Eurolanche

Shorthanded Stars visit slumping Avs

Season series: The Colorado Avalanche have defeated the Dallas Stars in each of the three games this season. Avalanche forward Gabriel Landeskog has a goal and four points. Stars forward Jamie Benn has three assists.

Stars (26-21-8) team scope: Dallas forwards Tyler Seguin (lower body), Ales Hemsky (lower body) and Patrick Eaves (head) each left a 2-0 win against the Florida Panthers on Friday. Coach Lindy Ruff said none of them will travel to Colorado and that Seguin and Hemsky will miss some time. Seguin was injured after Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov hit him and was called for clipping late in the third period. Less than a minute later, Eaves was hit in the head with a shot by teammate John Klinberg and was taken to a hospital for X-rays. Hemsky left in the first period with a lower-body injury. "We've got (forward Curtis) MacKenzie here, so he's in," coach Lindy Ruff  said. "We will call a couple more guys up; they'll both be going in and we'll put some lines together." The Stars have won three games in a row for the first time since a four-game winning streak from Dec. 27-Jan. 3.

Avalanche (22-22-11) team scope: Colorado used seven defenseman and 11 forwards in a 6-3 loss to the New York Rangers on Thursday, but coach Patrick Roy said the team will call up a forward before the game Saturday. "Tomorrow we will make a decision," Roy said. "We are going to call up a forward for tomorrow. I will talk to [executive vice president/general manager) Joe [Sakic] to see who we will call up." Colorado has lost four games in a row, but has won seven of the past eight against Dallas. "We've played them enough to know what's going on," defenseman Zach Redmond told the Avalanche website. "We have a good idea of what they are going to bring and we need to match their intensity right away." Forward Jarome Iginla has three points in his past two games.

by David Satriano for -nhl.com-