Opening a five-game road trip and looking for back-to-back wins for the first time since a three-game winning streak from Feb. 8 to 13, Lindy Ruff's Dallas Stars (28-26-10) are in the Sunshine State to take on Gerard Gallant's Florida Panthers (28-23-11) in Sunrise. Game time is 6:30 p.m. CST. The game will be televised locally on Fox Sports Southwest.
This is the second and final meeting of the season between the inter-Conference clubs. On Feb. 13 in Dallas, the Stars blanked the Cats by a 3-0 score.
The Stars enter this game coming off a 3-2 home overtime win against the New York Islanders on Tuesday night. Dallas nearly won in regulation but gave up the tying goal with barely more than one tick remaining on the clock. Cody Eakin rescued the win in OT. The Stars trailed 1-0 entering the third period before goals by Brett Ritche and Vernon Fiddler gave Dallas the lead. Kari Lehtonen had a strong bounceback game in goal, stopping 35 of 37 shots.
Tuesday's win came at a steep cost to Dallas. The Stars lost defenseman Trevor Daley, who has been having a career year offensively, for what is expected to be at least two weeks. Daley was injured by a knee-to-knee hit by Islanders' forward Matt Martin (who was subsequently suspended one game by the NHL's Department of Player Safety).
The last time the Stars played the Panthers, they lost top line center Tyler Seguin due to a low-bridge hit by Florida defenseman Dmitry Kulikov, resulting in a four-game suspension for Kulikov. Seguin remains out of the Stars lineup. In addition to Seguin and Daley, the Stars' lineup is also still missing Valeri Nichushkin (hip surgery) and Travis Moen (upper body injury).
The Panthers have some injury issues of their own. The team sustained a costly 3-2 regulation loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday -- missing out on an opportunity to gain ground on the idle Boston Bruins in the race for the final wildcard playoff spot in the Eastern Conference -- as they had both starter Roberto Luongo and backup Al Montoya go down with injuries.
Under emergency conditions, the Panthers were permitted to dress goaltending coach Rob Tallas as an eligible player. However, Montoya (playing with a groin pull) remained in the net until Luongo (who had left due to an upper-body injury) suited back up again and returned to the net to finish the game.
Brandon Pirri and rookie defenseman Aaron Ekblad (11th goal of the season) scored in a losing cause for the Panthers against Toronto. All three Toronto goals were scored against Montoya on 15 shots. Luongo stopped all 19 shots he faced.
Both Luongo and Montoya are day-to-day and are not expected to be available to play against Dallas on Thursday. The team has recalled veteran goaltender Dan Ellis (who backed up Lehtonen in Dallas for part of the 2013-14 season before being traded to Florida for Tim Thomas) from the San Antonio Rampage of the American Hockey League to start against the Stars. The club has also recalled ECHL goaltender Sam Brittain to back up Ellis.
In addition to Luongo and Montoya, the Panthers are missing veteran center Dave Bolland (upper body) and veteran defenseman Willie Mitchell (upper body) from the lineup.