NHL Preview from The Sports Network
Sunday, February 17th
(All times Eastern)
Calgary Flames (4-5-3) at Dallas Stars (8-6-1), 6 p.m.
(Sports Network) - The Dallas Stars have been one of the hottest teams in
February, winning six of eight to keep pace in the Pacific Division.
The Stars, though, return from a three-game trip through Western Canada
without the services of injured goaltender Kari Lehtonen as they battle the
Calgary Flames on Sunday night.
Lehtonen suffered a groin injury in Friday's 4-3 come-from-behind win over the
Vancouver Canucks, exiting with 6:27 left in the first period. Lehtonen, who
missed 12 games last season with a groin injury, is expected to be placed on
injured reserve and Cristopher Nilstorp was recalled from the minors on
Saturday.
Richard Bachman replaced Lehtonen, who has gone 7-2-1 with a 2.12 goals
against average and .934 save percentage in 12 games this season, and gave up
three goals in the second period, but ended with 18 saves to get the win.
"It's never easy nor fun coming in cold like that," Bachman said. "That's a
good team with a lot of skill. They started buzzing, especially at the end of
the second period. The building started rocking. You just try to stay calm and
forget about everything that's going on."
The Vancouver crowd was eventually silenced as Cody Eakin scored with 2:10
left in the second period before Antoine Roussel scored at 12:22 of the third
to tie the game. Defenseman Brenden Dillon netted the winner with 3:01 to
play, putting home a feed from Jamie Benn for his third goal of the season.
"It was a great play by him," Dillon said. "We kind of had the puck in the
zone there and I kind of saw an opening, a lane in the backdoor and it
was a perfect pass right on my tape, and I was fortunate to pick the top
shelf.
Reilly Smith also scored while Benn's assist extended his point streak to six
games. He has four goals and five assists in that span.
Dallas has won five of its past six, with the lone loss in that span coming on
Wednesday in Calgary, where the Stars were dealt a 7-4 defeat. Bachman gave up
six goals on 22 shots in the setback and Brenden Morrow scored twice.
The Flames were paced by a four-goal first period and Mike Cammalleri's fifth
career hat trick. He also had an assist, while Leland Irving yielded four
goals on 34 shots.
Calgary improved to 6-1-2 in the past nine versus the Stars, but have lost two
straight in Dallas.
The Flames had the tables turned on them Friday, yielding four first-period
goals in a 5-2 setback to the St. Louis Blues.
Irving allowed two goals on four shots before getting pulled 4:07 into the
game. Joey MacDonald, claimed off waivers from Detroit on Monday, finished
with 18 saves on 21 shots faced in his Calgary debut.
"Especially in the first 10 minutes, we were outworked," said Calgary forward
Jarome Iginla, who had an assist in his 1,200th career game. "We weren't ready
physically to battle and compete."
Dennis Wideman and Curtis Glencross supplied the goals for Calgary, which has
dropped three of four. Glencross' goal was the 100th of his career.
Flames head coach Bob Hartley will start MacDonald on Sunday, giving the
veteran his first start since March 14 while with Detroit. He made 14
appearances and 12 starts with the Red Wings last season, going 8-5-1 with a
2.16 GAA and .912 save percentage.
On Saturday, Calgary sent Irving to the AHL and recalled netminder Danny
Taylor.
"When we claimed Joey MacDonald off waivers we did so with the expectation
that he would play games for us," said Flames general manager Jay Feaster in a
release announcing the move. "Now that he has seen some game action we intend
to use him more. ... We want Leland to go down and work on sharpening his
game. At the same time this enables us to continue to evaluate Danny Taylor at
the NHL level."
Calgary starting netminder Miikka Kiprusoff remains sidelined with a sprained
knee.
02/17 10:30:46 ET

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