Dallas Stars (36-28-10) at Edmonton Oilers (21-40-13), 9:30 p.m. (ET)
(SportsNetwork.com) - The Dallas Stars will look to extend their faint playoff hopes with a season-high fifth straight victory on Friday evening when they visit the Edmonton Oilers.
The Stars have put together a 9-2-0 run and sit eight points behind the Winnipeg Jets for the second wild card spot with eight games to play. They do have a game in hand over the idle Jets.
Dallas won the opener of a three-game winning streak on Wednesday, topping the Calgary Flames 4-3 in a shootout. Ales Hemsky scored twice in regulation and Tyler Seguin notched the lone tally of the shootout.
Jamie Benn also scored for the Stars and Kari Lehtonen posted 31 saves.
"I didn't necessarily like our execution," Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. "There was a lot of speed in the game, a lot of skill."
Lehtonen is 7-1-0 with a 1.86 goals against average and .929 save percentage over his last eight games and picked up his ninth straight road win on Wednesday. He has not lost as the visiting goaltender since Jan. 27 in Montreal.
In 17 meetings with the Oilers, Lehtonen is 12-3-1 with a 2.23 GAA and .927 save percentage.
Dallas will wrap its road trip on Saturday in Vancouver, but first will try to record a seventh victory in a row in Edmonton. The Stars picked up a 6-5 shootout victory on Dec. 21 in their lone previous trip to Rexall Place this season.
The Stars have won three in a row and 15 of their past 18 versus the Oilers overall.
Edmonton is set to wrap a six-game homestand tonight and is 3-2-0 on the residency after topping the Colorado Avalanche 4-3 on Wednesday night.
The Oilers didn't make it easy on themselves as they squandered a 3-0 first- period lead before Derek Roy bailed out his club by scoring the deciding goal with 9:18 left to play.
Defenseman Martin Marincin, Jordan Eberle and Taylor Hall accounted for Edmonton's early goals, while Ben Scrivens stood tall with 41 saves. Benoit Pouliot and Anton Lander had two assists each.
"Starting the game like that, we knew they were going to have a push in the second period. (Colorado is) a desperate hockey team," Roy said. "We didn't come out in the second like we wanted to. They had a few scoring chances, a couple of (hit) posts and we made good on our chances on the power play. Credit to Scrivens, he made some big saves down the stretch."
The Oilers sit 28th out of 30 teams in the NHL with 55 points, one ahead of the Arizona Coyotes. Buffalo is last with 48 points.
Marincin's goal was the first of his career, while forward Andrew Miller recorded his first NHL points with a pair of assists.
Eberle, meanwhile, recorded his sixth goal in nine games, while Hall posted his first tally since Jan. 9. He was skating in his third game since missing almost two months with an ankle injury.
Scrivens is 0-1-1 with a 3.87 GAA and .869 save percentage in two meetings with the Stars.