Looking to build a four-game winning streak and playing the second half of a weekend back-to-back game set, Lindy Ruff's Dallas Stars (26-21-8) are in Denver on Saturday to take on Patrick Roy's Colorado Avalanche (22-22-11). Game time at the Pepsi Center is 8:00 p.m. CST. The game will be televised locally on Fox Sports Southwest.
This is the fourth of five meetings this season between the teams and the third and final game in Denver. The season series concludes in Dallas on Feb. 27. The Avs have won each of the first three meetings this season, grabbing 5-2 (Nov. 29) and 4-3 (Jan. 10) regulation victories on home ice before prevailing, 3-2, via a marathon shootout at the American Airlines center on Feb. 3.
The Stars enter this game coming off a 2-0 home shutout win on Friday night against the Florida Panthers behind a stellar 37-save performance by Kari Lehtonen. Dallas captain Jamie Benn, who has three goals in the last two games and 19 for the season, opened the scoring with a mid-first period shorthanded goal. Later in the opening stanza, Jason Spezza scored a nifty goal where he twisted standout rookie defenseman Aaron Ekblad inside out with a spin move and then snapped a shot past Al Montoya (26 saves on 28 shots). Lehtonen took care of the rest.
Dallas' win came at a heavy cost, however. The Stars lost leading scorer Tyler Seguin to an apparent knee injury in the third period when he was low-bridged on a reckless open-ice hit by Florida defenseman Dmitry Kulikov after passing the puck inside the blue line. The defenseman received a clipping major and game misconduct. He will likely face supplementary discipline from the NHL Department of Player Safety.
Shortly after Seguin was helped to the locker room, forward Patrick Eaves joined him. During the Stars' five-minute power play after Kulikov penalty, Eaves was struck in the head by a deflected John Klingberg shot. Eaves went down hard and lay on the ice for several minutes. After being assisted off the ice, Eaves was taken to the hospital for x-rays and observation.
Earlier in the game, forward Ales Hemsky left the ice with a reported lower-body injury. He did not return to the game.
Per Stars Inside Edge, all three injured forwards are expected to miss time. As a result, the team will have to make callups from the AHL's Texas Stars and re-insert Curtis McKenzie (a healthy scratch on Friday) into the lineup. Additionally, Antoine Roussel will miss Saturday's game while serving the second game of his two-game NHL suspension for cross-checking Boston's Adam McQuaid.
In recent seasons, the Stars have notoriously struggled to win the second half of back-to-back games. A big part of the reason has been frequently subpar play by the various backup Dallas goaltenders. The team believes it has made an upgrade with the recent acquisition of Jhonas Enroth in a trade with the Buffalo Sabres. Enroth could make his Stars debut in Denver.
Apart from the aforementioned injuries, right winger Valeri Nichushkin (hip surgery) and defenseman Patrik Nemeth (severe forearm laceration from a skate cut) remain on injured reserve for Dallas.
Saturday's game is a gut-check match for the Stars as they enter the day three points behind the Calgary Flames for the final wildcard spot in the Western Conference playoff chase. Dallas has 27 games remaining. To date, the club has 24 regulation or overtime wins -- the first tiebreaker in the event of a points tie at the end of the season -- among its 26 overall wins and 60 points.
The Avalanche have struggled of late, losing four games in a row and winning just three of their last 10 games. However, this club often seems to give Dallas trouble -- particularly at the Pepsi Center and most especially in the second half of back-to-back games for the Stars where the second game is in the Mile High City.
Colorado enters this game coming off a 6-3 home loss to the New York Rangers on Thursday night. The Avs made a third-period push and tied the game at 3-3 after trailing by two goals but the Rangers pulled away with even strength goals by Carl Hagelin and Rick Nash, followed by a late empty netter by defenseman Ryan McDonagh.
Gabriel Landeskog, Jarome Iginla and Jan Hejda scored in a losing cause for the Avalanche. Semyon Varlamov stopped 25 of 30 shot to take the loss in goal. The Avs dressed seven defenseman for the Rangers game but the club is expected to go with a more standard lineup of 12 forwards and six defensemen against the Stars.
For the season to date, the Avalanche are 13-11-3 on home ice. The Stars, who have actually been better on the road than at the American Airlines Center, are 14-10-2 in away games.