Dallas Stars (42-30-5, 89 pts) @ Vancouver Canucks (47-21-9, 103 pts)

9:00 PM CT, March 30, 2012

Rogers Arena, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Stars:

Here we are, one week left in the season and the most critical stretch of games still to come. The Stars are still clinging to their Pacific Division lead (and playoff spot) only due to tiebreakers now. Only one point separates them from ninth in the West.

With all that in mind, Dallas plays the Vancouver Canucks tonight in the first game of their toughest back-to-back all season (it concludes tomorrow against the San Jose Sharks). The game today isn't as important as what comes tomorrow and Tuesday, but it's still one with enormous implications. The game tonight will be the last one that Dallas has in hand over Phoenix and San Jose. All the Pacific Division playoff hunting teams will have played 78 games after tonight.

Dallas is coming off of a 3-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers. The top line of Michael Ryder, Loui Eriksson and Mike Ribeiro showed up big in that game as they combined for eight points and Kari Lehtonen did what he's done all season, make huge saves. All of those guys will have to show up big again tonight if the Stars want to win tonight and have a lot of momentum going into tomorrow. Dallas has done well against the Canucks this season, winning two of the three games so far and playing tough in all of them.

To win this game, Dallas has to play smart, physical and controlled. The physical play will be there tonight. Dallas has outhit the Canucks 94-73. It's the playing smart and controlled that will make the difference tonight. In the last game between these two teams, the Stars got caught up in the after-the-whistle stuff. They were throwing some extra punches, getting gloves into faces and doing some extra shoving that only detracted from their game.

They didn't concentrate enough on just playing the game and it led to nine penalties and 21 penalty minutes. All it did was keep key guys off the ice (Ribeiro and Ryder took two penalties each) and halted momentum for the team. Tempers might still be flaring from that last matchup so the Stars just need to play hockey. Let the game take care of itself and let the scoreboard do the talking.

Kari Lehtonen gets the start tonight and it looks like for the rest of the games this season. He's 1-1-0 against Vancouver this season stopping 50 of 54 shots. He did poorly in the last game, allowing two very soft goals but I would Kari to be his usual self today.

Dallas is without three guys: Mark Fistric (abdominal), Eric Nystrom (leg laceration) and Radek Dvorak (ankle).

Notes and thoughts:

• Dallas is 20-16-2 on the road this year.

• The top line has been big in the two wins this season and did nothing in the loss. They need to show up tonight. Ryder has three points (one goal, two assists), Ribeiro has five points (three goals, two assists) and Eriksson has four points (two goals, two asissts) in the season series.

• The power play. Gully really needs to change up the power play. It's too ugly to even watch it right now. It went 0 of 5 in against the Oilers and was actually outchanced by the Oilers penalty kill.

• I would like to see Reilly Smith get some more time on ice. He had a pretty good game in his debut and looked lively. He needs to get moved up with Jamie Benn in place of Adam Burish. Benn needs some scoring wingers with him. He's doing too much on his own and even as good as he is, needs some help.

more after the jump

Dallas Stars (41-30-5, 87 pts) @ Edmonton Oilers (31-36-9, 71 pts)

8:30 PM CT, March 28, 2012

Rexall Place, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Tonight's game provides one thing for the Stars, a chance to get back on track. The loss to the Flames on Monday night was a big setback for the Stars in their playoff hopes. Calgary was supposed to be one of the last remaining easier games (though they were a desperate team) for the Stars in their final stretch of games, which is the toughest in the NHL. Instead of a win, Dallas was undone by costly turnovers and thoughtless penalties and found themselves on the wrong side of a 5-4 scoreline.

Tonight is the last of the "gimme" games for the Stars. The Oilers are one of the worst teams in the league and are dealing with injuries to significant players. If there was ever a crushing loss in a season, it would be if Dallas were to somehow lose tonight.

Dallas just needs to do one thing in this game, play smart. The Stars are a better team and need to play like it. Cut the penalties, limit the turnovers and don't leave the slot area wide open for opponents to skate through. The Stars just have to take of business tonight and not let the Oilers play the ultimate spoiler role. That comes down to one thing, the top line for Dallas. Mike Ribeiro has had a bad stretch of games in the past week and needs to return to form and provide some passes for Loui Eriksson and Michael Ryder (if the lines stay the same that is). Jamie Benn will undoubtedly show up ready to go tonight so there's no worries there.

There are some injuries to deal with though. Mark Fistric is still out with his abdominal strain and it looks like Radek Dvorak (ankle) and Eric Nystrom (leg laceration) will be out tonight. Both are listed as questionable but I don't think they'll be in the lineup. That means a big opportunity for recent callup Reilly Smith. Smith could possibly see time with Jamie Benn and will immediately be a more effective scoring winger than Steve Ott or Adam Burish. The youngster has a ton of offensive skill and it will be fascinating to see what he does tonight.

Kari Lehtonen gets thrown into the frying pan again. He's 2-0-0 against the Oilers this season. He's only faced 38 shots combined in the two games and stopped 36 of them.

Notes and thoughts:

• Dallas is 19-16-2 on the road this year.

• It's critical that Dallas wins the game tonight. The next two games on the schedule are a back-to-back against the Vancouver Canucks and San Jose Sharks. There's no more room for slip-ups in games that the Stars should win (not that there are anymore to begin with).

• Dallas sits in seventh in the Western Conference coming into this game.

• Monday provided the first huge slip up for the penalty kill in a long time. Dallas allowed three power play goals in six tries. In the previous 14 games, the Stars had allowed a total of three power play goals.

• As a result of that poor showing, Dallas absolutely has to stay out of major penalty trouble tonight. The Oilers have the second best power play in the NHL (though they will be missing some players) and the third best on home ice. The last thing Dallas needs to do is get in their own way again.

more after the jump

Final

Dallas 3 - Calgary 5

Ugly. That's really all you can say about this game. It was flat out ugly. Numerous stupid penalties, egregious turnovers and all-around foolish play doomed the Stars in their 5-3 loss to the Calgary Flames. It really was a game that the Stars should have handily won but they just couldn't get out of their own way. The game last night just proved to be a huge waste. The Stars went into the game yesterday with an opportunity to effectively end the Flames season. Instead, Calgary now finds themselves back into the playoff hunt and the Stars are in the seventh spot in the West with their most difficult portion of the schedule still coming up.

The game got off to a great start for the Stars as Jamie Benn scored just 26 seconds into the game with a wrister from near the blue line. It looked like an easy catch for Miikka Kiprusoff but he had a failure of hand/eye coordination and watched as the puck just flew over his glovehand and into the net. The start wouldn't last too long though as the Flames would capitalize on the Stars first mistake of the game. Trevor Daley took a high-sticking penalty six minutes into the period and Olli Jokinen would end up with a power play goal. That would be the flow of the game. Dallas would score a goal, take a penalty and then the Flames would either score a power play goal or get enough momentum to tie it up later.

Jamie Benn continued his dominant play from the first period when he scored in the second just 44 seconds in. Things would swing back and forth until Mike Ribeiro made one of the worst mistakes you'll ever see. The Stars were in the defensive zone and Ribeiro had the puck along the boards. Jarome Iginla was skating towards him and Ribs just lost his mind. He panicked and fired the puck through the slot, where Blake Comeau was literally waiting all by himself. If this had been in the offensive zone, it would have been a great pass but here, it was just a horrible mistake. Comeau one-timed the puck by Lehtonen and tied the game at 2-2. That goal would be the turning point of the game.

Mike Cammalleri scored a goal just one minute later and the Stars suddenly found themselves on the wrong side of the score board. Ribeiro was the culpirt in this one as well as he lost the face-off that led to the goal.

He would make some ammends by scoring the tying goal three minutes later but that tie didn't last. Immediately after that goal, Stephane Robidas would take a tripping penalty and the Flames would score a power play goal. Two minutes before the end of the period, that would happen again when Steve Ott took a tripping penalty. A 2-1 lead at the beginning of the second period would be 5-3 in the Flames favor by the time it ended.

Dallas scored a power play goal (by Philip Larsen) in the third to make things interesting, but they would never fully make the comeback.

The Stars just continue to get killed by their own mistakes. They say all the right things after the game ("We took stupid penalties", "We're upset at ourselves", etc...) but none of that really matters unless they make it count on ice. Dallas returns to the ice on Wednesday to take on the Edmonton Oilers.

more after the jump

It's the penultimate week of the season and the Stars are still, somehow still, in a prime position to finally break their playoff drought. Dallas enters this week tied with the Phoenix Coyotes for the division lead and just one point ahead of the ninth and tenth place teams so any lapse in play can still kill the Stars. Only four points separate Dallas from the Calgary Flames, the eleventh place team in the Western Conference.

The Stars have seven games left on the season and they face the last difficult portion of their schedule as they go on a four game road trip.

So here we are with the schedule for week 26 of the season.

more after the jump

Dallas Stars (41-29-5, 87 pts) @ Calgary Flames (34-27-15, 83 pts)

8:00 PM CT, March 26, 2012

Scotiabank Saddledome, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

The game tonight means one thing for the Stars, opportunity. It's an opportunity to put themselves further ahead of the Phoenix Coyotes (a team that they have two games in hand on), a team that lost last night. It's an opportunity to bury the coffin and shovel the dirt onto the Calgary Flames playoff chances for good. Most of all, it's an opportunity to start out a season decinding four game road trip with a win.

The Stars beat the Flames 4-1 on Saturday on the first of their home-and-home series. The score line is quite deceiving though. The Stars were outplayed for pretty much the entire game and won simply because Kari Lehtonen played an amazing game (as usual) and Miikka Kiprusoff was decidedly less effective. Timely goals from Jamie Benn and Michael Ryder in the first eight minutes of the game proved to be all Dallas would need, though Benn and Brenden Morrow would provide daggers in the third period.

Those beginning eight minutes were pretty much the only moments in this game that the Stars had control of the game. In the second and third periods, the Stars were outshot 29-12 and could barely get a scoring chance to save their life. Dallas could not get any extended puck possession and were losing those battles along the boards. It really was the least convincing 4-1 win I've ever seen.

Dallas needs to get back into the saddle tonight. This will be a desperate Flames team, one that has their home crowd behind them this time. The Stars have to match the Flames intensity and give back just as much as they take. Lehtonen will definitely have to be on top of his game again tonight and the top line has to, absolutely has to, show up and put pressure on Kiprusoff tonight. He's shown how quickly things can fall apart on him if he's bombarded with shots.

Lehtonen gets the start. He's 3-0-0 against the Flames this season with a 1.60 GAA and a .951 save percentage. He's stopped 96 of 101 shots.

Dallas is only dealing with one injury. Mark Fistric will probably miss the rest of the road trip with an abdominal injury. That means more Adam Pardy, unless somehow Jordie Benn gets the start.

On the signing front, the Stars purchased the contract of Reilly Smith yesterday. The youngster will be brought to the team as soon as possible, though he'll most likely miss tonight's game because he needs to get an American work visa. Smith is one of the Stars best forward prospects and will hopefully make a strong impact on this team as a scorer.

Notes and thoughts:

• Dallas is 19-15-2 on the road this season. They've won six of the last seven road games.

• Michael Ryder and Steve Ott have a point in all three games of this series so far. Ryder has two goals and an assist while Ott has a goal and two assists.

• Lehtonen has two of his three assists this season against the Flames.

• Dallas is 41 of 43 (95%) on the penalty kill in the last 13 games. The Flames power play has been pretty bad at home all season so there shouldn't be a power play goal for Calgary tonight (there better not be).

more after the jump

Final

Dallas 1 - Vancouver 2

Damn that Cory Schneider. At the end of the game, that's all I could think. The Canucks nominal backup goalie played an incredible game last night as the Stars lost to the Vancouver Canucks. The loss, combined with wins by the LA Kings and Phoenix Coyotes, dropped the Stars third down to the eighth spot in the Western Conference. The Stars now sit one point behind the red-hot Kings (they've won six in a row) for the division lead.

The game last night came down to one guy, Schneider. He played a game that was very Kari Lehtonen-like with the way he was stopping shots. Michael Ryder, Loui Eriksson and Alex Goligoski each had wide open slap shots from the face-off circles that Schneider easily parried away. Mike Ribeiro, he of dazzling and twirling skills, had a penalty shot 13 minutes into the second period and tried one of his patented moves, but Schneider literally did nothing and stopped the puck. He just sat there and waited for Ribeiro to finish his spin and calmly stopped the shot. That would prove to be huge as Stars weren't able to fully mount the comeback.

The Canucks got goals from Mason Raymond (in the first) and Kevin Bieksa (in the third). The Raymond goal was made entirely by Henrik Sedin. He was along the right hand boards and made a cross-ice pass through about five sticks to a wide open Mason Raymond on the backdoor. Lehtonen had absolutely no shot at making the save and could only hope that Raymond would send the shot ten feet too high, but no dice. The nearest defender was Stephane Robidas, but he was entangled with Zack Kassian right in front of Lehtonen.

The Canucks second goal was on Lehtonen. Lehtonen saved one shot from Bieksa but gave up a fat rebound that Bieksa pounced on. With Lehtonen face-down on the ice, it was an easy goal for Bieksa to just flip it over his body.

Dallas played, in all honesty, a bit of an odd game. They were physical but started to take things a bit too far. Players were throwing punches and shoving after almost every whistle and seemed to lose focus on the game. They just got caught up in all of the extracurricular activities instead of just playing the game. The only goal that they scored was due to a flub from Schneider, his only one of the night.

Vernon Fiddler had sent the puck behind the net and went to get it at the same time that Schneider went to get it. Only problem was that Schneider just flat out missed the puck, fell over and watched as the puck rolled out in front of the net. Fiddler was right there with Schneider and lept over him, tapping the puck in. 

more after the jump

Vancouver Canucks (43-21-09, 95 pts) @ Dallas Stars (40-28-5, 85 pts)

7:30 PM CT, March 22, 2012

American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas

Spirits are high in Stars camp. Dallas is coming off a critical 4-3 overtime over the Phoenix Coyotes on Tuesday. The win kept the Stars atop the division and third place in the Western Conference and allowed them to regain some momentum after two bad losses. Things just continue to get more difficult as the Northwest leading Vancouver Canucks come into town tonight. Dropping even one game can prove fatal as the difference between ninth and third place for Dallas is only one point. 

The Stars have been able to beat Vancouver this season by being the more physical team. Battle along the boards and forechecking is critical in this game as they have to keep the Canucks offense stymied. They've outhit Vancouver 61-40 in the season series.

There's some good news and bad news for the Stars coming into this game. Jamie Benn looks to be okay after taking devastating blow after devastating blow in the game against the Coyotes. He could have easily suffered a concussion three times over but he seems okay.

Dallas will be without Mark Fistric though as he deals with an upper body injury. He suffered the injury during the Stars game against the Coyotes, possibly during the scrum that occurred after Shane Doan hit Benn. He'll miss at least a week with the injury and that'll thrust Adam Pardy back into the spotlight. I hope Jordie Benn can get some time though.

Kari Lehtonen and his wonder glove will be starting again tonight. He started the first of the two matchups between the two teams this season and stopped 24 of 26 shots in an overtime win.

Notes and thoughts:

• It's the Ribs, Ryder and Eriksson show for the Stars against the Canucks. Ribeiro has three goals and two assists, Ryder one goal and two assists and Eriksson has a pair of each. They'll need to be on their game again tonight.

• Dallas is 21-13-3 at home.

• Dallas needs to stay off the penalty kill today now that Fistric is hurt. He was a huge part of the PK and I don't think Adam Pardy, Jordie Benn or whoever the replacement on the PK unit is can do as good a job. Against a power play unit that can be explosive, Dallas needs to avoid penalties.

more after the jump

Final (SO)

Dallas 4 - Phoenix 3 

It's fitting that the biggest game of the season was decided by the play of the Stars MVP of the season, Kari Lehtonen. The Big Fin came through when it mattered most, making the save of the NHL season in overtime to give the Stars a chance to pull a win from the jaws of defeat in a 4-3 shootout win.

In a welcome reversal of fortunes, the Stars were actually the team that got off to the quick start as Loui Eriksson scored just two minutes into the game on a pretty soft goal. A pass from Michael Ryder put him past the blue line in the offensive zone and he fired a low wrister from the circles that somehow got past Mike Smith. The euphoria didn't last long though as Lauri Korpikoski would score three minutes later on another soft goal.

The Stars defense fell asleep at the wheel and left Korpikoski wide open at the top of the circles. A Ray Whitney pass from the boards was fired hard and low by Korpikoski and it bounced under Lehtonen for the game tying goal. Phoenix would then control most of the play for the rest of the period but were unable to put another shot pass Kari.

In the second period, the Stars got their first power play in nine periods and immediately capitalized when Ryder scored off of tic-tac-toe passing from Mike Ribeiro and Eriksson. 30 seconds after that goal, things quickly erupted into a chaotic mess.

The Stars had the puck in the offensive zone and Jamie Benn had the puck. Shane Doan came by and threw a chicken wing that hit Benn right in the jaw, putting him down. Fights broke out across the ice as Benn was prone and Doan proceeded to jump Brenden Morrow. At the end of it all, Doan was only assessed an elbowing minor for the hit and five for fighting. He was not thrown out of the game for a blatant elbow, which would prove huge later in the game.

Things got really chippy after that as the crowd was worked into a frenzy. Dallas would dominate play for the rest of the period and Ryder would put in his second goal of the game six minutes before the intermission. A Ribeiro pass found Eriksson sitting on the doorstep. His shot was stopped but Ryder was right there for the rebound and score.

Things looked good for Dallas until midway through the final period. While on a power play, Eriksson was tripped trying to enter the blue line and public enemy number one (Doan) found himself with the puck and on a shorthanded three-on-two breakaway. Subsequent passing led to a blast from Oliver Ekman-Larsson that got past Kari. The shorthanded goal put things on edge until the Coyotes tied the game on a power play with five minutes left in the game. Shane Doan was huge in this one again in providing the only assist on a Ray Whitney goal. Sheldon Souray sctually had control of the puck on the lefthand boards near center ice, but he was just nonchalantly making his way down the ice. Doan came from behind him and easily stole the puck and passed it to Whitney for the goal.

Kari Lehtonen would make saves to send the game into overtime and then he took over. Ekman-Larsson had the best chance of the OT when he had a point-blank from Lehtonen's right hand side. Kari had to quickly move across the crease and made a sprawling, on-his-back, leg flailing kick save of the season that kept the game going. He proceeded to be perfec the rest of the OT and was once again perfect in the shootout to give the Stars the win.

It was a great game from the Stars. After what happened in the previous two games, it was great to see this team not back down and fight back. Turnovers and bad defense is still haunting this team though and led to both of the goals in the third period from Phoenix. What Souray was doing on the third goal for Phoenix, I'll never know. It's not often you see a guy just calmly skating down the ice with the puck like the other team would just allow him to go down the ice and score a goal. Dallas would rebound though and that's all that matters.

The win keeps the Stars in first place in the Pacific Division and third in the Western Conference. They return to the ice on Thursday to host the Vancouver Canucks.

more after the jump

Phoenix Coyotes (36-26-11, 83 pts) @ Dallas Stars (39-28-5, 83 pts)

7:00 PM CT, March 20, 2012

American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas

It's all in the Stars hands now. Game 73 of the season and the Stars hold the division lead and the third spot in the Western Conference by the slimmest of margins. The Stars and Coyotes enter tonight's game tied in points but Dallas holds the edge in the standings due to tiebreakers (Dallas has three more regulation and overtime wins).

The Stars are not exactly riding a wave of confidence though. They've lost the last two games in embarrassing fashion, getting blown out of the water by both the Winnipeg Jets and the Chicago Blackhawks. Poor starts have plagued the Stars in those losses. Against the Jets, the Stars were under constant pressure, allowed a goal in the first two minutes of the game and could never recover. In their last game, the Stars allowed the Blackhawks to score a goal just ten seconds into the game and then allowed a second goal just one minute later. The Coyotes aren't exactly offensive wizards so Dallas cannot allow them to get on the board quickly tonight.

Dallas will get a boost tonight as Sheldon Souray and Radek Dvorak should both return from their injury woes. Souray returning is particularly big because Adam Pardy has been terrible while trying to handle the increase in minutes. The last two games were the first times in one month that Pardy had 19+ minutes of time on ice and he responded with a -4 rating and all around bad defensive play. Dvorak's return will stabilize the lines and return all the guys to their normal spots.

Kari Lehtonen gets the nod tonight. He's 2-1-1 in the season series with a 2.11 GAA and a .934 save percentage. He started the third game in the season series but had to leave just five minutes into the game with a groin injury. He followed up back-to-back shutouts with a pretty bad performance against the Hawks so he needs to put that behind him.

There aren't enough words to properly say how important this game is for the Stars. They're in the drivers seat right now with a small (very small) buffer on the teams chasing them. They have to do everything they can to keep ahead of the pack. Dallas needs to show the hunger, the drive to make the playoffs and take it to the Coyotes. Now is not the time to go back into a losing funk.

Notes and thoughts:

• The Coyotes stifling defense has held the Stars big guys (Ryder, Ribeiro, Eriksson and Benn) to miniscule numbers in the season series.  Ryder has two goals, Ribeiro has two assists and Eriksson has one goal and one assist. Jamie Benn missed one game in the season series but he only has one assist. Ineffective games from this group tonight will doom this team to a loss.

• Dallas is 20-13-3 at home this season. 

• Michael Ryder has been held goalless in the last three games. It's his longest goalless streak since the end of January.

• Jamie Benn has a point in five of the last six games.

• I don't know what's been going on, but the Stars just haven't been getting calls lately. In the last two games, both losses, Dallas has gotten exacty zero (zero, zilch, nada) power play opportunities. Now I doubt the Stars could have gotten anything going with a power play but it's still tough to believe that the Jets and Blackhawks were both clean for 60 minutes while Dallas played a poor game.

• Meanwhile, the Stars have had to go on the penalty kill at least three times in seven straight games.

more after the jump

Three weeks left to go in the season and the difference is now one point. One point is all that separates the Stars and their perilous position in the third spot in the West from a slip all the way down to 11th in the West and out of the playoffs. Things are getting tighter than ever and in the week ahead, it's a dog eat dog world. Aside from the Los Angeles Kings, all the other playoff teams will be playing a majority of their games this week against each other so turmoil will be guaranteed. 

For Dallas, it's particularly important because they've hit a bump in their road to the playoffs. The Stars have lost two games in a row at a most inopportune time. The small buffer that they had going into last week fizzled away as quickly as their chances to win the past two games and this week starts out with a bang. The Chicago Blackhawks look to have put themselves in a firm hold for the playoffs so they'll be left off the list this week. It would take an extended losing streak for them to fall back into the pack.

So here we are with week 25 of the season, let's get to it.

more after the jump