In the third match of a five-game road trip, the second game of an Alberta back-to-back and third segment of a three-in-four, Ken Hitchcock's Dallas Stars (5-5-0) will face former Dallas head coach Glen Gulutzan's Calgary Flames (5-5-0) on Friday night. Game time is 8:00 p.m. CDT. The game will be televised on Fox Sports Southwest.
Dallas took a four-game winning streak into the current road trip but has dropped back-to-back regulation decisions to the Colorado Avalanche and Edmonton Oilers. Overall, the Stars are just 1-4-0 on the road this season.
On Thursday night, the Stars lost 5-4 in Edmonton. Dallas showed resiliency in coming back from three separate one-goal deficits and even took a 4-3 lead in the third period but ended up with no points. The Stars enjoyed a significant special teams edge, racking up three goals on the power play and going 3-for-3 on the penalty kill. However, lapses at five-on-five proved fatal, as Dallas yielded five goals at even strength compared to just one of their own.
Connor McDavid opened the scoring in Thursday's game at 10:31 of the first period. Dallas answered back barely a minute later as Jamie Benn (sixth goal of the season) finished off a nice feed from Alexander Radulov. Patrick Maroon put Edmonton ahead, 2-1, in the final half-minute of the opening period.
At 2:58 of the second period, Radulov (2nd goal of the season), re-tied the game on a power play one-timer from just below the right dot off a cross-ice pass from Tyler Seguin.
The Oilers forged back ahead again, 3-2, at 13:46. Stars defenseman Jamie Oleksiak was caught up ice after losing the puck on a pinch-in and Edmonton countered. An initial Kris Russell shot off a Milan Lucic feed missed the net but caromed off the end boards to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who moved out in front to stuff in his third goal of theseason.
At 16:19, Dallas pushed back yet again to re-tie the score at 3-3. After a left circle faceoff on the power play went back to the point, Benn moved in front of the net to claim and pot a rebound for his second goal of the game and sixth of the season. Radulov and John Klingberg collected the apples.
The score remained 3-3 until Dallas took it its lone, short-lived lead of the night at 10:25 of the third period. On the power play, the Stars second unit struck on a backdoor play. Esa Lindell (2nd goal of the season) pinched down from the left point to receive a diagonal slap-pass from Jason Spezza and quickly finish it off into the open short side.
Less than two minutes later, at 12;16, the Oilers tied the game at 4-4. A Star turnover behind the net, a backhand pass from Lucic to Nugent-Hopkins and a Nugent-Hopkins shot from the deep slot using the defense as a screen stood as the scorer's second tally of the game and fourth of the season.
With time ticking down to 2:28 remaining in regulation, the Oilers seized their fourth and final lead of the game. A Matt Benning point shot deflected off the skate of Radulov and severely changed direction. Leon Draisaitl and Darnell Nurse assisted on the game-winner.
The Stars could enjoy another special teams edge on Friday: they are on a 19-for-19 run on the penalty kill over the past six games while the Flames have been torched for six opposition power play goals over the last four games.
Kari Lehtonen will get the start in goal for the Stars on Friday. Ben Bishop started the games on Tuesday (getting pulled early in the second period, much to his displeasure) and Thursday. Bishop stopped 30 of 35 shots against the Oilers.
On the injury front, defenseman Stephen Johns (suspected concussion) remains out of the lineup.
Calgary enters Friday's game coming off a 5-2 road loss to the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday. The Blues took over the game in the second period and never looked back. Friday's game is the start of a six-game homestand. On the Flames injury front, future Hall of Fame shoo-in and former Dallas forward Jaromir Jagr is sidelined with a lower body injury.
Entering this game, Dallas is tied for 17th in the NHL in offensive (averaging 3.00 goals per game) and rank 17th in goals against average (3.10). The Flames come in ranked 28th offensively (2.40 GPG) and are tied for 13th in GAA (3.00).
Goals have been hard to come by of late for the Flames. Calgary has mustered two or fewer goals in five of the last six games. However, the Stars have had just as much trouble of late keeping the puck out of their own net, yielding 17 opposition goals over the last four games.
Dallas captain Benn leads the Stars in scoring thus far with 13 points (seven goals, six assists) through 10 games. He has five goals and nine points over the last four matches. Pint-sized offensive dynamo Johnny Gaudreau leads the Flames in scoring with 12 points (two goals, 10 assists) to date.