ryan Garbutt
24 Eric Nystrom - 38 Vernon Fiddler - 72 Erik Cole
28 Lane MacDermid - 23 Tom Wandell - 60 Antoine Roussel
6 Trevor Daley- 3 Stephane Robidas
4 Brenden Dillon - 33 Alex Goligoski
27 Aaron Rome - 36 Philip Larsen
32 Kari Lehtonen
[31 Richard Bachman]
BLUE JACKETS
22 Vaclav Prospal - 55 Mark Letestu - 10 Marian Gaborik
11 Matt Calvert - 17 Brandon Dubinsky - 13 Cam Atkinson
18 R.J. Umberger - 19 Ryan Johansen - 71 Nick Foligno
14 Blake Comeau - 24 Derek MacKenzie - 40 Jared Boll
51 Fedor Tyutin - 21 James Wisniewski
7 Jack Johnson - 33 Adrian Aucoin
20 Tim Erixon - 47 Dalton Prout
72 Sergei Bobrovsky
[49 Michael Leighton]
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