When: Saturday, November 23 at 6:00 PM CT

Where: Amalie Arena

TV: Victory+

Radio: The Ticket 96.7-FM, 1310-AM

Live Stats: NHL Game Center

Watch Party: Happiest Hour

It's a big week for #TexasHockey Watch Parties!

Join us tomorrow at Happiest Hour for our @ModeloUSA Watch Party at 6pm as we take on the Bolts, and Monday in Arlington at @tx_live at 6pm as we take on the Canes!

More on upcoming Stars Watch Parties ⤵️

— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) November 22, 2024

Five Points

• The Dallas Stars face the Tampa Bay Lightning Saturday night at Amalie Arena for the first time this season. Entering Saturday’s match, the Stars are 12-6-0 while the Lightning are 10-6-2. The teams will face each other once more this season on March 20 in Dallas.
• Dallas is 29-23-6 all-time vs. Tampa Bay, including a 15-12-3 mark on the road.
• A Stars win would give Dallas victories in three consecutive road games for the first time this season.
• Captain Jamie Benn has four points (2-2—4) in his last four games against the Lightning. Benn leads active Stars in goals (11), shares second in points (11-11—22) and ranks third in assists (11) in 29 career matchups vs. the Lightning. He also co-leads the club in game-winning goals (3), with two of them coming in overtime.
• Forward Roope Hintz has 12 points (4-8—12) in his last 11 games against Tampa Bay dating back to March 23, 2021.

Stats Against Opponent ✍

Players To Watch

Stars forward Jason Robertson helped Dallas to a 5-2 win over the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday, recording his first three-point game of the season (1-2—3). Robertson has totaled 11 points (5-6—11) in 18 games played this season. In his career against Tampa Bay, Robertson has gathered 11 points (4-7—11) in 13 games played.

Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman is on a four-game point streak, earning five points (1-4—5) in his last four games. He leads Tampa Bay defensemen in scoring (4-14—18) and is fourth amongst NHL blueliners. Hedman has the most points of any Lightning defensemen against Dallas with 25 points (5-20—25) in 30 career games played.

First Shift

The Stars had the best road record in franchise history last season.

Looking back, it’s difficult to pin down exactly why.

Obviously, this is a good team and had the second-best overall record in the NHL, so the 26-10-5 mark away from home was a big part of that. But as they try to follow that up this season and are off to a 4-4-0 start on the road, there is no real magic formula they can return to.

“We just have to play our game, it doesn’t matter where we are playing,” said Duchene. “You guys always look at the home and road and think there’s something to it, but there’s nothing to it to us.”

The Stars have an 8-2-0 record at home, including one “home” loss in Tampere, Finland. Last season, they sometimes struggled at home, including a 4-6 mark at American Airlines Center in the playoffs. So how is it they are having such a great start this year?

“It’s hard to say,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said when asked about the issues on the road. “It’s like our home record this year. It’s not like we’re doing anything different, we’re just winning games. When I look at our road games this year, we’ve played some really good teams.”

Among the road losses are Florida, Winnipeg and Washington – three of the top 10 teams in the league. That’s important as they head out on a three-game road trip with contests against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday and Carolina Hurricanes on Monday. Both are traditional Eastern Conference powers.

“It’s a great test,” DeBoer said. “In the next five games, we have Colorado, Winnipeg, Tampa and Carolina, top teams in the league. So those are great tests for us.”

That can be a huge portion of the midseason for the 12-6-0 Stars.

“I think it can be a turning point,” said goalie Jake Oettinger. “We’ve had an up and down start. Our record is pretty good but I don’t think we’ve played our best yet. These are some great tests on the road.”

Did Oettinger have an explanation for posting an 18-6-2 road record last season?

“Personally, for me, you need to be able to weather storms and close out games,” Oettinger said. “Those are all things we can get better at this year.”

Doing it now would be ideal.

“I always think we have our best against some of those top teams,” said Duchene. “We love that challenge, because those are the teams we’re going to need to beat if we want to achieve our ultimate goal.”

And as for finding specific reasons for wins away from home? Well, the reasons are pretty much the same no matter where you are.

“Hockey is hockey,” Duchene said. “We have a great game plan. I’ve talked about how well-coached we are. We know what the recipe is for ourselves and we make adjustments to whoever we’re playing. We’re well prepared and it’s up to us as players to execute.”

Key Numbers

2.33

Dallas ranks first in goals against average at 2.33. Tampa Bay ranks fifth in scoring at 3.67 goals per game.

14.8

Tampa Bay ranks 31st in hits per game at 14.8. Dallas ranks 28th at 15.4.

1.92

Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy has a 14-3-3 career record against Dallas with a 1.92 GAA, .931 save percentage and 6 shutouts. The 1.92 is his second best against any team.

He Said It

“You see a power play be unbelievable one year, and then the next year, it’s cold. Then it gets hot and then two days later you’re lamenting it. That’s hockey, that’s why this is a maddening sport. You’re not shooting on a basket like in basketball where there’s no goalie. You can do everything right and get stopped. It’s a really hard thing. The most important thing for any skill player is the process and making sure everything is in order.”

– Stars forward Duchene on the team’s frustration with the power play right now

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @MikeHeika.

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