Coyotes at Stars preview

COYOTES (30-24-8) at STARS (34-19-6)
8:30 p.m. ET; FS-SW, FS-A, FS-A PLUS, NHL.TV

The Stars, 4-0-1 in their past five games after going 3-4-1 in its previous eight games, trail the St. Louis Blues by two points for the Central Division lead and are one point ahead of the third-place Colorado Avalanche.
Dallas will try to defeat the Coyotes at home for the 13th consecutive time dating back to March 20, 2012; its 12-game run is its longest active such streak against an NHL opponent.
The Coyotes, who have won two straight after going 1-3-1 in their previous five games, are tied with the Calgary Flames for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference and are two points behind the Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights, tied for the Pacific Division lead.

Players to watch

Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun has seven points (two goals, five assists) in his past eight games.
Stars forward Joe Pavelski has nine points (five goals, four assists) in his past seven games.

They said it

"That line has helped us solidify a few things. Before I put them together, we were giving up way too many chances. Since I've put that line together, our matchups seem a little bit better. We seem to play a more diligent game in our own end, and I think that line has spearheaded us into that mentality." -- Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet on Arizona's fourth line of Carl Soderberg, Brad Richardson and Christian Fischer
"They kind of woke us up with their hits, but we started to play really well after that. We expect that kind of game tonight." -- Stars coach Rick Bowness on emotions carrying over from Dallas' 4-2 win at Arizona on Dec. 29

Coyotes projected lineup

Taylor Hall -- Christian Dvorak -- Conor Garland
Lawson Crouse -- Derek Stepan -- Vinnie Hinostroza
Clayton Keller -- Nick Schmaltz -- Phil Kessel
Carl Soderberg -- Brad Richardson -- Christian Fischer
Jakob Chychrun -- Alex Goligoski
Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Niklas Hjalmarsson
Jordan Oesterle -- Ilya Lyubushkin
Adin Hill
Antti Raanta
Scratched: Michael Grabner, Barrett Hayton , Aaron Ness
Injured:Darcy Kuemper (lower body), Jason Demers (lower body)

Stars projected lineup

Jamie Benn -- Jason Dickinson -- Denis Gurianov
Roope Hintz -- Tyler Seguin -- Corey Perry
Andrew Cogliano -- Radek Faksa -- Blake Comeau
Mattias Janmark -- Joe Pavelski -- Alexander Radulov
Esa Lindell -- John Klingberg
Miro Heiskanen -- Stephen Johns
Jamie Oleksiak -- Andrej Sekera
Ben Bishop
Anton Khudobin
Scratched: Roman Polak, Joel Kiviranta, Taylor Fedun
Injured:Justin Dowling (lower body)

Status report

Ness, a defenseman, was recalled from Tucson of the American Hockey League on Tuesday but is not expected to play. … Radulov will return after missing three games with an upper-body injury.

Stat pack

Hall has 19 points (eight goals, 11 assists) in 24 games against Dallas in his NHL career. … Klingberg has seven points (two goals, five assists) in a six-game point streak against Arizona. …. Benn needs one goal for 300 in the NHL.