In the second game of a five-game homestand and coming off a crucial Friday night victory, Lindy Ruff's Dallas Stars (41-20-8) re-took first place in the Central Division but now must defeat Ken Hitchcock's St. Louis Blues (40-20-9) to hold onto the top spot. Game time at the American Airlines Center is 8:00 p.m. CT. The game will be televised locally on Fox Sports Southwest and nationally on NHL Network.
This is the fifth and final meeting of the season between the teams,and the second in Dallas. The Stars are 1-1-2 against St. Louis this season and each club has shut out the other one by mirror-image 3-0 scores for home-ice victories.
The Stars earned a rousing 5-2 win over Chicago at the American Airlines Center on Friday night. Scoring a goal for the fifth straight game, Jason Spezza (26th goal of the season) opened the scoring with a mid first period power play goal. The lead grew to 4-0 in the second period on goals by Antoine Roussel (12th of the season), Tyler Seguin (33rd) and Jamie Benn (power play, 33rd). The Blackhawks cut the gap to 4-1 by the second intermission on a Teuvo Terà¤và¤inen goal.
Ales Hemsky (11th) added an empty net goal with 4:31 left in the third period as, still staring at a three-goal deficit, Joel Quenneville pulled relief goalie Scott Darling (10 saves on 10 shots) very early for an extra attacker. Hawks starter Corey Crawford (16 saves on 20 shots) got the hook after the Benn goal at 10:42 of the second period. Winning goalie Kari Lehtonen stopped 21 of 23 shots to earn the win. Tomas Fleischmann scored a meaningless goal in the final minute of the game to cut the final gap to 5-2. Dallas went 5-for-5 on the penalty kill and 2-for-6 on the power play (Chicago's penalty kill has been a wreck of late).
Antti Niemi may get the nod in goal in the second game of the back-to-back. He needs some work, anyway, as Lehtonen has started four games in a row.
On the injury front, the Stars are a banged-up team right now, especially on the blueline. Already without number one defenseman John Klingberg (lower body) and third pairing defenseman Jordie Benn (lower body), the Stars lost Demers for an estimated six weeks after he sustained a shoulder injury that forced him to leave Monday's game. The club is also without forward Patrick Sharp (lower-body injury). None of the players will be available for Saturday's game.
The Blues enter this game coming off a 5-2 home win over Anaheim on Friday. Jake Allen, who stopped 26 of 28 shots against Anaheim, will get the nod again. On the injury front, Alexander Steen (upper body), Brian Elliott (lower body) and longtime Dallas forward Steve Ott (hamstring) are unavailable against the Stars.
Winners of five straight games, the Blues now open a five-game road trip. St. Louis is 12-4-1 since the All-Star break.