Dallas lost in overtime to St. Louis, 5-4, Saturday, but still exits back-to-back games against the Blues and Blackhawks with the lead in the Central Division by virtue of a tiebreaker.
Advertisement
The Blues hope to continue slaying the titans of the Western conference tonight when they travel to Dallas to take on the Stars tonight at 8pm. The Blues have managed to win both ends of a back-to-back set just once in seven tries this season (October 15 and 16, against the Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Cancucks), so they’ll be aiming to improve on that record Saturday. Dallas led 1-0 after one period and 4-1 after two.NOTES: Blackhawks LW Brandon Mashinter, C Michael Rasmussen and D Michal Rozsival (lower body) were scratched.
Antoine Roussel, Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn – the latter two scoring their 33rd goals for the season – had the Stars 4-0 up before Teuvo Teravainen pulled one back for the visiting Blackhawks. He came into the game having scored in five straight games and already had stretched it to six with a second-period goal that tied the score 2-2. The Stars finished 2-for-6 on the power play, victimizing a Chicago penalty kill, which is killing just 58.9 percent of opposing power plays over the past 11 games.
“St. Louis might be the best team in the league right now (with) the way they’re playing, and they’re healthier”, coach Lindy Ruff told the team’s official website.
Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin have each already put together their third consecutive 30-goal season.
The Red Wings tied it in the final minute of regulation when Richards scored on a power play. Stephen Johns has been recalled by the Stars because of the rash of blue line injuries, and he could very well slot into the lineup on Friday night. They’re not pretty all the time, and I’ll take what I can get. The game started an hour later than a normal because American Airlines Center played host to an National Basketball Association game between the Dallas Mavericks and the Indiana Pacers in the afternoon.
Spezza scored his fourth power-play goal in the last five games. Forward Rick Nash, who missed 20 games with a bone bruise, could be in the lineup along with defenseman Marc Staal, who missed the past two games with a lower-body injury.
“Six on four is tough”, Pietrangelo said.
“It’s sad to say we’ve been doing that a lot lately, so I think we’re getting used to it”, Shattenkirk said.
– More from Hitchock – “I mean with everything we’ve gone through, we wake up tomorrow morning in a hockey game for first place”. I thought the first shift right after their tying goal, we really brought it right to them. Niemi stopped Stastny’s initial shot, but Shattenkirk gained possession, skated around the back of the Dallas goal and tucked the puck inside the near post.
“We ran into a team that was sitting there ready for us”, Toews said.
Advertisement
One can look at this four-day span as a three-team round-robin tournament between the top teams in the Central Division, and judging by the first two results, the schedule makers saved the best for last.
