Streaks are set to clash as the Tampa Bay Lightning eye a third consecutive victory Thursday night against the Dallas Stars, who will look for a ninth straight home win.
Tampa Bay (39-23-5, 83 points) is vying for home-ice advantage in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs with an opportunity to finish in first place in the Atlantic Division.
Since Jan. 30, the Lightning are 13-3-2 and have earned five points in each of the last three games.
“Regular season is about ups and downs, so it’s basically 82 games of preparation for the playoffs,” Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy said.
Dallas (43-21-3, 89 points) is second in the Central Division, while also holding the second-most points in the Western Conference. On the heels of a 1-2-1 trip, the Stars earned a 4-3 home victory in overtime over the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday.
The Stars are tied for the longest home winning streak in Dallas history.
“We’re a veteran team in here,” said Stars defenseman Thomas Harley, who had a goal with two assists against the Ducks.
“We know that if we play our game, we’re going to have a chance to win every game.”
The Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov and Jake Guentzel each scored goals in a 2-0 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday. The duo now has a combined for 62 goals. Vasilevskiy made 22 saves for his fifth shutout of the season.
Tampa Bay has allowed two total goals in winning two straight after giving up 17 in the previous four contests.
“We put ourselves in a good spot here for the stretch run,” Tampa Bay defenseman Ryan McDonagh said.
“We just want to build our game to as close to 60 minutes as we can here, and each game is going to be more intense and more significant here for us.”
The intensity level could be high Thursday in Dallas, where the Stars are 25-7-1 and haven’t lost since Jan. 21. Dallas has also scored more than three goals seven times during their eight-game home streak, and won half of those contests by one goal.
“We’ve just got to keep working,” said Harley, who has two goals with 10 assists in the last seven home games.
Matt Duchene had a goal with an assist and Roope Hintz also scored as Dallas tallied twice in the third period of a 4-2 win at Tampa Bay on Nov. 23.
Kucherov and Guentzel were each blanked in that contest, but teammate Anthony Cirelli scored twice against the Stars. Cirelli has secured a second straight season with at least 20 goals and assists, but he’s been held without a point in eight of his last nine contests.
Vasilevskiy (2.24 goals-against average) allowed six goals during his most recent start at Dallas, an 8-1 Lightning loss on Dec. 2, 2023. Backup Jonas Johansson (3.12 goals-against average) has never made a start against the Stars.
Dallas’ Jake Oettinger (2.55 goals-against average) made 27 saves at Tampa Bay earlier this season. Stars backup Casey DeSmith has a 2.01 goals-against average and .931 save percentage during a six-start win streak.
With two assists Tuesday, Hintz has recorded five straight multi-point home games (two goals, 13 assists).
