Dallas Stars Host New York Islanders
Tonight the Dallas Stars will host the New York Islanders to end off their five-game home stand at the American Airlines Center. Through the first four games the Stars have gone (2-0-1), earning five out of eight possible points.
Puck drop is set for 7PM CT and the game can be seen on Fox Sports Southwest.
Records and Scores
The Stars (42-21-9) currently hold first place in the Central Division with 93 points, giving them a two-point lead over second place St. Louis. They came from behind to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 4-3 win in regulation Thursday night. Dallas will aim to build on that tonight.
The Islanders (38-22-9) sit third in the Metropolitan Division with 85 points, holding a one-point lead over the Pittsburgh Penguins. They most recently lost to the Nashville Predators on Thursday by 4-2. They’ll look to beat the Stars at the AAC tonight.
Story Lines
Back in the Groove?
Thursday night’s come from behind victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning featured three one-goal deficits that the Stars were able to overcome thanks to two goals from Jamie Benn. While he hasn’t been playing to the best of his ability over the last few weeks, Thursday night Benn was just that.
The Dallas Stars have a lot of skill in the line-up, but when Jamie Benn is on his game they’re that much better. He leads by example and has been able to move the team in the right direction throughout his career, which is something Dallas will need in their final games of the regular season.
Defensively the Stars were better than they had been in the last few games and while they aren’t where they need to be, the effort was there. That’s always something they can build on moving forward.
Central Division Lead Up For Grabs
The Central Division is the most competitive in hockey right now, but the Stars have a chance to really take a hold of their first-place position tonight. A win means two-points and an even better shot at the title.
With their regulation win Thursday the Dallas Stars reached 40 regulation/overtime wins to tie the Chicago Blackhawks in that regard. The St. Louis Blues currently have 36 regulation/overtime wins, so they’d have to win more games than either Chicago or Dallas to take the lead.
The Stars can earn their first division title in ten years if they can manage to have a better record in their final eleven games than the Hawks and Blues. That starts tonight.
Injuries
The Dallas Stars will be without Jordie Benn (lower-body), Jason Demers (shoulder) and Mattias Janmark (upper-body) tonight. Tyler Seguin has a laceration on his achilles tendon and is expected to miss a couple of weeks, but should be back in time for the playoffs. John Klingberg (lower-body) will possibly be in the line-up depending on his status.
New York will play without Jaroslav Halak (lower-body).
Lines
Dallas Stars
Jamie Benn – Cody Eakin – Patrick Eaves
Valeri Nichushkin – Jason Spezza – Tyler Seguin
Antoine Roussel – Radek Faksa – Ales Hemsky
Colton Sceviour – Vernon Fiddler – Patrick Sharp
Kris Russell – Jamie Oleksiak
Patrik Nemeth – Alex Goligoski
Johnny Oduya – Stephen Johns
Kari Lehtonen
Annti Niemi
New York Islanders
Josh Bailey – John Tavares – Kyle Okposo
Nikolay Kulemin – Frans Nielsen – Ryan Strome
Anders Lee – Mikhail Grabovski – Steve Bernier
Matt Martin – Casey Cizikas – Cal Clutterbuck
Nick Leddy – Johnny Boychuck
Calvin de Haan – Travis Hamonic
Thomas Hickey – Mareck Zidlicky
Thomas Greiss
Jean-Francois Berube
Next: Brenden Morrow's Forever a Star
Prediction
The Dallas Stars will continue their winning ways to beat the Islanders 5-3.