Red Wings look to continue winning ways at Stars
Detroit has won six straight at American Airlines Center
by Steve Hunt / NHL.com Correspondent
RED WINGS (31-20-11) AT STARS (38-19-6)
TV: 8:30 p.m. ET; SNP, FS-DET, FS-SW, NHL.TV
DALLAS -- The Detroit Red Wings have won six consecutive games against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center, a streak Detroit coach Jeff Blashill would like to continue Monday night.
"Well, it's a challenge no matter when playing this team. Obviously they're one of the best teams in the NHL, certainly one of the most powerful," Blashill said. "They've been that all season long, so we know it's a heck of a challenge, but we're just going to focus on ourselves and playing as good hockey as we can."
Goalie Jimmy Howard was first off the ice for Detroit at morning skate and will start.
Detroit has won two straight while Dallas has lost two straight and its past three at home. The Stars are 1-4-1 in the past six games.
Coach Lindy Ruff wants to end this three-game homestand (0-2-0) on a positive note.
"Every game's so important right now," Ruff said. "The one tonight, this is of the utmost importance for us after it looked like we were going to be getting some type of points and giving a point away at the end [in a 3-2 loss to the New York Rangers on Saturday]. This game here, we got to get back in the win column."
Goalie Antti Niemi was first off the ice at morning skate and will start.
Here are the projected lineups:
RED WINGS
Henrik Zetterberg - Pavel Datsyuk - Justin Abdelkader
Gustav Nyquist - Riley Sheahan - Tomas Tatar
Dylan Larkin - Andreas Athanasiou - Brad Richards
Darren Helm - Luke Glendening - Tomas Jurco
Danny DeKeyser - Kyle Quincey
Niklas Kronwall - Alexey Marchenko
Jonathan Ericsson - Mike Green
Jimmy Howard
Petr Mrazek
Injured: Johan Franzen (concussion-like symptoms), Drew Miller (knee)
Scratched: Teemu Pulkkinen, Brendan Smith
STARS
Jamie Benn - Tyler Seguin - Patrick Sharp
Mattias Janmark - Jason Spezza - Valeri Nichushkin
Antoine Roussel - Cody Eakin - Ales Hemsky
Radek Faksa - Vernon Fiddler - Colton Sceviour
Alex Goligoski - John Klingberg
Johnny Oduya - Jason Demers
Patrik Nemeth - Jordie Benn
Antti Niemi
Kari Lehtonen
Injured: Patrick Eaves (illness), Travis Moen (groin)
Scratched: Jamie Oleksiak, Kris Russell
Status report: Dallas acquired Russell, a defenseman, from the Calgary Flames on Monday morning for defenseman Jyrki Jokipakka, minor-league forward Brett Pollock and a conditional second-round pick in the 2016 NHL Draft. Russell could make his debut as soon as Tuesday at the Nashville Predators.
Who's hot: Tatar is second on the Red Wings with 12 even-strength goals and 17 goals. … Zetterberg has 44 points (33 assists) in 40 career games against Dallas. … Klingberg is third on the Stars with 52 points; 45 have come in Dallas' 38 wins. … Sceviour had a goal and an assist in a 3-2 loss to the Rangers on Saturday, his fourth multipoint game of the season.