ABBREVIATED GAME PREVIEW (11:45 AM CST)
Looking to rebound from a 6-1 blowout loss in St. Louis in Sunday and end a two-game losing skid, the Dallas Stars (11-9-2) face another tough opponent tonight as they return home to the American Airlines Center. Awaiting Lindy Ruff's club is Bruce Boudreau's Anaheim Ducks (17-6-3). Game time is 7:30 PM Central. The match will be televised nationally on NBC Sports Network.
This is the second of three meetings between the teams this season. On Oct. 20, the Stars got off to a 3-1 in the first period after goals by Ryan Garbutt, Brenden Dillon and Shawn Horcoff responded to an early power play goal by Teemu Selà¤nne. However, the Ducks utterly dominated the remaining 60 minutes of play -- especially in a 23-shot onslaught in the second period alone -- and Anaheim went on to prevail, 6-3.
Kari Lehtonen is coming off his roughest outing of the season. He had little help from the players in front of him but was hardly stellar in stopping just 13 of 18 shots against the Blues before he was replaced by backup Dan Ellis at 5:39 of the third period. Dillon scored the lone goal for Dallas.
The Ducks recently endured a five-game winless streak (0-3-2) but have righted the ship in the last week. The club has won back-to-back games, including a 4-2 win over Phoenix on Sunday. Anaheim has been scorching hot on the power play of late, connecting on five of their last 16 chances (a 31.3 percent success rate) over the last five game. Considering that the Stars have recently been struggling on the PK -- 63.6 percent over the last four games -- and got torched a couple times the first time the two clubs met this season, it will be important for the Stars to stay out of the box.
Despite their hiccups earlier this month, the Ducks remain one of the NHL's most dominant teams at five-on-five. Anaheim enters this game having outscored opponents by a margin of 59-40 at even strength this season.
The Stars are expected to ice a healthy lineup tonight, with second line winger Ray Whitney returning from a groin pull. Anaheim has a significant volume of injuries. Defensemen Francois Beauchemin (upper body), Sheldon Souray (wrist surgery), Luca Sbisa (wrist) and Bryan Allen (lower body) are all unavailable. So are forwards Jakob Silfverberg (hand) and Saku Koivu (concussion) as well as goaltender Viktor Fasth (lower body).
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