STARS VS. PENGUINS ABBREVIATED PREVIEW
Winners of the first two games of their five-game homestand by a combined 11-1 score, the Dallas Stars (23-20-8) play host tonight to the perennial Eastern Conference powerhouse Pittsburgh Penguins (36-13-2). Game time at the American Airlines Center is 7:00 p.m. CST. The match will be televised locally on Fox Sports Southwest.
This is the first of two meetings between the teams this season and the lone game in Dallas. The teams will rematch in Pittsburgh on March as part of a three-game road trip that will take the Stars through Pennsylvania after a game in Winnipeg.
The Stars are coming off a 7-1 rout of the Maple Leafs on Friday, riding a four-goal second-period outburst that blew the game wide open. Dallas scored goals in every manpower situation that arose in the game: five-on-five, shorthanded (fiour-on-five), power play (five-on-four) and four-on-four.
Valeri Nichushkin had two goals and an assist. Jamie Benn enjoyed a four-point night with a goal and three helpers. Cody Eakin, who later had to leave the game with an upper body injury, notched a goal and an assist. Tyler Seguin and Sergei Gonchar each added a pair of assists. Shawn Horcoff (power play), Rich Peverley (shorthanded) and Trevor Daley all scored goals.
Kari Lehtonen, coming off an 18-save shutout against Minnesota, turned back 24 of 25 Toronto shots to earn the 200th win of his NHL career. The big Finn was also credited with his third assist of the season on Horcoff's goal.
The back-to-back convincing wins over Toronto and Minnesota (4-0) have at least temporarily brightened what has been a dreary January. Dallas started the month by losing six straight games (all in regulation) and were 1-8-1 overall before shutting out the Wild.
On the injury front, second line center Cody Eakin, who left Thursday’s game in the third period with an upper body injury after a high hit by Toronto's Colton Orr, is expected to play tonight. Top-pairing defenseman Stephane Robidas (fractured tibia) is out for the season.
The Penguins are coming off a 6-4 win over the New York Islanders that was something less than neat and tidy. Pittsburgh trailed 2-0 at one point before storming back with their superior firepower. Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz each had three-point games (one goal, two assists apiece) to lead the attack.
Pittsburgh has lost a lot of man games to injury this season -- with stretches of missing multiple key players -- but the team has kept right on winning.
At present, two-way winger Pascal Dupuis (torn ACL), backup goaltender Tomas Vokoun (blood clot in hip; no longer on blood-thinning medication) and role-playing forwards Joe Vitale (wrist), Beau Bennett (wrist), Chris Conner (hand) and Brian Gibbons (lower body) are out of the Penguins lineup.
Discipline and patience are musts when playing the Penguins, including the defensive and restraint varieties. Pittsburgh brings the NHL's top-rated power play (25.0 percent efficiency) and number one penalty kill (88.4 percent) into the game. They also rank in the top one-third of the league in even-strength goal differential.