You can’t call anything this early in the season a “showdown”, but the fact is: tonight’s game in Dallas between the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars pits the top two teams in the Central Division, with three points separating first-place Dallas and second-place Colorado.
The Colorado Avalanche have won two in a row, as have the Stars.
Alexandar Georgiev will start in goal for the Avalanche, which answers the question I posed this morning. The lines are expected to be the same as the last couple of games for the Avalanche. As far as all the injured guy go, we probably won’t get much of an idea until the team gets back to Denver.
Jake Oettinger will get the start in net for the Stars. He was 2-0 with a 1.07 GAA and .975 save percentage against the Avalanche last season.
The Avs have the best power play in the league at 36.5 percent and the Stars are third at 30.2. So, yeah, staying out of the penalty box could be a big key for winning success in this one.
These are the lines and D pairs for the Stars tonight:
Robertson-Hintz-Pavelski
Marchment-Seguin-Blumel
Benn-Johnston-Dellandrea
Faksa-Glendening-Kiviranta
Heiskanen-Miller
Lindell-Hakanpaa
Suter-Lundkvist
Oettinger
Wedgewood
NOTEBOOK: Avalanche is last in the league in faceoff percentage (44.2). … Nathan MacKinnon has 32 points (11 goals) in 33 career games against Dallas. … Avalanche are +105 underdogs at SuperBook Colorado.
Georgiev’s .930 save percentage is tied for third in the league. … Artturi Lehkonen has a six-game point streak, a career best. … Here’s a nice story on Devon Toews bringing Christmas early to a local youth hockey team.