Game Preview: Oettinger Back In Net, Stars Travel to Chicago Looking For Sixth Straight Road Victory

The Stars have won five straight road games and are coming off their biggest win of the season on Tuesday, knocking off the streaking Colorado Avalanche 4-1 at Ball Arena.

The challenge will be quite different on Friday as the Stars travel to Chicago to play a struggling Blackhawks team that has been near the bottom of the league since the puck dropped in October.

Chicago is 3-6-1 in their last 10 games and sits above only Arizona and Seattle in the Western Conference with an 18-25-7 record. They are coming off a 7-4 loss to Columbus at home on Thursday night.

The season has been a disappointing one for a Hawks team that believed they had the tools to make the playoffs. They added Marc-Andre Fleury and Seth Jones this summer and saw Jonathan Toews return to a lineup that had success last season. While they did not make the playoffs, the stellar performances of Patrick Kane, Alex Debrincat, and Dominik Kubalik pushed them closer than most believed. This season, they are led again by Kane and Debrincat but sit far from the playoff bubble.

Dallas, on the other hand, is in the middle of a dogfight for a playoff spot. They currently sit one point out of the second wild-card spot but have played fewer games than each of the teams they are chasing. The standings look much tighter than they did a week ago as the Stars have found some recent success, winning seven of their last 10 games overall.

"One of our downfalls has been inconsistency, up and down,” Holtby said. “That's one thing we want to fix in this playoff push. Win or lose, you go about your business the same way the next day. That's going to go a long way for us."

The re-emergence of Tyler Seguin has been a huge part of the recent success of the Stars. The 30-year-old forward struggled early in the year following knee and hip surgeries but has slowly been building up and has found his game as of late.

Seguin has seven goals and six assists for 13 points in his last 12 games. He was moved to center by Rick Bowness because of his strong play and has been a different player since, a great sign for Dallas.

"Mentally, it's taken some time," Seguin said. "I have very high expectations of myself, but they're definitely rising now with how I'm feeling better and better. I'm just trying to dial it right now and take the next step, and I feel like I'm getting there."

Jake Oettinger gets the start tonight after possibly the best performance of his career against Colorado. The young goalie stopped 46 of 47 shots, including a few highlight-reel saves to keep Dallas in the game and with the lead against a talented Avs team. This will be the sixth start for Oettinger in the last seven games.

"He's such a good kid that wants to learn and get better," Holtby said. "He's very mature for his age. It's been a lot of fun. These last two years have been more rewarding for me because you're seeing a generation coming up. It's fun to watch him evolve. He's getting more comfortable with every game he plays."

He Said It

"If you look at everyone outside the three guys that lead the way, then everyone has got a little bit more, some guys maybe a lot more," Seguin said. "You look at the potential there, and there's excitement, but then you also realize you've got to look in your own mirror. It's like back in training camp, where we've got the pieces and to the eye on the paper it looks great."

Lineup Updates

• Radek Faksa is IN tonight after missing the last seven games with a lower-body injury

• Andrej Sekera has been placed on IR retroactive to Jan. 28

Projected Lines

Robertson-Hintz-Pavelski

Benn-Seguin-Gurianov

Raffl-Faksa-Glendening

Kiviranta-Peterson-Radulov

Lindell-Klingberg

Suter-Heiskanen

Harley-Hakanpaa

Oettinger

Holtby