Stars Looking For 5th Straight
A defeat to the St. Louis Blues more than three weeks ago gave the Dallas Stars their longest skid of the season. They have done very little losing since.
The Stars go for their season high-tying fifth straight victory when they host the Blues on Monday.
Dallas (48-24-6) lost 5-3 to the Blues (32-33-13) on March 8 for its fourth straight defeat, but since then has rebounded to go 10-1-1 over its last 12 games.
Oddsmakers have made Dallas -315 money line (NHL Odds) favorites for todays game, the over/under has been set at 5 total goals (View NHL Sports Books). Our public betting information shows that 74% of bets for this game have been placed on Dallas
-315 (View NHL Bet Percentages).
The Stars, who have already clinched their fourth consecutive playoff berth, are tied with the San Jose Sharks for the fifth spot in the Western Conference with 102 points, but have a game in hand. Both teams are also trying to catch the Pacific Division-leading Anaheim Ducks, who have 106 points with three games remaining.
Dallas, which hasn’t won five straight games since opening the season 5-0-0, beat Detroit 4-3 in a shootout on Friday and followed that with a 4-2 win over the Nashville Predators on Saturday.
Against Nashville, the Stars jumped out to a two-goal lead less than five minutes into the game off goals from Jeff Halpern and Jussi Jokinen.
"We came in here and played crisp and a good road game to take the win," Stars center Mike Modano told the team’s official Web site. "It’s prep time for us as the playoffs approach, and we did a good job of getting ready for the postseason."
Modano had a goal and an assist to improve his point total to 41 on the season. He has 78 points in 85 career games versus the Blues, including a goal and an assist in the March 8 defeat.
Despite losing the last two overall matchups between the teams, Dallas has won six straight home meetings, outscoring the Blues 19-6 in those contests.
The Stars are 26-10-2 at American Airlines Center this season and are trying to match their season high-tying six-game winning streak there, set Nov. 20-Dec. 6.
The Blues, who have already been eliminated from playoff contention, are opening a season-ending four-game road trip.
They finished their home schedule with a 3-2 overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday. Lee Stempniak scored his team-leading 25th goal in the third period to tie the game, but the Blues failed to get the go-ahead tally despite some late breakaway chances.
"It would have been nice to see a couple of those chances go in at the end of the third period,” said Blues coach Andy Murray, whose team is just 3-5-3 since the last win over Dallas. "We were pushing it.”
The Blues were shut out on all four power-play chances, and are a dismal 1-for-41 over the last 10 games. Ending the drought may be difficult against the Stars, who haven’t allowed an extra-man goal in their last three games.
Dallas goaltender Marty Turco is 6-1-1 with a 1.61 goals-against average in his last eight starts versus St. Louis.
by: Gary Roberts – theSpread.com – Email Us
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