MINI-PREVIEW: STARS vs. BLACKHAWKS
Leading the President's Trophy race with one game remaining before the leaguewide Christmas break, Lindy Ruff's Dallas Stars (25-7-2) play host to the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks (20-11-4) on Tuesday night. Game time at the American Airlines Center is 7:30 p.m. CT. The game will be televised locally on Fox Sports Southwest Plus.
This is the first of five meetings this season between the Central Division clubs. Last season, the Hawks won three of five against the Stars but only one victory was in regulation; both Dallas wins were in regulation.
Tuesday's marks the first time longtime Blackhawks standout Patrick Sharp as well as veteran defenseman Johnny Oduya will have played against their former club since their respective separate acquisitions by the Stars during the offseason.
The Stars are in action for the third time in four nights and are in the second half of a road/home back-to-back set. Chicago is also playing the final game of a three-in-four but had an off-day on Monday in Dallas. Both clubs have put on a surge heading into the holidays.
The Stars have had some uneven games this month but take a 6-2-2 record in December and back-to-back wins over the Montreal Canadiens (home) and Minnesota Wild (road) into this tilt.
On Monday in St. Paul, the Stars did not play badly overall early but found themselves staring a 2-0 deficit nearly 35 minutes into the game. Starting goaltender Kari Lehtonen was pulled at 8:16 of the first period after yielding two goals on four shots. The first goal, a side angle short side goal up high by Jared Spurgeon was a bad goal. The second one, shot to Lehtonen's glove side under the crossbar from the left faceoff dot by Charlie Coyle on a two-on-one rush was a tough save on a righthanded shooter and a commonly scored type of goal around the NHL.
Antti Niemi came in to relieve Lehtonen and went on to stop 30 of 31 shots the rest of the way. It would not be surprising if Niemi, who won a Stanley Cup with Chicago in 2009-10, gets the start on Tuesday; regardless of how Lehtonen played on Monday, splitting the starts was most likely the plan heading into the back-to-back set.
The Stars could not make any headway on the scoreboard untl one second shy of the 15-minute mark of the middle frame. Thereafter, the highest-scoring team in the NHL once again showed off its ability create an offensive avalanche as Dallas tore apart the Wild for six goals -- including a pair of late-game empty netters -- the rest of the way to prevail by a 6-3 score after the Stars took a 3-2 lead by the end of the second period.
At the final horn, Dallas had two goals in the cash register by checking center Vernon Fiddler (power play secondary deflection and empty net), even strength goals by Jordie Benn, Tyler Seguin and Antoine Roussel and a Cody Eakin empty netter that responded to a mid third period Nino Niederreiter goal that temporarily closed the gap for Minnesota to 4-3.
The Blackhawks are 7-3-1 thus far in December, including a 5-1-0 mark over the last six games with three shutout victories along the way. The defending champs bring a three-game winning streak into this tilt.
On Sunday, Chicago claimed a seesaw 4-3 victory in overtime against the visiting San Jose Sharks. The Hawks briefly led 1-0 in the first period then briefly trailed 2-1 in the same period before knotting the game at 2-2 through 20 minutes. San Jose retook the lead with the lone goal of the second period only for Chicago to return the favor in the third period and go on to prevail in the three-on-three OT.
Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews' 11th goal of the season won the game at 2:21 of OT after Andrew Shaw tied the game at 3-3 in the third period. Artem Anisimov and Art Ross Trophy race leader Patrick Kane's 21st goal of the season rounded out the scoring for Chicago. Kane later assisted on Toews' overtime tally, while Duncan Keith picked up his second helper of the game. Corey Crawford (33 saves on 36 shots) earned the win in goal.
On the injury front, forwards Marian Hossa (upper body) and Marcus Kruger (wrist) are out of the lineup for Chicago. Dallas defenseman Jason Demers went into the boards awkwardly during the first period of Monday's game in Minnesota and appeared to be favoring his foot or ankle. However, he stayed in the game and went on to skate a team-high 24:58 of ice time.