PREVIEW: STARS @ FLAMES
Starting the western Canada portion of their four-game road trip, Lindy Ruff's Dallas Stars (19-5-0) are in Alberta on Tuesday night to take on Bob Hartley's Calgary Flames (8-14-2). Game time at the Scotiabank Saddledome is 8:00 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on Fox Sports Southwest Plus.
This is the first of three meetings between the teams this season, and the lone match in Calgary. The clubs will rematch in Dallas on Dec. 17 and Jan. 25. Last season, the road team won all three games of the season series, with the Stars capturing two victories at the Saddledome and the Flames returning the favor at the American Airlines Center.
The Stars opened their road trip on Saturday, capturing a 4-3 overtime win in St. Paul against the Minnesota Wild. Tuesday's game is the start of a three-in-four gauntlet that will see the Stars visit the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday and the Edmonton Oilers the following night.
The Flames have had two nights off leading into this game, following back-to-back road losses to the Arizona Coyotes (2-1 in overtime) and San Jose Sharks (5-2) on Friday and Saturday. This game marks the start of a leisurely paced five game homestand that features breaks of two nights and three nights before it reaches its third game. The Boston Bruins come to town on Friday, followed by San Jose on Dec. 8.
Stars Outlook
Dallas enters this game leading the Western Conference and holding a five-point edge on the St. Louis Blues for first place in the Central Division. On Saturday, the Stars were in severe jeopardy of losing back-to-back games for the first time during the 2015-16 regular season but then found a way to skate off with a 4-3 overtime win in Minnesota.
The Stars trailed 3-0 after two periods before exploding for goals by Alex Goligoski (2nd), Jamie Benn (18th) and John Klingberg (5th) to force overtime. With 1:03 left in the three-on-three overtime, Tyler Seguin won the game with his 13th goal of the season. Benn, Klingberg, Seguin and Cody Eakin (two assists) all finished with two-point nights after being blanked for two-plus periods. Antti Niemi stopped 23 of 26 shots, including nine in the third period and overtime, to earn the win. Dallas put 44 shots on Darcy Kuemper's net.
For the second this season, defending Art Ross Trophy winner Jamie Benn captured NHL First-Star of the Week honors. The Stars captain finished the week with four goals and six points in three games. Overall, Benn leads Dallas with 18 goals and 35 points in 24 games. Overall, Benn tops the NHL's Rocket Richard Trophy race (most goals) and is two points behind Chicago Blackhawks' forward Patrick Kane in the Art Ross Trophy race.
The Stars remain the NHL's highest scoring team. Overall, Dallas has eight players who have reached double-digit points and eight players with four or more goals on the season. Seguin (13 goals, 22 assists) is just one point behind linemate Benn for the team lead, while defenseman Klingberg leads all defensemen in the NHL with 27 points and paces the Stars team with 22 assists.
Niemi is likely to get his fifth straight start on Tuesday night. Shared-time cohort Kari Lehtonen (upper-body injury) remains on injured reserve but is expected to return to the lineup in time for Thursday's game in Vancouver. To date, Niemi has a 10-4-0 record, 2.60 goals against average, and a .908 save percentage.
Riddled by injuries earlier this season, the Stars are currently relatively healthy apart from Lehtonen. Brett Ritchie underwent pre-season surgery to repair a torn wrist ligament. The 22-year-old third-season pro is expected to be cleared soon and assigned to the AHL's Texas Stars
Flames Outlook
Anything can happen in hockey on a given night, but the pregame on-paper optics of the NHL's most potent offensive team going up against the league's bottom-ranked team in goals against average does not look promising for Calgary. The Flames had been showing signs of improvement, winning three of four games and holding opponents to two or fewer goals in each of the wins but have since lost three in a row and have been outscored 12-6 in that span.
Saturday's 5-2 loss to San Jose saw the Flames fall into a 3-0 hole before the midway point of regulation and never recover. Markus Granlund and Micheal Ferland tallied mid-period and late-period goals in the final period to reduce the final deficit. Jonas Hiller topped 24 of 29 shots.
Karri Rà¤mö has been getting most of the playing time of late for the Flames. Hiller got the nod for the San Jose game mostly due to the match being a second game of a back-to-back. Rà¤mö is set to return to the net against Dallas for what will be his 13th start in the club's last 14 games. Entering the game, Rà¤mö has a 6-8-1 record, 3.02 goals against average and .899 save percentage.
Second-season NHLer Johnny Gaudreau leads the Flames with 16 assists and 21 points in 24 games, followed Sean Monahan's15 points (seven goals, eight assists). Michael Frolik (six goals and eight assists) and Jiri Hudler (four goals, 10 assists) each have 14 points. Team captain Mark Giordano has five goals and eight points but the defenseman is saddled with a minus-15 at even strength thus far.
Gaudreau and Monahan are both battling the flu bug. Gaudreau did not practice on Monday, while Monahan left early. Additionally, Frolik and defenseman Kris Russell took maintenance days.
Key team stat comparisons (NHL overall ranking)
Non-shootout goals per game: Stars 3.50 (30th), Flames 2.33 (T-22nd) Non-shootout goals against per game: Stars 2.58 (T-16th), Flames 3.58 (30th) 5-on-5 Goals For/Against Ratio: Stars 50/44, Flames 40/60 Power play efficiency: Stars 27.0% (2nd), Flames 13.4% (29th) Penalty killing efficiency: Stars 80.8% (T-13th), Flames 70.8% (30th) Shots per game: Stars 30.5 (9th), Flames 28.7 (T-22nd) Shots against per game: Stars 28.4 (14th), Flames 29.5 (T-17th) Faceoff percentage: Stars 51.1% (6th), Flames 47.6% (28th)
Projected lineups (subject to change, will be updated)
Stars
14 Jamie Benn – 91 Tyler Seguin – 10 Patrick Sharp 13 Mattias Janmark – 90 Jason Spezza – 18 Patrick Eaves 21 Antoine Roussel – 20 Cody Eakin – 43 Valeri Nichushkin 22 Colton Sceviour – 38 Vernon Fiddler – 83 Ales Hemsky
33 Alex Goligoski – 3 John Klingberg 47 Johnny Oduya – 4 Jason Demers 15 Patrik Nemeth – 24 Jordie Benn
31 Antti Niemi [1 Jack Campbell]
Scratches: Travis Moen (healthy), Jyrki Jokipakka (healthy), Jamie Oleksiak (healthy), Kari Lehtonen (IR, upper body).
Flames
13 Johnny Gaudreau - 23 Sean Monahan - 24 Jiri Hudler 93 Sam Bennett - 11 Mikael Backlund - 67 Micheal Frolik 8 Joe Colborne - 18 Matt Stajan - 19 David Jones 79 Micheal Ferland - 60 Markus Granlund - 16 Josh Jooris
5 Mark Giordano - 7 T.J. Brodie 4 Kris Russell - 27 Dougie Hamilton 6 Dennis Wideman - 29 Deryk Engelland
31 Karri Rà¤mö [1 Jonas Hiller]
Scratches: Ladislav Smid (healthy), Brandon Bollig (healthy), Lance Bouma (IR).