The Stars (38-26-8) are coming off of a 3-2 overtime loss in Ottawa on Friday. Tyler Seguin set a new career-high, scoring his 38th goal of the season on a first-period power play. That was the game's only goal through the first two periods. Marian Gaborik tied the game with a power-play goal early in the third. Ottawa then took its first lead when Matt Duchene scored with 3:10 remaining in regulation. A little over a minute later, Tyler Pitlick tallied for Dallas to tie the game at 2-2 with 1:48 left in the third period. In the extra session, Mike Hoffman scored the game-winner giving the Senators matching 3-2 OT wins against Dallas this season.
"To come back and get a point in this game after we almost gave it away is good," said Stars head coach Ken Hitchcock.
The Stars fell to 0-2-2 on their current six-game road trip. Playing their fifth game in a different city over eight nights, Dallas appeared fatigued down the stretch. Coming out of second intermission, they were held without a shot for about 16 minutes, and were outchanced for the majority of the third period.
"This is a long road trip and we're in the middle of a battle, and it's been taxing on a lot of guys," said Hitchcock. "Ultimately, if we're going to get into the playoffs, we're going to have to come together at an incredible level as a group. This is a test to see how deep we want to dig for each other."
The loss was the latest in a string of single-point nights for Dallas. The Stars have gone to overtime in five of their last nine games, but they have fallen in four of those five. However, Friday was also the fourth time in that span the Stars scored in the final three minutes of regulation to force overtime, creating an interesting balance of both salvaging and losing points at the same time.
Ben Bishop made 22 saves on 25 shots, taking the overtime loss in his return to action after missing five games with a knee injury.
The Stars are in search of their first win on the trip in a building where they have lost four straight games to the Jets, getting outscored 22-7. The Stars have lost seven straight games to Winnipeg dating back to October 2016.
Dallas enters Sunday in the Western Conference's final wild-card spot. It is one of four Western Conference teams tied with 84 points, joining Colorado, Los Angeles and Anaheim.
Injuries: C Martin Hanzal (back) is out. D Marc Methot (hand) is questionable. F Brett Ritchie (undisclosed) missed Friday's game, and no additional update has been given on his status for Sunday.
