Redemption will be on the mind of the Stars Saturday as they close out a back-to-back against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena.
After a 7-1 defeat on Friday against the Florida Panthers, a response is needed. The challenge, however, is a big one.
Tampa Bay has won two in a row and four of its past five, and rank tied for first place in the NHL standings with Florida (55 points). The Lightning have ranked first or tied for first in the league standings continuously since Jan. 4 and became the first team to reach 25 wins with their victory over Vancouver on Thursday.
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Andrei Vasilevskiy is his usual self and leads the league with 21 wins in 30 appearances. The 27-year-old netminder is 21-6-3 with a 2.18 goals-against average and .924 save percentage, including two shutouts. In 15 career contests against Dallas, Vasilevskiy is 11-1-3 with a 1.91 GAA, .932 SV% and five shutouts.
Nikita Kucherov has three goals and five points over his past two contests and has seven points in four games since returning from a lower-body injury that sidelined him for 32 games from Oct. 19-Jan. 4. Kucherov has multi-point efforts in three of the four games he's played since returning to the lineup.
This is the first of two meetings between the Stars and Lightning and the lone contest held in Tampa. The Stars posted a 2-5-1 record against the Lightning in 2020-21 but went just 1-3-0 at Amalie Arena. Dallas enters the game with points in five of their past 10 against Tampa Bay (4-5-1) and own a 27-20-5 all-time mark (including a 15-10-2 road record) against them.
Joe Pavelski, who saw his eight-game point streak snapped Friday, earned 11 points (three goals, eight assists) in eight games against the Lightning last season, the most points by any player against them during the 2020-21 campaign. Pavelski has five points (two goals, three assists) in his past two games against Tampa Bay and 11 points (three goals, eight assists) in his past six.
Anton Khudobin has won two of his past three (2-1-0) at Amalie Arena and enters Saturday's game with a 3.66 goals-against average and .890 save percentage over that span. In 10 career games against Tampa Bay, he's registered a 4-6-0 record with a 2.91 GAA. and .894 SV%.
Jake Oettinger has appeared in five career games against the Lightning, posting a 1-2-1 record with a 2.78 GAA and .894 SV %.
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.
