Stars at Blackhawks preview

STARS (42-31-7) at BLACKHAWKS (35-33-12)
8:30 p.m. ET; NBCSCH, FS-SW+, NHL.TV

Dallas, which is 4-0-1 in its past five games after going 1-3-1 in its previous five, is one point ahead of the Colorado Avalanche, who hold the second wild card in the West.
Chicago, which is 3-3-3 in its past nine games, was eliminated from playoff contention on Tuesday.

Players to watch

Stars forward Alexander Radulov has five goals and five assists in a six-game point streak. He needs two points for 300 in the NHL.
Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane needs one point to become the second player in Chicago history to have at least 108 points in a season; Denis Savard did it four times, most recently in 1987-88. Kane had 106 points in 2015-16, when he led the NHL in scoring.

They said it

"I think for us, we've got to go in tonight knowing you can't really turn the switch on and off. It doesn't just switch on for playoffs and switch off for the regular season. You got to play consistent and everyone wants to feel good team-wise and individually and you want to keep that going, not just fool around I guess." -- Stars center Tyler Seguin
"We're going to go out there and work hard. I think we talked a lot about not straying away from our game plan too much, just go out there and do it. We know what it takes to be successful for our team. We just didn't do it enough this year, I think we got accustomed to it a little too late in the season." -- Blackhawks center Dylan Strome

Stars projected lineup

Jason Dickinson -- Tyler Seguin -- Alexander Radulov
Mattias Janmark -- Radek Faksa -- Blake Comeau
Roope Hintz -- Justin Dowling -- Tyler Pitlick
Joel L'Esperance -- Jason Spezza -- Brett Ritchie
Esa Lindell -- John Klingberg
Miro Heiskanen -- Ben Lovejoy
Jamie Oleksiak -- Taylor Fedun
Anton Khudobin
Landon Bow
Scratched:Julius Honka, Andrew Cogliano, Valeri Nichushkin, Jamie Benn, Roman Polak, Mats Zuccarello
Injured:Stephen Johns (upper body), Marc Methot (lower body), Martin Hanzal (back), Ben Bishop (lower body)

Blackhawks projected lineup

Brandon Saad -- Jonathan Toews -- Drake Caggiula
Brendan Perlini -- Dylan Strome -- Dominik Kahun
Alex DeBrincat -- Artem Anisimov -- Patrick Kane
Chris Kunitz -- David Kampf -- John Hayden
Duncan Keith -- Erik Gustafsson
Gustav Forsling -- Brent Seabrook
Slater Koekkoek -- Connor Murphy
Corey Crawford
Cam Ward
Scratched:Carl Dahlstrom
Injured:None

Status report

Benn, Polak and Zuccarello did not travel to Chicago. Bishop also remained in Dallas, where the Stars play the Minnesota Wild on Saturday. He has missed the Stars' past three games but practiced Thursday, and coach Jim Montgomery expects him to be ready for the playoffs. … Kampf will return to the lineup after missing the past two games with a facial injury.

Stat pack

Seguin has 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in his past eight games. … Toews needs one point for his first 80-point season in the NHL. If that happens, it would be the first time the Blackhawks have had two players with at least 80 points since Steve Larmer (101) and Jeremy Roenick (94) in 1990-91.