Healthy Stars confident offense will come against Flames

Game 1: Stars vs. Flames

4:30 p.m. CT, Rogers Place

TV:FOX Sports Southwest PLUS, NBCSN

Radio:The Ticket 96.7-FM, 1310-AM

The Stars are one of the lowest-scoring teams in the NHL -- ranking 26th during the regular season and scoring just five goals (including one in a shootout) in the three round-robin games. Still, when they're asked about the lack of scoring, it usually brings a response that everything will be fine.

"We're fine with where we're at," Stars captain Jamie Benn said when asked about the lack of goal-scoring. "I think you [media] guys make a big deal about it, but we're confident in the group we have and the game we play. Defense is going to win games in the playoffs, and that's what we're going to keep focusing on."

Interim coach Rick Bowness said before training camp began that he wanted to increase his team's scoring chances, and that they would attempt to activate defensemen during camp in order to help create more scoring chances. That worked against Vegas, where the Stars blew a 3-1 lead and lost 5-3, and actually worked against St. Louis, where Dallas had tons of chances but just couldn't finish.

"If we play like we did (Sunday), we're going to score some goals," Bowness said. "We had some unreal opportunities."

Bowness had the Stars with 20 scoring opportunities, and Dallas earned six power plays. So the fact they were 32 seconds away from being shut out for a second consecutive game didn't faze them.

"You hit goal posts, you miss open nets, what are you going to do? That's part of the game," Bowness said. "Playing the way we want to play is going to create more opportunities, it created more power plays because we spent more time in the offensive zone. The things we've been stressing since training camp, the changes we are trying to make to our team, are working. The guys are working, they're creating offensive opportunities."

Benn and Tyler Seguin have had success against the Flames in the past. Benn has 33 points (18 goals, 15 assists) in 34 career games, while Seguin has 22 points (11 goals, 11 assists) in 23 games. Seguin missed two of the round-robin games with illness or injury, but is expected to be ready today.

In fact, the Stars might have their first full healthy lineup in the post-season tonight.

Goalie choices

Ben Bishop has been the Stars' No. 1 goalie all season, but he has been "unfit to play" for two of round-robin games, so Anton Khudobin has had to step in. Khudobin earned a 2-1 shootout win against St. Louis Sunday and looked great, so he should be ready if the Stars need him Tuesday.

However, Bishop practiced Monday, so he might get the nod. Bowness doesn't divulge his goalie choice before the game.

Bishop was 21-16-4 on the season with a 2.50 GAA and .920 save percentage. He is 9-7-2 in career against the Flames with a 2.50 GAA and .920 save percentage. Khudobin was 16-8-4 during the regular season with a 2.22 GAA and .930 save percentage. He is 3-2-0 in his career against the Flames with a 2.56 GAA and .913 save percentage.

Cam Talbot is expected to get the start in goal for the Flames. He was the back-up to David Rittich during the regular season, but was spectacular in the first-round series against Winnipeg.

Talbot was 12-10-1 during the regular season with a 2.63 and .919. Rittich was 24-17-6 with a 2.97 GAA and .907 save percentage. Talbot went 3-1 against the Jets with a 1.57 GAA and .945 save percentage.

Talbot's career numbers against the Stars aren't good, as he is 3-6-1 with a 3.64 GAA and .878 save percentage.

Line shuffle

Because of Seguin's absence for two of the three round-robin games, the Stars have shuffled their lines quite a bit. While Bowness could come up with all sorts of concoctions, he seemed very interested in putting Seguin between Benn and Alexander Radulov on a line that has been very good at times over the past three seasons.

We'll see what happens.

Joe Pavelski has been very good with Mattias Janmark in the round-robin and leads the Stars with two goals. They have played with Radulov in the past, but also were good with Denis Gurianov last game.

By the numbers

4

That's the amount of goals for the Stars (shootout not included) in the round-robin, and also the amount of assists for defenseman Miro Heiskanen. That's right, Heiskanen has assisted on every goal the Stars have scored so far in the postseason.

50

That's the number of points for Joe Pavelski (16 goals, 34 assists) in 55 career games against the Flames. Pavelski played for San Jose and the two were Pacific Division rivals, so they have met a lot.

32.4

Calgary was 24th in average shot on goal allowed at 32.4 per game. The Stars were 23rd in average shot on goal at 30.6 per game.

He said it

"They're very similar to how Winnipeg was with some high-end players. One thing about Dallas is that they have a lot of guys who are big and can skate very well. I remember watching that Dallas-St. Louis series last year and that (Roope) Hintz and (Miro) Heiskanen were unbelievable. They've got a lot of high-end guys over there and it's going to make for a great series."

-- Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk

Stars projected lineup

Jamie Benn - Tyler Seguin - Alexander Radulov

Mattias Janmark - Joe Pavelski - Denis Gurianov

Andrew Cogliano - Radek Faksa - Blake Comeau

Roope Hintz - Jason Dickinson - Corey Perry

Esa Lindell - John Klingberg

Jamie Oleksiak - Miro Heiskanen

Andrej Sekera - Stephen Johns

Ben Bishop

Anton Khudobin

Unfit to Play: None

Scratched:Taylor Fedun, Justin Dowling, Jason Robertson, Ty Dellandrea, Thomas Harley, Joel Kiviranta, Nick Caamano, Joel Hanley, Gavin Bayreuther, Landon Bow, Jake Oettinger

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heikais a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika, and listen to his podcast.