Stars at Islanders
After playing a stretch of eight consecutive games against teams that reached the playoffs last season, the schedule does not get any easier for the Dallas Stars. Coming off a historical victory over Boston, Dallas will play seven of its next eight games away from home, starting with a stretch of three road contests in four days Sunday at the New York Islanders.
The Stars had dropped four of five (1-2-2) before blanking the Bruins 1-0 in overtime on Friday - the first time in franchise history they won by that score in overtime or a shootout - but now must prepare to play five games in seven days. "It's a lot of hockey in a short amount of time, so we are going to need to get results," Dallas center Jason Spezza told reporters. "These are the trips that can really catapult you as a team. This is an important stretch of hockey coming up." New York bounced back from a three-game slide by pouring in 12 goals in back-to-back victories over the Vancouver Canucks and rival New York Rangers to improve to 7-2-1 in its last 10 games. The Islanders struggled against the Central Division last season, going 5-7-2, and were outscored 10-2 in dropping both matchups to the Stars.
TV: 1 p.m. ET, Sportsnet, FS Southwest (Dallas), MSG Plus (New York)
ABOUT THE STARS (10-7-2): Dallas has struggled with the man advantage in each of the past two games, failing on all eight opportunities, so coach Jim Montgomery made an adjustment to the power-play unit at Saturday's practice, substituting Esa Lindell for fellow defenseman Miro Heiskanen. "It's just not working, right?" Montgomery told reporters. "So we got to switch it up." Stars goaltender Ben Bishop earned his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career against the Bruins on Friday and also blanked the Islanders last November in his only start against them in 2017-18.
ABOUT THE ISLANDERS (10-6-2): After being limited to one goal and zero assists through 16 games, Anthony Beauvillier broke out of his scoring slump in a big way by registering his first career hat trick in Thursday's 7-5 win over the Rangers. A first-round pick in the 2015 draft, Beauvillier was a 21-goal scorer in 2017-18 but he acknowledged that the inability to produce offensively this season was weighing on him. "It's always tough mentally," he told reporters. "If you don't play good and the team's losing it's harder, but the team's been winning and the locker room is great."
OVERTIME
1. Islanders C Brock Nelson is riding a four-game point streak and has eight goals and five assists in his last 12.
2. Dallas recalled C Roope Hintz and D Ben Gleason from Texas of the American Hockey League.
3. The Islanders are the first team since 2012-13 to open the season with seven straight divisional wins.