(SportsNetwork.com) – Neither the Dallas Stars nor Vancouver Canucks were very
happy with their efforts last time out and the clubs look to shake off recent
losses in Tuesday night’s meeting at American Airlines Center.
For the Stars, they failed to hold a trio of leads in Saturday’s 6-5 overtime
setback to the Philadelphia Flyers, wasting four-point efforts by Jason Spezza
and Tyler Seguin.
Spezza had a goal and three assists, while Seguin notched four helpers. Trevor
Daley scored a pair of power-play goals and Kari Lehtonen remained winless in
his career versus the Flyers (0-10-2) by allowing six goals on 36 shots.
Though Dallas has notched a point in four of five to begin the season (2-1-2),
head coach Lindy Ruff had a harsh description of his club’s effort on
Saturday.
“Even on the fifth goal we lost two guys on the forecheck for no reason,”
Ruff said. “We let them come all the way up ice. That for me is just a lack of
focus. That’s just garbage hockey.”
The news got worse for the Stars when they learned that 22-year-old defenseman
Patrik Nemeth will miss the rest of the season due to a severe arm laceration
he suffered versus the Flyers when he was accidentally cut by the skate of
Philadelphia’s R.J. Umberger.
Nemeth had surgery on Sunday and is expected to be replaced in the lineup by
2011 first-round pick Jamie Oleksiak.
“I think it involved everything,” Ruff told Dallas’ website of the surgery.
“When I said severe that was probably an understatement. I don’t want to go
into detail because I don’t know exactly, but it involves everything. First
and foremost, I hope for his sake that it is a full recovery.”
Seguin, meanwhile, will take the ice one day after being named the NHL’s First
Star of the week. He led the league with eight points in three games,
recording four goals.
Lehtonen is 6-7-0 with a 2.77 goals against average and .914 save percentage
in his career versus the Canucks and should get a chance tonight to extend his
club’s four-game winning streak over Vancouver.
Dallas won all three meetings last season and has claimed seven of the last 10
in this series overall.
The Canucks have lost three straight in Dallas and try to rebound tonight
following their first loss of the season, a 4-2 setback to visiting Tampa Bay
on Saturday that halted a three-game winning streak.
Chris Higgins and Alexander Edler both scored for the Canucks, who had picked
up a shutout win over Edmonton the previous night. Eddie Lack started his
first game of the season, but allowed all four goals on 24 shots.
“I thought we gave this game away,” said Vancouver’s Henrik Sedin. “We showed
on a back-to-back night we can play the best teams. I thought we should have
won the game. I cost us the first goal and we gave them the second goal as
well.
“We pushed hard to come back in the game but then we gave them a 5-on-3 and
that’s where I think the momentum changed.”
Daniel Sedin had an assist and has logged six helpers and seven points over a
season-opening four-game point streak.
Ryan Miller is likely to start tonight for Vancouver and has posted a 1.95 GAA
and .927 save percentage in winning his first three starts with the club. He
is 4-3-1 with a 2.94 GAA and .892 save percentage in eight prior meetings with
the Stars.
