Playing the second half of a weekend back-to-back set and the third game of a three-in-four, Lindy Ruff's Dallas Stars (27-23-9) are in St. Paul on Sunday to take on Mike Yeo's Minnesota Wild (30-21-7). Game time at the XCel Energy Center is 7:00 p.m. CST. The game will be televised locally on Fox Sports Southwest.
This is the fifth and final meeting of the season between the Central Division clubs and the second and final game in Minnesota. Thus far, the Stars are 1-2-1 in the season series. On Nov. 14 in St. Paul, the Stars absorbed a 4-1 loss. Two weeks later in Dallas, the Wild skated off with a 2-1 regulation win. On Nov. 28, the Wild won in overtime, 5-4. Finally, Dallas got its first win of the season series in a 7-1 blowout at the American Airlines Center on Jan. 3.
The Stars have had a roller coaster ride of a 2014-15 season to date, epitomized by Saturday's 7-6 overtime loss to the Detroit Red Wings. While many focused after the game on a controversial no-goal on apparent goaltender interference as Detroit forced overtime on a Pavel Davel Datsyuk goal with 1:48, the bottom line for Dallas was that even their high powered offense couldn't outscore all the other breakdowns on indisputably legal goals for Detroit.
Dallas enters play on Sunday tied for second in the NHL with an average 3.13 goals scored per game. Even in the absence of top scorer Tyler Seguin (knee injury), others have stepped up to lead the way offensively. Dallas captain Jamie Benn has been especially dominant in the month of February. Benn had a Gordie Howe Hat Trick on Saturday (one goal, one assist, one fight) against Gordie's old team, and has racked up nine points (five goals, four assists) in the last five games. Defenseman Trevor Daley has also been scoring with regularity again. His tally against Detroit bettered his career-high goal total to 16.
On the flip side, Dallas has struggled to pull themselves up into playoff position because the team defense and goaltending have been extremely inconsistent. The Stars enter Sunday's game giving up 3.22 goals per game (27th in the NHL). Some nights, the team plays a solid two-way game with and without the puck. Some nights, Kari Lehtonen makes all the momentum saves the team needs him to make. However, far too often, the team defense leaves itself vulnerable. Every time it seems like Lehtonen is finally settling into the form he displayed in previous seasons, he hits a bump in the road.
In Saturday's game, the Stars held leads of 1-0, 4-2 and 6-4. Each lead evaporated.
Gustav Nyquist's goal off Lehtonen's blocker was one the big Finn would like to have back. Datsyuk's first goal was off a turnover by Dallas defenseman Jyrki Jokipakka. Jakub Kindl's first goal, scored from center point through a heavy screen directly in front, was the result of extremely saggy coverage throughout a Detroit breakout and then getting outworked on a dump-in and then never getting well-organized in the defensive zone. Kindl's second goal was a back-door play on the sequence where Tatar initially had a one-on-one with Lehtonen from the blueline in.
After Kindl tied the game at 4-4, goals by Curtis McKenzie and Shawn Horcoff (power play) gave the Stars another two-goal lead in the third period. This also got squandered. Justin Abdelkader's power play goal was a deflection where he had free reign to set up shop directly in front of the crease and Lehtonen went down to try to look around the maze of bodies and the Detroit player directly in his line of sight.
Datsyuk's game-tying goal to force overtime probably should have been disallowed for Abdelkader interfering with Lehtonen in the crease. However, even after the controversial goal stood, the Stars still had an opportunity to win in overtime. Instead, in the opening minute, Detroit's Niklas Kronwall was able to knife through Jamie Benn's stick checking after gettting the puck from the puck. He finished off the game by beating Lehtonen with a backhander.
Jhonas Enroth will get the start in Minnesota. He has appeared in two games for Dallas since his acquisition from Buffalo; one start and one relief appearance.
On the injury front, Seguin will be out several more weeks. The Stars remain without Patrick Eaves (concussion) and Valeri Nichushkin (hip surgery). On Saturday, the Stars reassigned rookie callup Brendan Ranford to the AHL's Texas Stars. Ales Hemsky returned to the Dallas lineup after a three-game absence due to a lower-body injury.
The Wild have moved north in the Western Conference standings in February. The club has an 8-1-1 record thus far in the month, and has won back-to-back games entering Sunday's tilt with the Stars.
On Thursday, Devan Dubnyk saw just 15 shots from his former team as the Wild rolled to a 4-0 road shutout win over the Edmonton Oilers. Justin Fontaine tallied a pair of goals, Nino Niederreiter scored his 19th goal of the season and Jordan Schroeder's second period goal built a 3-0 cushion. Zach Parise and Mikko Koivu each chipped in two assists.