Stars at Lightning
The Dallas Stars begin a four-game stretch in five days that will go a long way to determining their postseason fate when they visit the playoff-bound Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday. The Stars won three straight before dropping a 4-1 decision at Carolina on Thursday and reside one point behind Phoenix for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Tyler Seguin boasts 22 points over the last 18 games for Dallas, but was held off the scoresheet in the 4-2 loss to the Lightning on March 1.
The Stars are 2-1-0 on their five-game road trip as they plow forward looking to make the playoffs for the first time since 2007-08. “You can’t spend too much time on your wins, can’t spend too much time on your losses,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff told the Dallas Morning News. “There’s some things we want to clean up. We’ll clean them up and get ready to play.” The Lightning, who are 5-0-2 in their last seven against Dallas, reside two points behind Montreal for second place in the Atlantic Division.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FSN Southwest-Plus (Dallas), CW44 (Tampa Bay)
ABOUT THE STARS (37-28-11): Dallas has yielded a pair of power-play goals in two of the last three games and could not recover against Carolina after big wins over St. Louis and Washington to start the trip. Seguin recorded goals in the last two games and boasts 10 in the 18 contests since the Olympic break to lead the team with 78 points. Kari Lehtonen started the last seven games in net and was 5-1-0 before being pulled Thursday after allowing three goals on 16 shots.
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (42-26-9): Tampa Bay suffered a 4-1 loss to Calgary at home on Thursday for its second loss in three contests since an 11-game point streak (7-0-4). "This should be a wake-up call for us," Lightning captain Steven Stamkos told reporters. "Big games we play so well and the other teams we are playing that are not in the playoffs, we play (poorly).” Valtteri Filppula leads the team with 57 points – 16 in the last 14 contests – while Stamkos has nine goals in 15 games since returning from a broken leg.
OVERTIME
1. Dallas veteran LW Ray Whitney, who has 32 points this season, suffered a lower-body injury Thursday and is listed as questionable.
2. Tampa Bay LW Ondrej Palat became the fourth rookie in franchise history to reach 20 goals, joining Stamkos, Tyler Johnson and Brad Richards.
3. Dallas D Alex Goligoski has five points in the last four games and owns a plus-11 rating during his team’s 5-2-0 stretch.