Sabres at Stars
Owners of the league's best record, the high-powered Dallas Stars go for their fifth consecutive victory when they host the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night in the second meeting between the clubs in five days. Dallas (16-4-0) is off the best 20-game start in franchise history, which includes a 3-1 victory at Buffalo on Tuesday.
Stars coach Lindy Ruff credited his team's one-game-at-a-time mentality for the blazing start. "These guys have done a tremendous job of putting the game away. Win a game, put it away," Ruff told the team's official website. "Even after our losses we've been able to put the loss away and bounce back with a win." Buffalo has followed up a 5-1-0 stretch with a three-game winless drought (0-1-2) following a 3-2 shootout loss at St. Louis on Thursday. Two of the setbacks went beyond regulation for the Sabres, who have scored only four goals during the three-game skid.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, MSG-B and Bell TV (Buffalo), FSN Southwest (Dallas)
ABOUT THE SABRES (8-9-2): Buffalo, which is attempting to navigate a rugged seven-game stretch in which it plays Central Division powers Dallas, St. Louis and Nashville twice apiece, saw forward Evander Kane return to the lineup after missing 10 games with a MCL injury to his knee. “He brings so much,’ teammate Ryan O’Reilly told reporters. “He has such physicality and the way he shoots the puck, other teams see him and they get afraid.” Defenseman Mark Pysyk, who suffered a lower-body injury Tuesday against Dallas, will sit out his second straight game.
ABOUT THE STARS (16-4-0): Tyler Seguin, who has scored in back-to-back contests and owns a four-game point streak, is the first Stars player with 28 points through the first 20 games since Dino Ciccarelli in 1986-87, when the franchise was in Minnesota. Captain Jamie Benn also has a four-game point streak and is third in the league in scoring - one point behind Seguin. Second-year standout John Klingberg leads NHL defensemen with 22 points after registering multiple points for the sixth time in 10 games in Thursday's 3-2 win at Washington.
OVERTIME
1. Seguin has nine goals and nine assists in 20 career games versus the Sabres.
2. Buffalo has surrendered five power-play goals over the past five games.
3. Stars C Jason Spezza has scored a goal in three consecutive games.