Stars enter final game of regular season with eyes on Western Conference's top seed
DALLAS - The Dallas Stars play their final regular season game of the year tonight.
Game number 82 is on home ice against the St. Louis Blues and the Western Conference's No. 1 seed is on the line.
Dallas clinches the top spot in the West and home ice advantage through the first three rounds of the playoffs with a win or overtime loss against St. Louis on Wednesday.
The Stars will open the playoffs at home, likely Sunday or Monday, against an opponent who is still to be determined.
Dallas will have a scoring threat back in the lineup for the first time in two months. Evgenii Dadonov went out Feb. 10 with a lower body injury. He will be back on the ice on Wednesday. Dadonov has tallied 12 goals and 11 assists in 50 games this year.
The Stars made the Western Conference Finals last year before losing in 6 games to Vegas.
They hope to go all the way this postseason and hope to set a tone for the playoffs by finishing the regular season on a high note tonight.
"It's a big game. I think it's a little human nature to look past this game, but we can't do that. There is still so much to play for and home ice is a big thing," said Stars center Matt Duchene.
"We talked to the group this morning about earning the conference regular season title. I don't expect that team to hand it to us. That's a dangerous team. I don't think we want it handed to us, I think we want to go out and earn it tonight," said Stars head coach Pete DeBoer.
The puck will drop at 8:30 p.m.
