PREVIEW: STARS VS. SHARKS
Looking for their seventh win in eight games, Lindy Ruff's Dallas Stars (8-2-0) will host Pete DeBoer's San Jose Sharks (5-4-0) in a Saturday matinee. Game time at the American Airlines Center is 2:00 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on Fox Sports Southwest.
This is the first of three meetings between the teams this season, and the Sharks' lone visit to Dallas. The teams will rematch on Jan. 16 and March 26 in San Jose. Last season, San Jose won two of the three games in the season series.
After this game, the Stars are off on Sunday before starting a four-game road trip with back-to-back games against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday and Boston Bruins on Tuesday. For San Jose, Saturday's tilt is the front end of back-to-back games. The Sharks are right back in action on Sunday, traveling to Denver to take on the Colorado Avalanche in another afternoon game.
Stars Outlook
The Stars pulled off multi-goal comeback wins in each of their last two games. On Tuesday, they overcame a 3-0 deficit against the Anaheim Ducks to rally for a 4-3 win in regulation. Two nights later, the Stars overcame a two-goal disadvantage in the third period to skate off with a 4-3 overtime victory against the Vancouver Canucks.
Stars captain Jamie Benn, last season's Art Ross Trophy winner and the early season NHL leader in scoring thus far in 2015-16, notched his eighth goal of the season to win Thursday's game in overtime. Along with John Klingberg, Benn also assisted on Patrick Sharp's game-tying tip-in goal with 4:35 left in regulation. The goal was Sharp's second of the game and third in the club's last two tilts. Sharp also tallied a late first-period marker to knot the score at 1-1. Winning goaltender Antti Niemi stopped 29 of 32 shots.
During Thursday's game, Ruff juggled some line combinations as the match progressed. The same combinations were featured at Friday's practice. Sharp has returned to the top line with Tyler Seguin moving back to center. Cody Eakin skated on the left wing of the second line, along with center Jason Spezza and Valeri Nichushkin on the right wing.
On the injury front, Travis Moen (upper body), Curtis McKenzie (lower body) and Patrick Eaves (lower body) all remain on injured reserve. None are expected to make the upcoming road trip.
Sharks Outlook
The Sharks enter this game coming off a 2-1 regulation home loss to the Nashville Predators on Wednesday, which sent San Jose to its fourth loss in five games (1-4-0) after starting the year undefeated through four games. The Sharks are 3-2-0 on the road to date.
In Wednesday's loss to the Predators, San Jose trailed 1-0 for much of the first and second periods. At 1:28 of the third period, Joe Pavelski's fourth goal of the season tied the score at 1-1. However, the Preds bounced back by mid-period to go ahead for good. Martin Jones stopped 22 of 24 shots in a losing cause for the Sharks.
Goals have been hard to come by for the Sharks during their recent slide. The club has scored two or fewer goals -- including a 4-0 home shutout loss at the hands of the New York Rangers -- in five of its last six matches. San Jose's power play (3-for-27, 11.1 percent) has been a big part of the team's recent issues in struggling for goals.
The Sharks currently have a key forward missing with a long-term injury: second line center Logan Couture fractured his fibula on Oct. 16 and was lost for four to six weeks. On Friday, the Sharks recalled forward Bryan Lerg and defenseman Dylan DeMelo from the American Hockey League's San Jose Barracuda. The previous day, the team reassigned defenseman Mirco Mueller to the AHL.
Projected lineups (Subject to change)
STARS
14 Jamie Benn - 91 Tyler Seguin - 10 Patrick Sharp 20 Cody Eakin - 90 Jason Spezza - 43 Valeri Nichushkin 21 Antoine Roussel - 38 Vernon Fiddler - 22 Colton Sceviour 13 Mattias Janmark - 12 Radek Faksa - 83 Ales Hemsky
33 Alex Goligoski - 3 John Klingberg 47 Johnny Oduya - 4 Jason Demers 2 Jyrki Jokipakka - 24 Jordie Benn
32 Kari Lehtonen / 31 Antti Niemi
Scratches: Patrik Nemeth (healthy), Jamie Oleksiak (healthy), Travis Moen (IR, upper body), Patrick Eaves (IR, lower body), Curtis McKenzie (IR, lower body), Brett Ritchie (IR, wrist surgery).
SHARKS
27 Joonas Donskoi - 19 Joe Thornton - 8 Joe Pavelski 12 Patrick Marleau - 48 Tomas Hertl - 42 Joel Ward 83 Matt Nieto - 50 Chris Tierney - 57 Tommy Wingels 89 Barclay Goodrow - 21 Ben Smith - 18 Mike Brown
44 Marc-Edouard Vlasic - 61 Justin Braun 7 Paul Martin - 88 Brent Burns 4 Brenden Dillon - 80 Matt Tennyson
31 Martin Jones / 32 Alex Stalock
Scratches: Bryan Lerg (healthy), Dylan DeMelo (healthy), Logan Couture (fibula).