Game 1 of this series was a 3-2 effort which saw the Dallas Stars score in quick succession and then fail to find an answer when the Calgary Flames scored a go-ahead goal.
Game 2 for the Stars was a little more exciting. The Stars allowed the first goal in the 10th straight game, this one coming 19 seconds into the game. It was scored by Dillon Dube, who has punctured Dallas for three goals in the first two games. Maybe the defensive strategy for the Stars in Game 3 should be “don’t leave that guy with time and space”.
Dallas’ defensive structure was a little more loose last night. Though they allowed four goals against, many of the problems were limited to special teams. That’s an area that will be easier for the Stars to focus on.
For a change of pace, Dallas was able to out-score their problems last night. It’s refreshing to have a game like that instead of the more stout defensive chess matches the Stars typically are part of.
Also, Jamie Oleksiak is a hero for his late goal in the game that avoided overtime last night. Not only is that better since the two teams faceoff tonight, but it definitely helps those fans and media members that have an early start time the next work day. (Hopefully all those that were up well past midnight last night can all get naps in between the end of the work day and the puck drop at 9:30 PM CDT tonight.)
Dallas Stars
Stephen Johns is till unfit to play, so likely won’t see any changes on defense tonight for Dallas. With the condensed schedule they’re in the midst of, it’d be easy to see Anton Khudobin start tonight and Ben Bishop get the Sunday afternoon start, especially given Bishop’s recent “unfit to play” designation during the round robin — no reason to chance potentially aggravating whatever kept him out those couple of games. The lineup from last night looked like this:
Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin – Alexander Radulov
Mattias Janmark – Joe Pavelski – Denis Gurianov
Roope Hintz – Jason Dickinson – Corey Perry
Andrew Cogliano – Radek Faksa – Blake Comeau
Esa Lindell – John Klingberg
Jamie Oleksiak – Miro Heiskanen
Andrej Sekera – Taylor Fedun
Calgary Flames
Matthew Tkachuk will be a game time decision. With three games in four days, it’s likely that David Rittich will draw in for Cam Talbot, who played last night. Here was their lineup from last night with changes to be known right before puck drop:
Johnny Gaudreau – Sean Monahan – Elias Lindholm
Andrew Mangiapane – Mikael Backlund – Matthew Tkachuk
Milan Lucic – Sam Bennett – Dillon Dube
Mark Jankowski – Derek Ryan – Tobias Rieder
Mark Giordano – TJ Brodie
Noah Hanifin – Rasmus Andersson
Derek Forbort – Erik Gustafsson
The puck drops at 9:30 PM CDT and can be found on NBCSN nationwide and FSSW if you live in the DFW area.