Stars at Blackhawks
Injury-depleted Chicago hosts Dallas on Sunday and, while their rival Stars take the United Center ice, the Blackhawks hope to have three of their own marquee players back in action soon. Chicago, which leads the rugged Central Division by two points over second-place St. Louis and 10 over Dallas, is managing to stay afloat without captain Jonathan Toews, top-two defenseman Brent Seabrook and No. 1 goaltender Corey Crawford in the lineup.
The durable Seabrook missed his third regular-season game since 2012-13 on Friday - a 1-0 overtime loss to the New York Rangers that left Chicago 4-3-2 in its last nine contests starting with a 2-1 loss in San Jose on Nov. 23 when Toews suffered his upper-body injury. Crawford underwent an emergency appendectomy Dec. 3 in Philadelphia and began off-ice workouts this week. The Stars blew a late lead and lost in Philadelphia 4-2 on Saturday afternoon after the Flyers scored three goals in the final 3:48, falling to 1-4-2 in their last seven road games. The Blackhawks won the first two of five meetings this season 3-2 on Nov. 5 and 4-3 in overtime on Nov. 6 with Chicago's Patrick Kane scoring in each game and adding an assist.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FSN Southwest (Dallas), CSN Chicago
ABOUT THE STARS (11-12-6): The top line of Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and Jason Spezza, which combined for eight points in Thursday's 5-2 victory over Nashville in their first game together, was shut out Saturday. Defenseman Johnny Oduya (lower-body injury) missed his 10th straight game, but is expected to play Sunday after coach Lindy Ruff told reporters Friday: "I am pretty sure Johnny will have a crack at playing, but he won't play back-to-back." Jiri Hudler was activated from injured reserve after missing 23 games because of a mysterious virus and was scratched Saturday, but is expected to play Sunday.
ABOUT THE BLACKHAWKS (17-8-4): Chicago received another scare when Kane (team bests of 27 points and 19 assists) briefly left Friday's game after a rough ride into the boards, but wound up playing nearly 20 minutes. Scott Darling is filling in admirably for Crawford, going 1-2-1 with a .950 save percentage and 1.52 goals-against average, and with no back-to-backs on the horizon should start them all until Crawford returns. The Blackhawks own the worst penalty-killing unit in the NHL at 72.1 percent but are starting to turn the corner by extinguishing 16-of-19 chances over the the last eight games.
OVERTIME
1. Chicago RW Marian Hossa is tied with ex-Blackhawk Jeremy Roenick for 38th on the NHL's all-time list with 513 career goals - including a team-high 14 this season - and is four assists shy of 600.
2. Dallas F Devin Shore, the 61st overall pick in the 2012 draft, scored both goals Saturday, doubling his career total in his 32nd game.
3. The Stars are 4-8-4 on the road with two of the wins coming on back-to-back nights in Calgary and Edmonton one month ago this weekend.