Stars Upset Ducks with Flurry of Goals, Blackhawks to Start Finnish Star

On Tuesday night, all it took was 53 seconds for the the Dallas Stars (12-9-2) to score three goals during the third period in its game against the NHL second-place Anaheim Ducks (17-7-3) and take a 4-2 lead before its eventual 6-3 win.

Sitting at a 1-2 deficit, the flurry of Stars scores came from Cody Eakin, Stephane Robidas and Ryan Garbutt.

This represented the quickest three-goal stretch in the league–last seen in January 2012–and with the win, it represented the first one for the Stars at home in over a month. They’ll look to see if a streak can be set as they have two additional home games coming up.

Stephane Robidas

Robidas said of the win via NHL.com, “We want to establish ourselves as a good home team. We want to play well at home in front of our fans. We haven’t been able to do it this year, so we want to make a statement where it’s tough to play in our building so we’ve just got to keep moving and keep getting better.”

For the Stars, Tuesday’s game represented their second game against their former Pacific Division rivals. The Ducks, who had a two-game win streak going when they entered the game, had defeated the Stars on Oct. 20, 6-3 and the two will again play on Feb. 1 in Anaheim.

The Ducks sit at 14/1 to win the 2014 Stanley Cup while the Stars are 66/1.

Next up for the Stars is a Friday night game against the Central Division leader, the Chicago Blackhawks (17-4-4). They sit at the top of the league with 38 points, one ahead of Anaheim and St. Louis with 37,  and 15/2 to win a second straight Stanley Cup.

Blackhawks vs. Calgary Flames 

But before they play the Stars, the Blackhawks will take on the Calgary Flames (8-11-4) on Wednesday with a new face protecting its goal.

Antti Raanta

Blackhawks goalie Antti Raanta, Finnish league’s reigning MVP, will get his first NHL start against the Flames. He has been playing backup to starting goalie Corey Crawford, whose backup Nikolai Khabibulin, sits on IR.

Enter Raanta who made his league debut on Nov. 19 when he gave Crawford some relief in a 5-1 loss against the Colorado Avalanche (17-5-0).  He signed with the Blackhawks in June after playing in the Finnish league last year with Assat Pori of SM-liiga. He most recently played for the Rockford IceHogs of the American Hockey League.

In his 7-5-0 record before being called up by the Blackhawks on Nov. 17, he had a 2.83 goals-against average and a .914 save percentage, according to NHL.com.

Along with all eyes on Raanta, Hawks fans will also be watching Patrick Kane, who extended his scoring streak to 11 games after the team’s 5-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers (7-16-2) on Monday. Kane also leads the team for goals (13) and points (26) but has a team low minus-3 rating.

But he does play well against the Flames, with a six-game point streak. In their last two meetings, he’s had goals against them.

For the Flames, they’ll hit the ice after playing three consecutive overtime games and are seeking to move up in the Western Conference after losing six straight games to only grab one point. In their last three games, they’re 2-0-1 with two shootout wins.

A win Wednesday night for the Blackhawks would give them a league-high 40 points–just five short of the same points over 26 games from last season. They would also grab a fourth straight regulation win on one single road trip. This hasn’t been done since Nov. 19-25, 2009.

The Blackhawks will look for defenseman Duncan Keith to keep the offense alive as he’s had a minimum of one assist over the last four games while the Flames will hope Jiri Hudler will keep scoring as he leads the team with seven goals and 14 assists.

In their last matchup on Nov. 3 in Chicago, the Flames got a 3-2 overtime win but this time, the Blackhawks get the victory (-190, 5.5 o/u).