The Fault in Our Stars / Divergent / The Descendants
CALGARY -- The Dallas Stars will have captain Jamie Benn in the lineup in what is being dubbed a must-win game against the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome on Wednesday.
Benn, who has 10 goals and 23 points in his past 20 games, was originally questionable to play after sustaining an undisclosed injury late in a 4-3 win against the Buffalo Sabres on Monday.
"I'll be in there tonight," said Benn, whose Stars are 4-0-1 in their past five games against Calgary. "I didn't want to miss this one, anyways. There's a lot of rumors out there I might not play, but I'm playing and I'm ready to go."
Benn's availability is no surprise to teammate Tyler Seguin.
"Look at my leg right now," said Seguin, referencing a brace on his knee. "Everyone's trying to do their part and battle through what they've got. Talking to Jamie, I know he's a lot better today than he was yesterday.
"He can do a lot. You'd rather have him in the lineup at 75 (percent) than out."
The Stars have won three games in a row, six of seven and eight of their past 10 in an attempt to catch the Winnipeg Jets, who hold the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. Dallas trails Winnipeg by eight points with nine games remaining.
Benn figures the Stars will have to win out to earn a chance to compete in the playoffs for a second straight year.
"We really can't afford to lose any more games," he said. "We've got to go undefeated here until the end of the year and that's what we're going to try to do. We're playing some pretty good hockey and we know we want to keep that going tonight.
"You never know how many points it's going to take to get in. We've been seeing not too many teams are losing these days. We figure we'll keep playing game-by-game, but realistically we can't really lose any game. We need to be strong all the way down the stretch here.
"We all believe in here we can still do something pretty special, and that's what we're going to try to do."
A win is equally important to the Flames' playoff hopes.
Calgary and the Los Angeles Kings each have 86 points, but the Flames are in third place in the Pacific Division because they have 36 regulation and overtime (ROW) wins, while the Kings sit at 34. Each team trails the Vancouver Canucks by four points for second in the Pacific with nine games remaining for all three.
"Obviously (Dallas) is hungry and they need the wins, but we're in that same position," said Flames forward Sean Monahan, who leads Calgary with 29 goals. "We can't lose games right now. We need all the points we can get. We're both out there trying to find to find that same goal.
"It's in our own hands and we're doing whatever we can to be in that spot."
Here are the projected lineups:
STARS
Jamie Benn – Cody Eakin – Tyler Seguin
Antoine Roussel – Jason Spezza – Ales Hemsky
Curtis McKenzie – Shawn Horcoff – Brett Ritchie
Patrick Eaves – Vernon Fiddler – Colton Sceviour
Alex Goligoski – Jyrki Jokipakka
Patrik Nemeth – John Klingberg
Scratched: Ryan Garbutt, Travis Moen
Injured: Trevor Daley (lower body), Valeri Nichushkin (hip)
FLAMES
Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Jiri Hudler
Lance Bouma - Mikael Backlund - David Jones
Joe Colborne - Markus Granlund - Josh Jooris
Brandon Bollig - Matt Stajan - Mason Raymond
Scratched: Corey Potter, Michael Ferland, Drew Shore
Injured: Ladislav Smid (upper body), Paul Byron (lower body), Mark Giordano (torn biceps tendon)
Status update: Daley accompanied the Stars on the road trip but will not play against Calgary. … Ramo is expected to make his fourth straight start and 12th in the past 15 games. The Flames have released veteran defenseman Douglas Murray from his tryout.
Who's hot: Benn has three goals and six points during a three-game point-scoring streak. Seguin has a goal and two assists during a three-game point-scoring streak. … Monahan has eight goals and five assists in 11 games this month.
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