Dallas Stars Aim to Stay Alive in Game Six
A critical game six in St. Louis occurs tonight, and the Dallas Stars are fighting for their lives. Do they have enough in the tank to force a game seven?
The Dallas Stars will be fighting for their season tonight as they head to St. Louis to take on the Blues in Game 6 of their second round series. The puck will drop at 7p.m. and the game can be seen on NBCSN.
Records and Scores
The Stars and Blues have made it to Game 6 after a number of tough battles. Dallas took a 1-0 series lead with a win at home to start off the series, but fell in overtime in Game 2 to go to St. Louis tied. From there the Blues took a 2-1 series lead with a blowout win in Game 3 before Dallas came back and won in overtime of Game 4 to go to Dallas tied 2-2.
Unfortunately, the Stars fell 4-1 on Saturday at the American Airlines Center and are on the brink of elimination tonight. They’ll look to push the series to seven with a big win.
Storylines
Defense, Defense, Defense
The Stars have struggled defensively and are in need of a really good performance from their blue line tonight. Dallas’ defensive core is extremely young and not the most experiences, but mistakes, like letting Vladimir Tarasenko get a breakaway, have to be eliminated from their game to push a seventh match-up.
Defense goes all the way to the net as well and although Lindy Ruff has yet to declare which goalie will be in the blue paint for the Stars in Game 6, whichever Finn it is will have to have an excellent performance.
Beating Elliott
Brian Elliott has been nothing short of fantastic for the Blues this postseason and the Stars will have to find a way to complete their chances against him. He’s not impenetrable, but he’s pretty darn close with the tight defensive game St. Louis plays.
Jamie Benn will need to lead the offense and convert on chances for the Stars to come out alive.
Special Teams
Another big factor in the Stars trailing three games to two is their lack of ability to win the special teams battles and get favorable match-ups. It’s up to Ruff and his coaching staff to find a new way of entering the zone on the power play, avoiding the drop pass the Stars have been using for entirely too long.
It’s up to the staff to get the right changes on the penalty kill as well, seeing that the Blues have scored way too many power play goals.
Injuries
The Stars will be without Tyler Seguin (lower-body) and Patrick Eaves (lower-body) tonight.
The Blues will have a full roster as they currently don’t have any injured players.
Line Combinations
Dallas Stars
Jamie Benn – Cody Eakin – Patrick Sharp
Mattias Janmark – Jason Spezza – Valeri Nichushkin
Antoine Roussel – Radek Faksa – Ales Hemsky
Travis Moen – Vernon Fiddler – Brett Ritchie
Alex Goligoski – John Klingberg
St. Louis Blues
Jaden Schwartz – Jori Lehtera – Vladimir Tarasenko
Alex Steen – Paul Stastny – Troy Brouwer
Robby Fabbri – Patrik Berglund – David Backes
Scottie Upshall – Kyle Brodziak – Ryan Reeves
Jay Bouwmeester – Alex Pietrangelo
Joel Edmundson – Kevin Shattenkirk
Carl Gunnarsson – Colton Parayko
Next: Staring Extinction In The Eyes Is Just What Stars Need
Prediction
The Stars will find a way to win this one and force a Game 7 at home. They’ll get big performances from their best players in a 5-3 win over the Blues.