On trade deadline day in the NHL, the Dallas Stars continue their western road trip in Anaheim against the Ducks Friday night.
After a miraculous comeback against the San Jose Sharks, the Stars face another bottom three team in the NHL in Anaheim on the first leg of a back-to-back.
With only 18 games left in the season, getting two points out of games against the worst teams in the league is a must. Somehow, Dallas was able to do that with a wild 7-6 overtime win over San Jose Tuesday, but the Stars will hope that a win comes easier Friday against Anaheim.
The Ducks started the season 7-5 and were in a playoff spot as late as November, but since then, their season has taken a turn for the worse and now looks similar to the dismal year they had last season. Even with the addition of second overall pick Leo Carlsson, the Ducks are second to last in the Pacific Division, and a whopping 18 points behind the next closest team.
Anaheim comes off a radically different type of win than Dallas, beating the Ottawa Senators 2-1 on Wednesday despite only having 16 shots on goal. Alex Killorn cashed in for the game winner in the third period.
Goaltender Lukas Dostal had 29 saves to give the Ducks a rare home win. Anaheim is a mere 10-21-1 at the Honda Center so far this season. John Gibson gets the nod tonight in net for the Ducks after giving up four goals in a loss the last time these two teams met in January.
For Dallas, it has been a period of mixed feelings since leaving San Jose. On one hand, the team banked two points to retake the solo lead of first place in the Central Division, but on the other hand, the Stars were half a period away from getting embarrassed by the worst team in the league.
The beat went on for Logan Stankoven, who scored his fifth goal of the season to start a three goal comeback in the third period. Linemate Wyatt Johnston tied it with two more goals, completing a hat trick in the game and giving him 22 tallies on the season. Roope Hintz finished the win off with a laser beam wrist shot in overtime after a dazzling shift from Johnston and Stankoven.
Trade acquisition Chris Tanev made his Stars debut and eased his way in with a quiet 17 minutes where he was +1 and recorded a blocked shot and a hit. Tanev joined the team with little time to do anything but quickly greet his teammates and suit up for the game, and the coaching staff didn't rush him into any penalty kill situations. He played alongside Esa Lindell, while Jani Hakanpaa slotted down to pair with Ryan Suter.
Hakanpaa was victimized for the first four goals against, two at even strength and two while playing on the penalty kill. Suter has played most games over the past two months with Nils Lundkvist, but Lundkvist was the odd man out with the addition of Tanev to the lineup.
Ty Dellandrea played the third fewest minutes against San Jose and was replaced on the line with Matt Duchene and Mason Marchment with both Stankoven and Sam Steel. With the loss of Tyler Seguin to injury, Dellandrea was asked to fill in on that line but the trio has not registered a single point since being put together. Seguin is not expected to be back on the western swing, and the Stars will continue to look for answers to fill the void left by his injury.
Projected lines:
Robertson-Hintz-Pavelski
Benn-Johnston-Stankoven
Marchment-Duchene-Dellandrea
Steel-Faksa-Smith
Harley-Heiskanen
Lindell-Tanev
Suter-Hakanpaa/Lundkvist
Oettinger
Wedgewood
Jake Oettinger is expected to start for the fourth game in a row tonight, and is riding a three game winning streak. Despite only saving 14 of 20 shots in San Jose, Oettinger looked strong in the prior two outings, giving up two goals at home against the Sharks and one goal against the Jets on Feb. 29.
Scott Wedgewood gets the start Saturday in the second game of the back-to-back in Southern California. Wedgewood has not played since Feb. 26, a 3-2 overtime loss at home against the New York Islanders.
Puck drop in Anaheim is at 9 p.m. CST and can be seen on Bally Sports Southwest.
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