GLENDALE, Ariz. -- On the final leg of their three-game, six-day road trip, the Stars hope to cap it off with a win against the Arizona Coyotes at Gila River Arena. They've been perfect so far with wins over Colorado on Tuesday and Chicago on Friday.
The Stars have reeled off six consecutive victories on the road, tied for the longest active road winning streak in the NHL this season (Colorado also has six) and the third-longest overall during the 2021-22 campaign. This marks just the 11th time in franchise history that Dallas has recorded wins in at least six consecutive road games and the first since a stretch of seven straight victories from Feb. 28-March 28, 2019.
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Wins in four of their past five since the All-Star break and nine of 12 have put the Stars right in the mix for a playoff spot. They sit three points behind LA for the second wild card (with two games in hand) and four points behind Nashville for the first wild card (also two games in hand).
In a stretch of eight straight games against Central Division opponents, the Stars have gone 4-1 with games against Arizona (Sunday), Winnipeg (Feb. 23) and Nashville (Feb. 24) still to go.
This is the third of four meetings between the Stars and Coyotes and the final game at Gila River Arena for the foreseeable future. On Feb. 10 it was announced that the Coyotes
reached a multi-year agreement
with Arizona State University to play at the Sun Devils' new arena beginning next season. The Coyotes will play all their home games at the new facility through 2024-25 with an option for 2025-26. The arena will hold a capacity of 5,000.
The Stars are 2-0 against the Coyotes this season with wins in Glendale (3-2) on Nov. 27 and in Dallas (4-1) on Dec. 6. Dallas is riding a four-game winning streak against Arizona and has posted wins in 13 of its last 14 against the Coyotes dating to the 2015-16 season. The Stars have also won two in a row at Gila River Arena and five of their previous six (5-1-0).
The Coyotes sit at the bottom of the Western Conference standings with a 12-33-4 record. They've lost two in a row and eight of their previous 10 (2-8-0), and let a two-goal lead slip away in a 5-3 loss Saturday night against LA. The big news of the day for the club was a trade that sent forward Ryan Dzingel and defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin to Toronto in exchange for Nick Ritchie and a conditional second-round draft pick. Ritchie was selected by Anaheim in the first round (10th overall) of the 2014 NHL Draft and has played for the Ducks, Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs.
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Kyle Shohara is the Digital Manager for DallasStars.com and writes about the Stars/NHL. Follow him on Twitter @kyleshohara.
