Lindy Ruff's Dallas Stars (27-23-8) play host to Mike Babcock's Detroit Red Wings (32-14-10) on Saturday night. Game time at the American Airlines Center is 7:00 p.m. CST. The game will be televised on Fox Sports Southwest.
This is the second and final meeting between the clubs, and the lone game in Dallas this season. The Stars absorbed a 5-2 road loss to the Red Wings on Dec. 4.
The month of February has been maddeningly inconsistent for the Stars, who have also had a roller coaster ride on home ice this season. This month, the Stars have turned out some very impressive performances -- none more than Tuesday's 4-1 road win in St. Louis -- and also put in a few clunkers (including a 3-2 regulation loss to the NHL cellar-dwelling Buffalo Sabres).
The Stars enter this game coming off a 5-2 home loss to the San Jose Sharks on Thursday. It was a costly defeat because Dallas is now six points behind the Sharks (albeit with two games in hand) in the race for the final wildcard playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Dallas defenseman Trevor Daley (power play) notched his 15th goal of the season in Thursday's loss. Erik Cole added his 16th. Stars captain Jamie Benn, who recently notched his first NHL hat trick, had two assists in a losing cause. Kari Lehtonen took the loss in goal, stopping 14 of 17 shots before giving way to Jhonas Enroth at 6:14 of the second period. Enroth stopped all nine he faced. San Jose's final two goals were of the empty-net variety.
The Stars remain without top offensive standout Tyler Seguin (knee), Patrick Eaves (concussion) and Valeri Nichushkin (hip surgery). Ales Hemsky (lower-body) is probable to return to the lineup.
Dallas rookie defenseman Patrik Nemeth has had a hard road to hoe this season after suffering a severe forearm laceration from a skate cut accidentally inflicted by Philadelphia Flyers forward R.J. Umberger early in the first period of a game in Dallas on Oct. 18. Originally projected to miss the rest of the season, Nemeth has healed well and rehabbed diligently to be able to be activated from injured reserve. On Thursday, the Stars assigned him to the AHL's Texas Stars to get in some much-needed game action.
In Thursday's game, Brendan Ranford made his NHL debut. Originally drafted but never signed by Philadelphia, Ranford has worked his way up from an AHL-only contract with the Texas Stars to a two-way NHL deal with the parent club. He skated 9:19 of ice time against the Sharks.
Detroit enters this game coming off a 3-2 road shootout win against Chicago on Thursday. The victory snapped a three-game winless stretch for the Red Wings and marked just the third shootout Detroit has won in 11 tries this season.
Tomas Tatar and Darren Helm scored in regulation for Detroit in the game against the Blackhawks. The Wings very briefly took a 2-1 lead late in the third period on Helm's goal but Chicago came right back to re-tie the game with 1:43 left in regulation.
Gustav Nyquist and Tatar (credited with the winning goal in the skills competition) converted their shootout attempts. Jimmy Howard stopped 32 of 34 shots in regulation and overtime and then two of three in the shootout to earn the win.
On the Red Wings' injury front, defenseman Kyle Quincey (lower body) is questionable for Saturday's game. The team recalled Jakub Kindl from the AHL to be available if Quincey cannot play. Veteran right winger Johan Franzén (suspected concussion) is out of the lineup. Detroit enters Saturday's game in third place in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. They have a nine-point cushion (plus two games in hand) over fourth-place Boston and are five points behind division-leading Montreal (also with two games in hand). If the season ended today, the Red Wings would play second-place Tampa Bay in the first round of the playoffs, with the Lightning holding the home-ice advantage. The Red Wings are currently four points behind the Bolts but hold four games in hand over Tampa, which has already played 60 games.