Dallas Stars Look to Keep Streak Going Against Minnesota Wild
The Dallas Stars will take on the Minnesota Wild tonight at the American Airlines Center and are aiming to extend their home winning streak to four. Early on in the season Dallas couldn’t so much as buy a win at home, but lately they’ve begun to establish a home ice advantage of sorts and a win tonight would put them at a tie in points with the Wild. Puck drop is 7:30PM CT and the game can be seen on Fox Sports South West Plus or listened to on 1310 the Ticket.
Records and Scores
The Stars most recently beat the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday in Dallas by a score of 3-2 to improve their record to 9-9-4. Tyler Seguin led the offensive play tallying two goals to increase his total to a league leading 17 on the season. The Stars are currently in possession of 6th place in the Central Division, but there are only eight points separating them from the division leading Nashville Predators.
Minnesota was shutout by the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday night 4-0, which made their record 12-9-0 through 21 games. The Wild were poor offensively, while the Kings played a nearly perfect road game, scoring all four goals in the first twenty minutes of the game. The Wild will look for more energy in their game tonight in hopes of maintaining 5th place of the Central Division.
Story Lines
Garbutt’s Suspension
Dallas Stars forward Ryan Garbutt made his return to play Tuesday following an upper body injury that sidelined him for three games; however, he will not play in tonight’s game or tomorrow night’s match-up in Colorado due to a two game suspension. Garbutt collided with Edmonton Oilers forward Taylor Hall in the game on Tuesday and the league ruled it as an illegal knee-on-knee hit. Garbutt had previously been suspended for five games last season due to a head hit on Dustin Penner and was fined this past April for spearing Corey Perry, thus making him a repeat offender and his penalty subsequently greater.
Third Period Complications
Although the Stars have been winning of late they’ve been consistently unable to close teams out in the third period. The last two home games Dallas has allowed their opponents to get within one goal of forcing overtime instead of keeping their offensive pressure up and maintaining their multiple goal leads. Head Coach Lindy Ruff has repeatedly addressed the team’s inability to play more than forty solid minutes of hockey and it’s a trend that the Stars won’t be able to continue as the season progresses.
Wild Inconsistencies
The Minnesota Wild, on the other hand, have lost their winning ways recently. They’ve dropped two of their last three decisions after winning the four previous to that. Superstars Zach Parise and Ryan Suter will try to best the Stars tonight and get their team going back in the right direction.
Injury Report
Dallas Stars forward Rich Peverley (heart) is out indefinitely, while defenseman Patrik Nemeth (arm laceration) is expected to miss the remainder of the regular season. Forward Val Nichushkin (hip) had surgery and will reportedly be out for four months.
The Minnesota Wild only have two injuries: forward Matt Cooke is out with a lower body injury and defenseman Jonas Brodin is on IR with an illness.
Projected Lines
Dallas Stars
Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin – Patrick Eaves
Erik Cole – Jason Spezza – Ales Hemsky
Antoine Roussel – Cody Eakin – Curtis McKenzie*
Shawn Horcoff – Vernon Fiddler – Travis Moen
*Colton Sceviour is battling an illness and will be a game time decision, if he plays McKenzie will be out.
Trevor Daley – Jason Demers
Alex Goligoski – John Klingberg
Jamie Oleksiak – Jyrki Jokipakka
Kari Lehtonen – Expected Starter
Minnesota Wild
Zach Parise – Mikael Granlund – Jason Pominville
Jason Zucker – Mikko Koivu – Thomas Vanek
Nino Niederreiter – Charlie Coyle – Erik Haula
Ryan Carter – Kyle Brodziak – Justin Fontaine
Ryan Suter – Jared Spurgeon
Marco Scandella – Nate Prosser
Keith Ballard – Matthew Dumba
Darcy Kuemper – Expected Starter
Prediction
I predict that the Dallas Stars will continue their winning success at home and secondary scoring will be a dominating force in the victory. I also expect the power play to have an impact on the game and contribute to the Dallas Stars beating the Minnesota Wild for the first time this season by a score of 4-2.
Do you think the Stars’ home winning streak will continue? Leave your thoughts in the comments and be sure to check back after the game for analysis!