The Stars are back at it tonight to face the Boston Bruins at TD Garden. Two days removed from a 3-2 overtime victory against the New York Rangers, the Stars are looking to post consecutive victories on their season opening four-game road trip.
Dallas enters tonight's matchup with points in three of the past six against Boston (2-3-1), including points in two of three at TD Garden (1-1-1). The Stars have gone 4-2-1 in their past seven road matchups against the Bruins and have an 8-5-2 mark dating back to the 1997-98 season.
There's no opponent Braden Holtby has had more success against than the Bruins. The 32-year-old netminder enters tonight's game with an 18-4-0 career mark against Boston, including a 1.98 goals-against average and .939 save percentage - the best against any NHL opponent in both categories. He leads all NHL goaltenders in shutouts (four) against Boston since he entered the league in 2010-11 and ranks tied for first with Montreal's Carey Price in wins (18) over that span.
Holtby was terrific in his Stars debut against the Rangers but exited the game in the third period due to dehydration. Former Bruins goaltender Anton Khudobin has a 1-0-2 mark (1.55 GAA and .941 SV%) in three appearances against his former club.
Since the Stars didn't practice yesterday, updates on Holtby and defenseman John Klingberg will likely be given after the club's pregame skate at TD Garden later today. Klingberg suffered a lower-body injury in the first period on Thursday, returned for the second period but didn't come back for the third. The veteran defenseman logged just 10:21 TOI in the game.
Stars captain Jamie Benn (six goals, nine assists in 16 career games) and forward Joe Pavelski (six goals, nine assists in 20 career games) co-lead the team in scoring against the Bruins with 15 points apiece. Benn comes in having earned two points (one goal, one assist) in his most recent game against Boston and has five points (two goals, three assists) over his past six. Pavelski has points in each of his previous two games against the Bruins (two assists) and five points (one goal, four assists) in the past five.
It'll be a milestone night for defenseman Ryan Suter, who is set to play his 1,200th career NHL game. In his 17th NHL season, the 36-year-old ranks fourth among all active players in games played. Suter will become the 114th player in NHL history to reach the mark and just the 33rd defenseman to achieve the milestone. The Madison, Wisconsin native will also become the 14th U.S.-born player in NHL history to reach 1,200 games.
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Kyle Shohara is the Digital Manager for DallasStars.com and writes about the Stars/NHL. Follow him on Twitter @kyleshohara.
