Stars at Blues preview

STARS (32-27-5) at BLUES (34-24-6)
8 p.m. ET; FS-MW, FS-SW+, NHL.TV

The Blues, who are 13-2-1 in their past 16 games, lead the Stars by five points for third place in the division, and trail the idle Nashville Predators by five points and the idle first-place Winnipeg Jets by six points.
Jordan Binnington
, named the NHL Rookie of the Month for February (10-1-0, 1.44 goals-against average, .945 save percentage, four shutouts), will start for St. Louis, which has won seven in a row at home since a 3-1 loss to the Stars on Jan. 8.
Stars forward Jamie Benn will play after missing the past two games with an upper-body injury.
Dallas leads the Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche by one point for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.

Players to watch

Stars goalie Ben Bishop is 4-2-0 with a 1.84 goals-against average, a .945 save percentage and one shutout his past six starts.
Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko has 25 points (12 goals, 13 assists) in his past 18 games and needs one assist for 200 in NHL.

They said it

"We got a big game tonight obviously against a good team and we need to find a way to come out of here with a win." -- Stars captain Jamie Benn
"We've got a divisional game, a team that's trying to catch us." -- Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo on playing the Stars

Stars projected lineup

Roope Hintz -- Tyler Seguin -- Alexander Radulov
Mattias Janmark -- Radek Faksa -- Blake Comeau
Jamie Benn --
Joel L'Esperance
-- Jason Spezza
Valeri Nichushkin -- Jason Dickinson -- Brett Ritchie
Esa Lindell -- John Klingberg
Miro Heiskanen -- Roman Polak
Taylor Fedun -- Ben Lovejoy
Ben Bishop
Anton Khudobin
Scratched: Jamie Oleksiak, Julius Honka
Injured:Mats Zuccarello (arm), Andrew Cogliano (upper body), Stephen Johns (upper body), Marc Methot (upper body), Martin Hanzal (back), Tyler Pitlick (upper body)

Blues projected lineup

Jaden Schwartz -- Ryan O'Reilly -- Vladimir Tarasenko
Robby Fabbri -- Tyler Bozak -- Pat Maroon
Zach Sanford -- Oskar Sundqvist -- Alexander Steen
Mackenzie MacEachern
-- Ivan Barbashev -- Robert Thomas
Joel Edmundson -- Alex Pietrangelo
Jay Bouwmeester -- Colton Parayko
Vince Dunn -- Robert Bortuzzo
Jordan Binnington
Jake Allen
Scratched:Michael Del Zotto, Sammy Blais
Injured:David Perron (upper body), Brayden Schenn (upper body), Carl Gunnarsson (upper body)

Status report

Benn will replace Gurianov, who was reassigned to Texas of the American Hockey League. ... Cogliano will miss his second straight game. ... The Blues did not hold a morning skate. ... Blais was recalled from San Antonio of the American Hockey League under emergency conditions on Saturday.

Stat pack

Dallas is 2-1-0 on its four-game road trip. ... Radulov has five points (two goals, three assists) in a four-game point streak. ... Steen needs two points for 600 in the NHL, and Schwartz needs one point for 300.