Preview: Coyotes vs. Stars
© Photo by Norm Hall.
By
Dave Vest @davest4yotes / Coyotes Sr. Director of News Content
WHERE:Gila River Arena | WHEN: 2 p.m. (AZ time) | TV:FOX Sports Arizona | RADIO:Arizona Sports 98.7 FM
Tweet from @ArizonaCoyotes: Chychrun is back. 🙌Tonight's projected lineup: pic.twitter.com/0xJMI9jO3O
ABOUT THE 'YOTES:
• Arizona will enter the game with 51 points, four behind St. Louis, which holds the second wildcard spot in the Western Conference standings with 28 games to play.
• Darcy Kuemper, who is expected to start in goal, owns a 7-4-3 record in 14 career appearances vs. the Stars. He stopped 24 of 29 shots vs. Dallas on Monday in a 5-4 loss.
• Five players co-lead the Coyotes in goals scored with 11: They are Christian Fischer, Conor Garland, Clayton Keller, Brad Richardson, and Derek Stepan. Garland, a rookie, has scored his 11 goals within the past 20 games. He ranks tied for sixth among NHL freshmen in goal production, and his .41 goals per game average is second among rookies behind Vancouver's Elias Pettersson (.57).
• Jordan Oesterle will enter the game riding a three-game point streak during which he's notched one goal and three assists. Oesterle scored a goal on Thursday vs. Columbus to match his career-high for goals (five) in one NHL season. He also set a new career-high for points in one season (17) in that game.
• Jakob Chychrun likely will be back in the lineup after missing the past four games because of a lower-body injury. Despite missing 22 games, Chychrun ranks fourth among Arizona defensemen with 11 points.
• The Coyotes will play minus rookie Kyle Capobianco, who suffered a season-ending lower-body injury in Thursday's games vs. Columbus.
RELATED CONTENT:
Capobianco to Miss Rest of Season
ABOUT THE STARS:
• Dallas is 5-0-1 in its past six games and will enter the game with 61 points, good for third place in the Central Division standings ... The Stars will look to sweep the three-game season series from the Coyotes and extend their winning streak vs. Arizona to nine games. They haven't lost to the Coyotes since March 24, 2016 ... Dallas has allowed just one power-play goal during its six-game point streak and ranks sixth in the NHL in penalty-killing success at 83.8 percent ... Anton Khudobin will start in goal in place of Ben Bishop, who is on the injured-reserve list because of an undisclosed injury ... Tyler Seguin, who leads the team with 22 goals, will enter the game riding a four-game point streak ... John Klingberg ranks 10th in the NHL in ice time per game at 25:00.
'YOTES QUOTES:
• "We had a really good game in Dallas (on Monday). Five-on-five, I thought we were controlling the game, but they got (three) power-play goals. Special teams is something that is hurting us right now, but I like our five-on-five game." -- Rick Tocchet
• "It sounds cliche and boring, but we really do have to play one shift at a time. We know where we are in the standings, but we can't look too far ahead. Having said that, we know we have to get points in almost every game now. It's so tight that if we lose two or three more games in a row we can be out of it just like that, so we have to have a better start than we did against Columbus the other night and start stringing some wins together right away." -- Oliver Ekman-Larsson
• "Dallas is a really good team. They've got some pretty mobile guys on the back end, and obviously some elite players up front that are big-game players. In tight moments, those guys find ways to score, so we have to be hard on them all game and chip away at them, and then take advantage of our opportunities." -- Kevin Connauton
