The first-place Dallas Stars will try to continue their lengthy point streak with a seventh straight victory, as they visit the Winnipeg Jets for tonight's interconference battle at MTS Centre.
The Stars have won a season-high six straight games to begin March and are 10-0-1 over their last 11 trips to the ice. Dallas' current point streak is the club's longest since it went 9-0 with three ties from Dec. 27-Jan. 22 during the 2002-03 season.
Dallas goaltender Kari Lehtonen has recorded shutouts in each of his team's last two outings and is coming off a 25-save performance in Tuesday's 1-0 win in Minnesota. It was the fourth shutout of the season for Lehtonen, who will carry a scoreless streak of 128 minutes, 32 seconds into this evening's game if he gets the start on consecutive nights.
Lehtonen has an 8-0-1 record over his last nine starts with a 1.29 goals against average and a .955 save percentage.
Jamie Benn recorded the lone goal for the Stars, who enter tonight with a four-point lead over Phoenix for first place in the Pacific Division. The Coyotes also play this evening in Vancouver.
Dallas has won its last six games on the road to improve its record as the guest this year to 19-14-2.
Stars defenseman Sheldon Souray has missed the last two games with a lower- body injury and is questionable for tonight. Forward Radek Dvorak sat out his first game of the season with a lower-body injury on Tuesday and is also questionable.
The Jets are fighting for a playoff spot in the East, but haven't helped their cause with consecutive regulation losses. However, both of those setbacks came on the road, where Winnipeg is 11-19-4 this season compared to a 21-10-4 record at home. The Jets are kicking off a three-game homestand tonight and will also host Washington and Carolina during this residency.
Winnipeg enters today's action six points behind Washington for the eighth and final postseason berth in the East.
The Jets haven't played since Friday evening when they dropped a 5-3 decision in Calgary. Alex Tanguay posted a goal and three assists to lead the Flames.
Tobias Enstrom posted a goal and an assist for the Jets, while Ondrej Pavelec was tagged for all five goals on 27 shots in the loss.
Winnipeg scored two goals in the final three minutes of the first period to cut the deficit to 3-2, but the Jets didn't score again until late in the third stanza.
"I thought as the game went on we ran out of energy, especially in the latter half of the third period," Jets head coach Claude Noel said.
Winnipeg lost forward Chris Thorburn to an undisclosed lower-body injury in Friday's game and he will miss the next three weeks.
Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien is expected to play tonight despite missing practice earlier this week with a lower-body issue. Fellow blueliner Zach Bogosian is questionable for this evening with a wrist injury.
Tonight marks the only scheduled meeting between the Stars and Jets this season. Dallas has won 11 of the 13 all-time meetings against the Atlanta/Winnipeg franchise.
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