Blues Look to Take Control of Series With Stars
The Dallas Stars visit the St. Louis Blues for Game 3 of their best of seven Western Conference semifinals series on Tuesday.
The current line has St. Louis favored at home at -135, with Dallas sitting on +122. The over/under goal total is once again at 5.
St. Louis has had good success in overtime versus Dallas. Three of their four victories over Dallas during the regular season went into extra time.
The same for the first two games of this series as the teams split overtime games to head to St. Louis for Game 3 with the series tied 1-1.
St. Louis took away home ice advantage from Dallas with a split in Games 1 and 2 and looks to take control of the series in Game 3 Tuesday night.
On Sunday, David Backes the St. Louis captain celebrated his birthday with a goal in overtime for a 4-3 win for the Blues.
Lindy Ruff the Dallas head coach would not say if his carousel of goaltenders would continue in Game 3, as Stars starter on Sunday Kari Lehtonen gave up three goals after just five shots before Antti Niemi replaced him and made 19 saves.
Ruff has consistently changed his goaltenders following a bad start. That means in all likelihood Niemi will be in net for the Stars on Tuesday after such a poor start by Lehtonen in Game 2.
Dallas captain Jamie Benn has played excellent this postseason. In Game 2, Benn scored one goal and assisted on another. He has now scored 12 points during the postseason with 5 goals and 7 assists to lead his team.
Cody Eakin assisted on three goals for Dallas Sunday and is tied with Benn with 7 assists in the postseason.
For the Blues, even two goal leads are not safe. St. Louis squandered a lead of two goals for the second time during the postseason Sunday.
The Blues led 3-1 after one period of their quarterfinals sixth game versus Chicago during the first round, only to have Chicago rally and win the game to extend the series to seven games.
On Monday, both Tyler Seguin and Patrick Eaves skated for Dallas, but Ruff said that both would not be traveling to St. Louis to play on Tuesday.
Robby Fabbri the St. Louis rookie center has 7 points on one goal and six assists in this season’s nine playoff games.
The Blue are 7-for-7 in penalty killing in this series against the Stars.
Prediction: At home, the Blues are at least a goal better. However, Dallas is a force to be reckoned with. Lean toward the Blues at home.
