Lightning at Stars
THE STORY: The injury-plagued Tampa Bay Lightning showed some life with a 5-3 victory over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday, snapping a seven-game losing streak. The Lightning hope to carry over that emotion when they take to the road for two games in two days, starting at the Dallas Stars on Friday. The Lightning are without three of their top seven defensemen because of injuries, but top offensive weapons Steven Stamkos, Vincent Lecavalier and Marty St. Louis are healthy and producing. Jamie Benn and Mike Ribeiro, two of the Stars’ top four scorers, are likely out with injuries while their defense could be back at full strength. Tampa Bay, which plays at Phoenix on Saturday, is 3-0-2 in the last five meetings with Dallas.
TV: 8:30 p.m. ET, SunSports (Tampa), FS Southwest (Dallas)
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (18-23-4): It appeared that the Lightning might reduce their injury list to six with wing Dana Tyrell back, but forward Tom Pyatt was hurt at practice Thursday and is listed as day-to-day. Pyatt had two goals in three games. Marc-Andre Bergeron isn’t on the trip, joining fellow defensemen Victor Hedman and Mattias Ohlund on the shelf. Lecavalier has seven goals and seven assists and St. Louis 14 assists in the last 12 games. Stamkos has 31 goals, five more than anyone in the league through Wednesday. He has 11 goals in 11 games.
ABOUT THE STARS (24-19-2): Benn, the team’s leading scorer with 42 points, is recovering from an emergency appendectomy and Ribeiro is out with a knee injury. The good news is rookie defenseman Philip Larsen is close to a return from concussion-like symptoms. The Stars will need a little more from everyone, led by Loui Eriksson (41 points). Veteran Brenden Morrow potted his first goal in 13 games in the 3-2 shootout loss to Detroit on Tuesday, while Michael Ryder has gone seven games without a goal.
OVERTIME:
1. Dallas goaltender Kari Lehtonen is 11-6-3 with a .930 save percentage against Tampa Bay in his career.
2. Tampa Bay power forward Ryan Malone has goals in consecutive games for the first time this season.
3. Both teams are 2-for-24 on the power play in eight January games.