Stars at Hurricanes
The Dallas Stars face a daunting task to make the playoffs, sitting eight points back of the second wild card in the Western Conference with a glut of teams in front of them. Winners of three of four, the Stars continue their five-game road trip with a visit to the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday. "You hope you can catch on and get a little streak going, and we are just trying to put a string of games together period by period and hopefully that turns over to game by game,” forward Vernon Fiddler said.
Dallas has actually played better away from home, posting a 17-14-2 mark entering the matchup with the Hurricanes, who reside in the cellar of the Metropolitan Division. Carolina showed signs of life by closing out February with three straight victories, but it has lost three of four this month - the only win coming against lowly Edmonton. The Hurricanes squandered a pair of two-goal leads before falling in a shootout to visiting Columbus on Tuesday night.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FSN Southwest (Dallas), FSN Carolina
ABOUT THE STARS (30-27-10): Fiddler has come alive with four goals in the past four contests, including the game-winner in Tuesday's 2-1 victory over Philadelphia to match his career-high total of 11 set on three occasions with Nashville. Rookie Brett Ritchie, who scored in his first two NHL games before tallying once over the next 16, has connected twice in the past three games. Dallas could have some manpower issues against Carolina - Cody Eakin (disciplinary) and defenseman Jason Demers (illness) sat out Tuesday while rookie blue-liner John Klingberg sustained an upper-body injury.
ABOUT THE HURRICANES (25-32-8): Special teams have played a pivotal role in Carolina's past two games with the power play connecting on 5-of-9 chances, but that was offset by allowing the opposition to score five times with the man advantage. “What was once a strength is now a weakness,” Hurricanes coach Bill Peters said of a penalty-killing unit that was ranked No. 1 in the league prior to the recent stumbles. All-Star defenseman Justin Faulk continued his breakout campaign with a goal and two assists Tuesday, giving him 15 points in his last 14 games.
OVERTIME
1. Stars G Kari Lehtonen's next game will be the 500th of his career.
2. Hurricanes captain Eric Staal is one goal shy of reaching 20 for the ninth time in his career
3. Stars C Jason Spezza has 18 goals and 39 points in 34 games versus Carolina.