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Stars Gameday: 3/3/15 vs. NYI

March 3, 2015, 11:02 AM ET [2 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Dallas Stars Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Looking to snap a six-game winless skid, Lindy Ruff's Dallas Stars (27-26-10) play host to Jack Capuano's New York Islanders (41-21-2). Game time at the American Airlines Center is 7:30 p.m. CST. The game will be televised locally on Fox Sports Southwest.

This is the second and final meeting of the season between the teams. On Oct. 25, the Stars played their final game at venerable Nassau County Coliseum in Uniondale, NY, dropping a 7-5 decision.

Dallas enters this game having lost six straight games (0-4-2), with each of the last three games getting away from the team in the third period. On Sunday night, the Stars suffered a 3-1 home loss to the Anaheim Ducks. Dallas had a dominant Corsi night -- 80 to 42 shot attempt advantage, 40-22 shot on goal edge -- but that was of zero consolation when the club once again failed to come away with two points from a must-win game.

A third-period point shot through traffic by Anaheim defenseman Clayton Stoner put the Ducks ahead to stay. Ryan Getzlaf added some insurance with a breakaway goal against Jhonas Enroth (19 saves on 22 shots). A late second-period power play goal by Patrick Eaves stood as the lone Dallas goal, tying up the game after Corey Perry turned a Stars defensive-zone turnover into the first goal of the game at 17:46 of the first period.

With Dallas mired in last place in the Central Division and nine points out of the Western Conference wildcard race, the team made a trade on Sunday night. The club sent impending unrestricted free agent left winger Erik Cole to the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for a Swedish prospects Mattias Janmark and Mattias Bäckman as well as a 2015 second-round pick.

Dallas defensemen John Klingberg and Trevor Daley took maintenance days off from practice on Monday, according to Stars Inside Edge. Both are expected to be available against the Islanders. The team recalled defenseman Patrik Nemeth from the AHL's Texas Stars on Monday. If Nemeth starts in the game, it will be his first NHL action since suffering a gruesome forearm laceration from a skate cut suffered on the first shift of a game against Philadelphia on Oct. 18.

Leading Stars scorer Tyler Seguin (knee injury) remains on injured reserve for Dallas. So do Travis Moen (upper body) and Valeri Nichushkin (hip surgery).

The Islanders enter this come coming off a 5-3 home loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night. A four-goal second period for Carolina proved to be the Islanders' undoing. Michael Grabner, Nikolay Kulemin and John Tavares (30th goal of the season) scored in a losing cause for the Islanders. Backup goaltender Chad Johnson (36 saves of 41 shots) absorbed the loss in goal.

New York made two moves at the NHL trade deadline. The team acquired goaltender Michal Neuvirth from Buffalo to back up Jaroslav Halak. The club also added veteran forward Tyler Kennedy for depth up front.

A game between the Islanders and Stars pits two teams that play a similar style against one another. Both clubs like to attack with a lot of speed and score a lot of goals. New York ranks third in the NHL at an average 3.09 goals per game. The Stars are right behind at 3.08.

On the flip side, both clubs need to improve defensively. The Stars enter play ranked 28th in the NHL with a team 3.32 goals against average. The Islanders have often been able to outscore their issues, but still rank in the bottom one-third of the NHL in goals against average (2.77 team GAA, 22nd in the NHL) and have the lowest-ranked penalty kill (74.4 percent) in the entire league.

Halak (33-13-0 record, 2.46 goals against average) has gotten the job done in net for the Islanders for the most part but the club will need a little higher than his current .911 save percentage to pull out games in the playoffs when goals become harder to come by for all teams.

In the meantime, Dallas coach Ruff has been vocally unhappy with the goaltending he has received this season. Longtime stalwart starter Kari Lehtonen (25-13-10, 2.97 GAA, .905 save percentage) has had by far his most inconsistent season since coming to Dallas. The team acquired Jhonas Enroth from Buffalo in the hopes of obtaining an upgrade over Anders Lindbäck who was capable of pushing Lehtonen for playing time. Thus far, however, Enroth has been no more than adequate in his five appearances (0-4-0, 3.61 GAA, .867 SV%).
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