PREVIEW: STARS @ AVALANCHE
Playing their first road game of the 2015-16 season, Lindy Ruff's Dallas Stars (0-0-0) are in Denver on Sunday to take on Patrick Roy's Colorado Avalanche (0-1-1). Game time at the Pepsi Center is 8 p.m. CT. The game will be televised locally on Fox Sports Southwest.
This is the first of four games between the teams this season. The teams will rematch in Dallas on Jan. 23. The third game will take place at the American Airlines Center on Feb. 14 before the season series wraps up in Denver on April 7. Last year, the Avalanche swept a five-game season series with Dallas.
After this game, the Stars have two nights off before hosting the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday. The Avalanche are off until Wednesday when the Boston Bruins come to town.
STARS OUTLOOK
The Stars enter this game coming off an encouraging 3-0 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins at the American Airlines Center on Thursday. Dallas scored once in each period to earn the victory.
New goaltending addition Antti Niemi emphatically answered the bell on opening night, playing brilliantly to post a 37-save shutout. He even earned secondary assists on each of the Stars' first two goals.
Ales Hemsky set up the game's first goal early in the first period and later scored a power play goal. The beneficiary of Hemsky's cross-ice feed on the opening goal was rookie Mattias Janmark. In the third period, captain Jamie Benn added a deflection goal for the final margin of victory.
The Stars went 2-for-5 on the power play in the opener. They were 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.
Ruff reportedly used the same lines in practice on Friday that appeared in the opening game. The same starting combinations are expected to appear in Saturday's game in Colorado.
AVALANCHE OUTLOOK
The Avs enter this game coming off a 5-4 opening night home loss to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday. Colorado led 3-0 after the the first period and 4-1 through the second intermission but then collapsed under the weight of a four-goal Minnesota outburst in a 5:07 span in the third period. Shortly after the midway point of the final stanza, the Avs were behind to stay.
Jarome Iginla, Erik Johnson and Gabriel Landeskog scored in a losing cause for the Avalanche. Semyon Varlamov stopped 25 of 30 shots on his net. Eighteen-year-old forward Mikko Rantanen made his NHL regular season debut.
Colorado went 2-for-2 on the power play in the opener as both Iginla and Johnson cashed in on opportunities. The Avalanche were 1-for-2 on the penalty kill.
Roy indicated on Friday that he plans to dress the same lineup for Saturday's game against Dallas that appeared in the opener against Minnesota.
PROJECTED LINEUPS (Subject to change)
STARS
14 Jamie Benn – 20 Cody Eakin – 91 Tyler Seguin 43 Valeri Nichushkin – 90 Jason Spezza – 10 Patrick Sharp 21 Antoine Roussel – 13 Mattias Janmark – 83 Ales Hemsky 27 Travis Moen – Vernon Fiddler – 18 Patrick Eaves
33 Alex Goligoski – 3 John Klingberg 47 Johnny Oduya – 4 Jason Demers 2 Jyrki Jokipakka – 24 Jordie Benn
31 Antti Niemi [32 Kari Lehtonen]
Scratches: Colton Sceviour (healthy), Patrik Nemeth (healthy), Jamie Oleksiak (healthy), Brett Ritchie (IR, wrist surgery).
AVALANCHE
14 Blake Comeau - 9 Matt Duchene - 12 Jarome Iginla 92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 40 Alex Tanguay 96 Mikko Rantanen - 34 Carl Söderberg - 71 Borna Rendulic 55 Cody McLeod - 7 John Mitchell - 8 Jack Skille
32 Francois Beauchemin - 6 Erik Johnson 4 Tyson Barrie - 5 Nate Guenin 16 Nikita Zadorov - 2 Nick Holden
1 Semyon Varlamov [20 Reto Berra]
Scratches: Brad Stuart (healthy), Mikhail Grigorenko (healthy), Brandon Gormley (healthy).