St. Louis @ Dallas preview

Last Meeting ( Apr 27, 2019 ) Dallas 4, St. Louis 2

Dallas Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen said he is just fine with being excluded from the Calder Memorial Trophy conversation, as the 19-year-old Finn has more pressing matters on his plate. Fresh off a sterling performance, Heiskanen looks to help the Stars take a 2-1 lead in their Western Conference second-round series on Monday when they play Game 3 versus the visiting St. Louis Blues.

Heiskanen scored a goal, registered a team-high four shots, logged 22:14 of ice time and recorded a plus-3 rating in a 4-2 win on Saturday, the same day that the NHL announced that Vancouver forward Elias Pettersson, Buffalo defenseman Rasmus Dahlin and St. Louis goaltender Jordan Binnington were named as finalists for the first-year award. "I don't care. Those guys are good players also. I'm having fun here in the playoffs, so it's fine," Heiskanen told reporters. Binnington had been having fun prior to Saturday's setback, as he yielded three goals on 34 shots after turning aside 74 of 80 attempts during his three-game winning streak. "It's not going to be easy. These teams are here for a reason. Both are good and both can play. We're going on the road tied 1-1," said the 25-year-old Binnington, who sported a 24-5-1 mark to lift the Blues from the league basement to a third-place finish in the Central Division.

TV: 8 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network, Sportsnet, TVA

ABOUT THE BLUES: Colton Parayko is remaining positive despite seeing St. Louis relinquish home-ice advantage and the series reduced to a best-of-5 after Saturday's setback. "They play tight like us. ... We're looking forward to going down there. We're a good road team," said the 25-year-old, who scored the Blues' first postseason goal by a defenseman and picked up an assist on Jaden Schwartz's team-leading fifth tally of the playoffs. Ryan O'Reilly notched an assist on Saturday, boosting his point total to 13 (four goals, nine assists) in his last 16 games.

ABOUT THE STARS: Heiskanen isn't the only first-year player making noise for Dallas, as Roope Hintz collected two goals and an assist on Saturday to give him an NHL rookie-best seven points (four goals, three assists) in the playoffs entering Sunday. Linemates Mats Zuccarello and Jason Dickinson each had two assists to complete a seven-point performance for a second line that is rapidly gaining confidence. "Yeah, I think we have to keep going like that, get pucks deep in the beginning and just keep skating like we do. That's the biggest thing for us," said the 22-year-old Hintz, who excelled while playing with Dickinson last year to help Texas advance to the Calder Cup final in the American Hockey League.

OVERTIME

1. St. Louis RW Vladimir Tarasenko, who tallied twice in Game 1, scored all three of his goals in the season series versus the Stars in Dallas.

2. The Stars have thwarted 21 of 22 of their opponents' power-play opportunities in the playoffs.

3. Blues captain D Alex Pietrangelo's seven assists account for all of his team-leading point total.

PREDICTION: Blues 3, Stars 2