Calgary Flames (4-5-3, 11 pts) @ Dallas Stars (8-6-1, 17 pts)
5:00 PM CT
American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas
The Flames – 13th in the West
Rankings:
Goals – 8th, Goals Against – 28th, Power Play – 4th, Penalty Kill – 29th
As all Stars fans will remember, this Flames team just lit up the Stars last week with a 7-4 demolition. In that game, the Flames completely exposed the Stars defense and had enough golden scoring chances to score 15 goals.
Calgary followed that game up with 5-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues in which starting goalie Leland Irving was pulled just four minutes in and subsequently sent down to the AHL after the game.
Backup goalie Joey MacDonald now takes over the starting spot and gets his first nod of the year against the Stars today.
Calgary has been terrible defensively though so Dallas needs to attack the net and work MacDonald over in his first start.
The Flames will be without forwards Mikael Backlund (knee), Paul Byron (hand), Sven Baertschi (hip) and goalie Miikka Kiprusoff (MCL).
Possible line combos:
Tanguay – Comeau – Iginla
Glencross – Cammalleri – Hudler
Jackman – Stajan – Stempniak
Horak – Cervenka – Begin
D-Pairings:
Giordano – Wideman
Butler – Bouwmeester
Smith – Sarich
Dallas – 7th in the West
Rankings:
Goals – 21th, Goals Against – 14th, Power Play – 17th, Penalty Kill – 10th
For Dallas, it’s a case of good news bad news. The good news was that they had a truly improbable 4-3 comeback win against the Vancouver Canucks on Friday night. The team showed great fight and just wanted it more than Vancouver.
The really bad news was that Kari Lehtonen suffered another groin injury. Luckily it doesn’t seem as serious as last season but Lehtonen will be out a minimum of a week and will miss three games for sure. From then on, it’s anyone’s guess as to when he gets back.
Richard Bachman gets the start for Dallas today and will have a lot of pressure on him to perform better against Calgary than his last start. Cristopher Nilstorp was called up to be the backup goaltender.
The depth lines have been great for Dallas as of late. The fourth line gave this team renewed energy in the Vancouver game with three fights in three seconds that turned the game around and whatever line Cody Eakin is on has usually been one of the Stars’ best.
Jamie Benn has points in six straight games and has been averaging 20 minutes a night.
Bachman starts tonight.
The Stars will be without Lehtonen and Ray Whitney with his broken foot.
Probable lines:
Morrow – Benn – Jagr
Eriksson – Roy – Ryder
Vincour – Eakin – Smith
Nystrom – Fiddler – Roussel/Garbutt
D-Pairs:
Dillon – Robidas
Rome – Daley
Goligoski – Larsen
