Reaching the final game of a two-week road trip and still looking for their fifth road win of the season, Lindy Ruff's Dallas Stars (11-12-6) are in Chicago on Sunday to take on Joel Quenneville's Chicago Blackhawks (17-8-4). Game time at the United Center is 6 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on Fox Sports Southwest.
This is the third of five meetings between the Central Division rivals this season. The Blackhawks swept a hard-fought home-and-home set in November, winning 3-2 in Dallas on Nov. 5 and then skating to a 4-3 overtime win in Chicago the following night.
For the most part, the Stars have played better hockey of late than their December record suggests but have continued to find ways not to win games that are within reach. On Saturday, a pair of undisciplined penalties late in the third period proved fatal in a 4-2 road loss to the Philadelphia Flyers and wasted a strong goaltending performance by Kari Lehtonen and a pair of goals by Devin Shore. The Stars took a 2-1 lead midway through the third period but were unable to nail down a win.
Dallas could have both Jiri Hudler and Johnny Oduya back in the lineup on Sunday. Jamie Oleksiak faced an NHL Supplementary Discipline hearing on Sunday and received a two-game suspension for a check to the head of Flyers left winger Chris VandeVelde in Saturday's game.
Chicago enters this game coming off a 1-0 home overtime loss to the New York Rangers on Friday. Scott Darling took the hard-luck loss in net for the Blackhawks. Sunday's game is the final one of a four-game homestand for Chicago.
The Blackhawks are missing two key players: team captain Jonathan Toews (back) and number one goalie Corey Crawford (appendectomy) are unavailable. Additionally, shutdown defenseman Brent Seabrook, who has missed the past three games with an upper-body injury, is questionable for this tilt. Seabrook participated in practice on Saturday, however.