Simply 5 days after the Stars’ slender shootout victory over the Canadiens in Montreal, two of the NHL’s hottest groups will sq. off once more in Dallas on Thursday night time.
Dallas is 8-1-0 in its final 9 video games whereas Montreal is 10-2-1 in its final 13. The Canadiens are on a five-game factors streak (4-0-1), with Saturday’s 2-1 shootout loss to the Stars serving as the one blemish in that run.
Montreal rebounded from the defeat with a 5-3 street win over the Utah Hockey Membership on Tuesday, though it took the Canadiens a while to get going. Montreal was outscored 2-1 and outshot 14-3 throughout a sloppy first interval that noticed the crew take 4 penalties.
“We received ourselves into some penalty bother. You’ll be able to’t actually do this — it creates issues for our crew,” Canadiens ahead Kirby Dach mentioned. “It is powerful to get into the move of the sport and have 4 strains rolling, however we discovered a technique to hit our stride within the second [period] and simply sort of rolled from there.”
Avoiding the field has been a problem for a Canadiens crew that’s among the many league leaders in penalties and penalty minutes. Montreal’s penalty-kill unit has been taking part in respectably nicely given this heavy workload, with an 82 p.c kill charge.
The Stars’ elite penalty-kill unit is 35-for-38 over its final 17 video games, and the crew’s struggling energy play additionally may be near beginning to spark. Dallas is 5-for-11 with the additional attacker over its final 5 video games, together with a 2-for-3 efficiency in Tuesday’s 4-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Toronto sport was a bounce-back for the Stars, who noticed their seven-game successful streak finish in Sunday’s 3-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators. Dallas received on monitor Tuesday, as Logan Stankoven’s tally halfway by means of the primary interval was the primary of 4 unanswered objectives for the Stars.
“Begin of the sport they had been taking it to us just a little bit. … We weathered the storm and received one, an enormous objective by (Stankoven). I believe we drew loads of vitality off that,” mentioned Matt Duchene, who had a objective and two assists.
Dallas’ sluggish begin concerned the lack of Roope Hintz, who did not return to the sport after sustaining an upper-body harm within the first interval. Hintz is questionable for Thursday’s sport.
The Stars return to Dallas after a five-game street journey, and the membership’s 16-5-1 residence file is among the many greatest within the league. The Canadiens could also be as much as the problem, as they’re 7-2-0 of their final 9 away video games.
Thursday’s sport figures to be a rematch of final Saturday’s goaltending duel. Montreal’s Sam Montembeault stopped 35 of 36 pictures, however Jake Oettinger stopped 30 of 31 plus all three makes an attempt within the shootout.
Captain Nick Suzuki leads the Canadiens with 43 factors (13 objectives, 30 assists). Duchene is the Stars’ chief with 41 factors (17 objectives, 24 assists).
Lane Hutson has three objectives and 32 assists by means of 43 video games, making him the second-quickest rookie in Canadiens historical past and the sixth-quickest rookie defenseman in NHL historical past to succeed in the 30-assist plateau in a season. Hutson has 9 factors (one objective, eight assists) throughout a five-game factors streak.
The Stars are 8-2-1 in 11 video games in opposition to Montreal for the reason that begin of the 2018-19 season.
–Area Stage Media