Dallas Stars Aiming To Keep Hot Streak Alive Against Calgary Flames
By Josh Clark
The playoff push will shift back in gear for the Dallas Stars on Wednesday night. They will take on the best team in the Western Conference and look to not only relive history, but also keep their hot streak on the road alive.
Six games separate the Dallas Stars from the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs. And if they are going to earn the opportunity to play past game 82, these next six games could help in getting them there.
After starting off an important four-game road trip on Monday night with a dominant 5-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets, the Stars will be back in action on Wednesday.
The second stop of the road trip takes them to Calgary to face off with a strong and surging Flames team. The Flames have won six of their past eight contests and currently sit atop both the Pacific division and Western Conference with a record of 47-22-7 (101 points) They were the first team in the West to clinch a playoff spot and look to be a shoo-in to win both the Pacific and Western Conference regular season titles. Calgary also owns the second-highest scoring offense in the league and has posted a dominant 25-8-5 record on home ice this year.
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But that hasn’t stopped Dallas from starting their season series with the Flames with on a 2-0-0 note.
It all began back on Nov. 28, 2018 at Scotiabank Saddledome when the Stars rallied for a 4-3 overtime victory. While on the second night of a back-to-back, Dallas came out swinging against the Flames. Jason Spezza and Jamie Benn both scored to help the Stars get out to a 2-1 lead through the first 40 minutes of the game. But after Johnny Gaudreau and Mark Giordano scored back-to-back goals within 70 seconds of each other, the Stars found themselves in a 3-2 hole.
Rookie defenseman Gavin Bayreuther served as the hero a few minutes later as he scored his second career NHL goal to tie things up. The game pushed into overtime, where Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn combined for an impressive goal just 24 seconds into the frame. The Stars picked up their first win on the second night of a back-to-back and secured two big points to propel them into the month of December.
Less than three weeks later, the Dallas Stars welcomed the Flames to the American Airlines Center. After going winless in a four-game road trip the week before, the Stars were in search of an important bounce-back game.
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They found it. Behind an early goal from Jamie Benn and a second period tally by Radek Faksa, along with a combined shutout by Ben Bishop and Anton Khudobin, the Stars secured a 2-0 victory and put themselves back on the winning track.
So, as threatening as the Flames may look, the Dallas Stars know what it takes to knock off the best team in the West. And on Wednesday night, they will have to do so one last time in the 2018-19 regular season campaign.
If the Stars can secure an important win in Alberta tonight, it will do a few different things for the team.
For one, it will drop their magic number to clinch a playoff spot down from seven to five. Seven points in the final six games will get Dallas into the postseason, though the teams just behind them losing points will help their cause as well. The Stars’ playoff odds currently sit at 97.5 percent according to Sports Club Stats. A win tonight could significantly propel their already-favorable chances.
In addition, the two points could help them further the gap between the Colorado Avalanche, who sit three points back in the second wild card spot. Colorado will take on the Vegas Golden Knights tonight at 9 p.m., so the opportunity is there for the Stars to either create a gap of four of five points, hold steady at a three-point margin, or slip to just one or two points ahead. It’s another big game, after all.
And finally, the Dallas Stars will be putting their hot streak away from home on the line. Dallas has won its past five road games and hasn’t dropped a game in opposing territory since Feb. 26. That’s more than four weeks.
Ben Bishop is expected to get the start in net and will look for his second consecutive win after stopping 21/23 in Winnipeg on Monday. Jason Spezza will also be back in the lineup after serving as the healthy scratch in the past two games. He already has a goal against the Flames this season and will look to break an 11-game goal skid.
Jamie Oleksiak will also hop back into the lineup in place of Taylor Fedun. It will be Oleksiak’s first start after serving as the healthy scratch in the past three games and gives the team a chance to cycle through their defenders with a doubleheader (Dallas will play the Oilers in Edmonton on Thursday night).
Here’s how the Stars are expected to line up:
Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin – Jason Dickinson
Mattias Janmark – Roope Hintz – Alexander Radulov
Andrew Cogliano – Radek Faksa – Blake Comeau
Valeri Nichushkin – Justin Dowling – Jason Spezza
Jamie Oleksiak – Ben Lovejoy
Ben Bishop
It’s another big game with two points on the line. The Dallas Stars are trying to start up a winning streak and keep their playoff hopes budding while the Calgary Flames are trying to get back in the win column and continue their surge towards clinching the top spot in the West.
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Puck drop is scheduled for 8:30 p.m.