Dallas Stars Look to Continue Streak Against St Louis Blues

The St Louis Blues will take on the Dallas Stars tonight at American Airlines Center in hopes of ending the Stars’ three-game winning streak. The puck is set to drop at 5PM CT and the game can be seen on Fox Sports Southwest or listened to via 1310 the Ticket.

Records and Scores

The Dallas Stars (32-27-10) were undefeated in their Eastern road trip last week that concluded with a 4-2 victory against Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals. Dallas has kept their slim playoff hopes alive with the wins, sitting six points back of the Winnipeg Jets for the final wildcard position. They’ll look to fight their way back into playoff contention with another win tonight.

The St Louis Blues (43-20-5) currently sit atop the Central Division with 91 points on the season and they’re a favorite for a deep playoff run. In their most recent game they lost to the Minnesota Wild by a score of 3-1, another team ahead of Dallas in the standings. St Louis will look to increase their hold on the Central division with a win against Dallas tonight.

Story Lines

Back-to-Back

Dallas has the advantage in the game tonight being that St Louis played at home against Minnesota last night and had to travel. The Stars have also had a few days off since their victory in Washington, which should help the players that have been dealing with nagging injuries over the last few weeks. Dallas has to have the mentality that every game is a must win, and they have immense motivation to improve their home record. The Dallas Stars will look to tighten up their play in the defensive end late in games to ensure they grant themselves a chance to win. The Blues cannot, however, be counted out because they have some extremely talented forwards and goalies that steal games often.

“We’ve gotten a lot better as a team getting on the defensive side and making teams come through us. When you do it you win more than you lose.” – Lindy Ruff

Vets Leading the Way

The Stars have scored fifteen goals in their last four games and six of them have come from the older players in the dressing room. Vernon Fiddler has been wreaking havoc on opposing goaltenders lately scoring four goals in those four games, surpassing his previous career-best eleven goals. Shawn Horcoff and Alex Goligoski have also netted a goal of their own in the past week to round out the veteran contributions for Dallas. While the Stars are a rather young club the contributions from elite veterans can only help them continue to fight for their right to post-season play.

Seguin’s Return

Speaking of scoring, Tyler Seguin has been on fire since his return to the line-up after missing ten games with a knee injury on February 13^th. He has three goals in the four games he’s played despite not being entirely healed from the injury. It is unlikely Seguin will slow down in the scoring race because of his immense skill and that will only benefit the Stars because it is no secret that Dallas is an entirely different team with him in the line-up.

Injury Report

The Dallas Stars are still suffering from injuries, despite having some players return to the line-up over the course of the last week or so. Valeri Nichushkin (hip) has been skating, but is not quite ready to return. Trevor Daley (lower body) and Travis Moen (lower body) are not expected to play tonight. Rich Peverley (heart) has not played in the NHL in over a year and his return is questionable. John Klingberg is probable to return tonight after missing two games with an upper body injury.

The St Louis Blues will be without defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk (abdomen) and Olli Jokinen (undisclosed) tonight.

Projected Lines

Dallas Stars

Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin – Cody Eakin

Antoine Roussel – Jason Spezza -Ales Hemsky

Curtis McKenzie – Shawn Horcoff – Brett Ritchie

Colton Sceviour – Vernon Fiddler – Patrick Eaves

Alex Goligoski – Jyrki Jokipakka

Jordie Benn – Patrik Nemeth

John Klingberg – Jason Demers

Kari Lehtonen (expected starter)

Jhonas Enroth

St Louis Blues

Chris Porter – David Backes – TJ Oshie

Jaden Schwartz – Jori Lehtera – Vladimir Tarasenko

Alex Steen – Paul Stastny – Dmirtij Jaskin

Patrik Berglund – Steve Ott – Ryan Reaves

Carl Gunnarsson – Alex Pietrangelo

Jay Bouwmeester – Zbynek Michalek

Barret Jackman – Robert Bortuzzo

Jake Allen (expected starter)

Brian Elliot

Prediction

The Stars will take advantage of the Blues being tired on the second end of a back-to-back, which will lead them to a 3-2 victory on home ice.

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