Penguins at Stars preview

PENGUINS (30-22-3) at STARS (32-19-4)
8:30 p.m. ET; SN1, FS-SW, ATTSN-PT, NHL.TV

Goaltender Kari Lehtonen will look to win his fifth start in a row for the Stars, who lead the Minnesota Wild by four points for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. Dallas is 14-5-1 in its past 20 games.
Goaltender Matt Murray will start for the Penguins, who look for their sixth win in seven games. Pittsburgh, 5-1-0 in its past six games and 10-3-0 in its past 13, holds a one-point lead over the New Jersey Devils for second place in the Metropolitan Division.

Players to watch

Penguins center Evgeni Malkin has scored at least one goal in five straight games, and has 13 points (nine goals, four assists) in that stretch.
Stars center Tyler Seguin has seven points (five goals, two assists) in a four-game point streak.

They said it

"I think it's such a great opportunity for our players to spend some time with their dad. We let them sit in on our video meeting this morning, I'm sure they got a kick out of that. … I think it's our way of saying thank you to the dads." -- Penguins coach Mike Sullivan on the Penguins dads trip to Dallas and St. Louis
"It shows to our identity; we can't have it every night, but those are the nights we've really got to dig in and try and gut one out, and we got a couple bounces there, so it's a good win." -- Stars defenseman Stephen Johns on Dallas' 4-2 win at the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday

Penguins projected lineup

Jake Guentzel -- Sidney Crosby -- Bryan Rust
Carl Hagelin -- Evgeni Malkin -- Phil Kessel
Zachary Aston-Reese -- Riley Sheahan -- Conor Sheary
Dominik Simon -- Theodor Blueger -- Ryan Reaves
Brian Dumoulin -- Kris Letang
Olli Maatta -- Justin Schultz
Ian Cole -- Jamie Oleksiak
Matt Murray
Tristan Jarry
Scratched: Chad Ruhwedel, Matt Hunwick
Injured: Patric Hornqvist (lower body), Tom Kuhnhackl (lower body), Carter Rowney (lower body)

Stars projected lineup

Jamie Benn -- Tyler Seguin -- Alexander Radulov
Mattias Janmark -- Jason Spezza -- Devin Shore
Antoine Roussel -- Radek Faksa -- Tyler Pitlick
Gemel Smith -- Martin Hanzal -- Jason Dickinson
Esa Lindell -- John Klingberg
Dan Hamhuis -- Greg Pateryn
Dillon Heatherington -- Stephen Johns
Kari Lehtonen
Ben Bishop
Scratched:Brett Ritchie, Remi Elie
Injured: Marc Methot (knee), Julius Honka (upper body)

Status report

Sheary is expected to return to the lineup after missing three games with a lower-body injury ... Kuhnhackl is week to week, and Rowney is day to day.

Stat pack

Crosby has no goals in his past nine games and needs one for 400 in the NHL. … Kessel has 11 points (three goals, eight assists) in a six-game point streak. … Radulov has four points (one goal, three assists) in a four-game point streak.