Stars aim for 7th straight win with lowly Predators in town

The Dallas Stars tore through the month of March. They’ll look to stay on that track and inch closer to top spot in the Central Division when they host the Nashville Predators on Thursday.

The Stars (49-21-4, 102 points) went 11-2-2 in March, the second-best record in the NHL over that month behind only the St. Louis Blues, who went 12-2-1. Dallas closed out the month with a pair of wins against the Seattle Kraken to sweep a four-game road trip and extend its winning streak to six. They’re also 7-0-2 in their past nine to pull within four points of the division-leading Winnipeg Jets on whom they hold a game in hand.

Even though the Stars have been seemingly unstoppable of late, Dallas still feels its game isn’t where it needs to be as the postseason nears.

“The wins matter, but we’re trying to get our game ready for the playoffs,” center Matt Duchene said. “We’d love to take that top seed, that’s obviously a goal, but we’re going to have to play great teams no matter what position we finish, and we want to make sure our game is where it needs to be. If it is, it gives us the best chance to win in the playoffs. That’s the goal right now, and I think we’re taking good steps toward that.”

Dallas entered Wednesday tied with the Carolina Hurricanes for the best penalty kill percentage in the NHL, with an 84.7 success rate when short-handed. The Stars have allowed just five goals on 37 opposing power plays over their past 13 games.

Roope Hintz was named the NHL’s Second Star of the Week for the week ending March 30 after posting nine points in four games, with each outing being a multi-point effort. The 28-year-old center has 27 goals and 37 assists for 64 points in 68 games, as he attempts to reach the 30-goal mark for the fourth consecutive season. He’s one assist shy from matching his career best (38) in that category set in 2022-23 and is on pace to surpass 70 points for the third time.

The Predators, meanwhile, are in Dallas looking to snap a four-game losing streak during which they’ve been outscored 16-8. Half of those goals against came in their most recent outing, an 8-4 setback at the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday.

Down 4-1 early in the second period against Columbus, Nashville (27-40-8, 62 points) responded with a pair of tallies less than a minute apart to pull within one before the Blue Jackets widened the gap again.

“I think for us, it was a tough game, but the effort was there, the compete was there,” coach Andrew Brunette said. “We self-inflicted a little bit. There’s some things we can learn and we can be better at. … Understand game management, shift management got us in trouble on three goals, things that as a young team right now that we have to learn and get better at.”

After winning four straight from March 4-11, the Predators have dropped nine of their past 11 (2-8-1).

Ryan O’Reilly is one goal away from 300 but has scored only once in his past 14 games, while picking up five assists in that span.

–Field Level Media