Stars-Rangers Preview

Dallas Stars at New York Rangers
Tuesday, January 17
6:00 p.m.
TV: Fox Sports Southwest Plus
Radio: The Ticket 1310 AM/96.7 FM
About the Stars
The Stars (18-19-8) opened a three-game road trip with a 4-1 loss at Buffalo Monday afternoon. The Stars fell behind 1-0 just 19 seconds into the game and were down 2-0 by the 12:34 mark of the first period. Both goals came off Dallas turnovers.
"It was definitely a slow start," said Stars coach Lindy Ruff. "They jumped on us early, and we turned a couple of pucks over. Their energy as a team was a lot better than ours. That's about as slow as I have seen our team."
Radek Faksa scored the lone goal, and Kari Lehtonen stopped 25 shots for the Stars, who fell to 3-8-2 in their past 13 road games and 2-5-1 in their past eight games overall.
"We've got to put this behind us because we are going into a tough building to play [Tuesday] against a great Rangers team," said Stars forward Patrick Sharp. "No one is going to feel sorry for us. We've got to dig ourselves out of this hole and play better hockey."
Injuries: D Jamie Oleksiak (hand), C/LW Mattias Janmark (knee) and RW Ales Hemsky (hip) are on injured reserve.

About the Rangers
The Rangers (28-15-1) are coming off a 5-4 loss at Montreal Saturday. The Rangers led 3-2 after two periods, but Montreal scored three goals in 62 seconds midway through the third period to take a 5-3 lead.
"We did a majority of good things and we just lapsed for that 62 seconds and we just weren't able to recover," said Rangers forward Derek Stepan.
The loss was the second straight and third in the past five games for the Rangers.
Goaltender Antti Raanta, who started Saturday's game, left in the first period with a lower-body injury and is out. New York recalled goaltender Magnus Hellberg from Hartford (AHL) on Monday. Forward Mika Zibanejad, who has been out since Nov. 20 with a broken leg, will return to the lineup Tuesday.
The Rangers play eight of their next eleven games at home.
Injuries: D Marc Staal (concussion-like symptoms) is out. G Antti Raanta (lower body) and F Matt Puempel (concussion) are on injured reserve.
Season Series
\This is the second and final meeting between the Stars and Rangers this season.
\The Rangers won the first meeting, 2-0, in Dallas on Dec. 15.
\The Stars have lost three straight games against the Rangers.
Statistical Tidbits
\The Stars are 6-12-4 on the road.
\The Rangers are 13-8-1 at home.
\The Stars are 2-7-3 vs. the Eastern Conference including 1-4-2 against the Metropolitan Division.
\The Rangers are 14-4-0 vs. the Western Conference including 7-3-0 against the Central Division.
\The Stars are 1-3-1 in the second game of back-to-backs this season.
\The Rangers have allowed four goals or more in six of their past ten games, including seven goals in a game twice during that stretch.
\The Rangers have scored four goals or more in seven of their past ten games, including six goals in a game twice during that stretch.
\The Stars have allowed four or more goals in five of their past seven games.
\The Rangers are 9-29 (31.0 percent) on the power play in their past eight games and rank sixth in the league on the PP at 22.4 percent.
\The Stars are 15-27 (55.6 percent) on the penalty kill in their past eight games and rank 30th in the NHL on the PK at 74.3 percent.
\Tyler Seguin leads the Stars in scoring with 43 points (16 goals, 27 assists).
*Kevin Hayes (13 goals, 20 assists) and Derek Stepan (10 goals, 23 assists) co-lead the Rangers in scoring with 33 points.
This story was not subject to approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club. Mark Stepneski is an independent writer whose posts on DallasStars.com reflect his own opinions and do not represent official statements from the Dallas Stars. You can follow Mark on Twitter @StarsInsideEdge.