Looking to sweep their three-game western Canada road trip and pull their season point total north of the .500 mark, the Dallas Stars (13-13-5) will take on the Edmonton Oilers (7-20-6) on Sunday evening. Game time is 5:00 p.m. CST. The game will be televised on Fox Sports Southwest.

This is the second of three meetings between the teams this season. On Nov. 25 in Dallas, the Stars captured a 3-2 win. The season series concludes on March 27 with a rematch at Rexall Place.

Sunday's game pits the NHL's two bottom-ranked defensive teams against each other. However, the 30th-ranked Stars have gotten much improved team defense and goaltending in most of their recent games, which is the primary reason why the club has won three in a row and four of its last five matches. In three of the four wins, the Stars have allowed one or zero (in Vancouver) goals. Not coincidentally, the only loss in the stretch was a 5-2 defeat at the hands of Winnipeg.

Edmonton has been a mess, and not only because the club is ranked 29th in goals against average (although it certainly hasn't helped and is emblematic of some the squad's deep-seeded issues). The team, which recently fired head coach Dallas Eakins, has won just one of its last 18 games (1-12-5) and is winless in its last six (0-5-1). The Oilers are not only having issues keeping the puck out of their own net, they are also having a miserable time trying to score. Edmonton has scored two or fewer goals in 12 of the team's last 14 games.

There haven't been many silver linings to the black cloud hanging over Edmonton, especially of late. In their last game, the Oilers held a 3-2 lead over San Jose at the second intermission but collapsed in the third period to sustain a 4-3 defeat in regulation. For the season, the Oilers drag a hideous 1-16-5 record in games against fellow Western Conference teams into this match.

The Stars enter this game coming off a 2-1 win in Calgary on Friday. Kari Lehtonen, who shut out the Canucks, turned back 21 shots against the Flames. Team captain Jamie Benn (two-point night) scored for Dallas, along with defenseman Trevor Daley.

Prior to the start of the road trip, Stars head coach Lindy Ruff indicated that recently recalled backup goaltender Anders Lindbäck would likely get the call in one of the first two games of the road trip. With Lehtonen playing so well in Vancouver, Ruff rolled with the big Finn again in Calgary. With Dallas facing the high-scoring Maple Leafs on Tuesday in the final game before the three-night Christmas break, Sunday's game in Edmonton would seem to be Lindbäck's best chance of starting if he's to get a game before the mini-break in the schedule.

Dallas top line center Tyler Seguin enters Sunday's game ranked at the top goal-scorer in the NHL this season with 23 tallies in 31 games. With 39 points, he trails Philadelphia Flyers right winger Jakub Voracek by three points in the Art Ross Trophy race. Seguin has one point -- an assist in the Calgary game -- thus far on the road trip.

Sunday's game marks the first game back in Edmonton for longtime Oilers forward Ales Hemsky.
The Czech forward has a tough season with the Stars thus far (two goals, eight points, minus-11 in 28 games) and has been a healthy/semi-healthy scratch three times this season. However, he did have six points (two goals, four assists) over an eight-game span before the Stars embarked on their current road trip.

Ryan Garbutt's three-game NHL suspension for slew-footing Winnipeg's Dustin Byfuglien is finished. He is eligible to play tonight. However, per Stars Inside Edge, Ruff was noncommittal on Saturday as to whether Garbutt would be in the lineup in Edmonton or if Travis Moen would play instead.

Defenseman Jordie Benn missed Friday's game in Calgary due to illness; he is questionable for this game. Jamie Oleksiak played in Calgary. On the Dallas injury front, Patrick Eaves (ankle), Valeri Nichushkin (hip surgery) and Patrik Nemeth (severe forearm laceration from a skate cut) all remain out of the lineup on injured reserve.

For Edmonton, defenseman Nikita Nikitin (back) and left winger Benoit Pouliot (foot) are out.

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