Minnesota @ Dallas preview

Last Meeting ( Sep 26, 2019 ) Minnesota 2, Dallas 1

The Minnesota Wild and Dallas Stars are both trying to claw their way back up in the standings after each club got off to an awful start to fall back in the pack in the ultra-competitive Central Division. The Stars lost eight of their first nine and the Wild dropped six of their first seven but each team has won three of four entering Tuesday night's matchup in Dallas.

The Stars were denied in their bid for a four-game winning streak, surrendering three third-period goals in Saturday's 3-0 home loss to Pittsburgh. "We've had a little stretch of some good games and then we had one bad period," Dallas captain Jamie Benn said. "We know what we have to do to fix it, and we're going to try to do that tomorrow." Minnesota is attempting to navigate a brutal schedule that features 13 of its first 18 games away from home, including six of the next seven on the road. "If after 18 (games) we can be 9-9 or better, that would be a real feather in our cap I think," coach Bruce Boudreau said after Saturday's 5-1 home rout of Los Angeles.

TV: 8:30 p.m. ET, FS North, FS Wisconsin (Minnesota), FS Southwest-Plus (Dallas)

ABOUT THE WILD (4-7-0): With Devan Dubnyk off to a rocky start, Boudreau appears to be leaning toward Alex Stalock in net Tuesday after he turned aside 30 of 31 shots versus Los Angeles, although he is 1-2-0 with nine goals allowed in his last three versus Dallas. Forward Mats Zuccarello, who signed a five-year, $30 million contract with Minnesota in the offseason after collecting 11 points in 13 playoff games with the Stars last season, returns to face his team for the first time. Zuccarello has one assist in seven games while missing four due to injury.

ABOUT THE STARS (4-8-1): Roope Hintz is the only player with more than six points for Dallas, which needs to find a way to crank up its offense after it was limited to two goals or fewer for the eighth time in nine games. Hintz, who has a team-high six goals, is the only forward on the club with more than two, as normally high-scoring forwards Tyler Seguin, Benn and Alexander Radulov have combined for four tallies and 15 points in 13 games. Netminder Ben Bishop turned aside 115 of 119 shots in winning four of five decisions against Minnesota last season.

OVERTIME

1. The Stars have won four in a row in the series, limiting Minnesota to three goals.

2. Wild F Eric Staal has three goals in his last three games and had three assists in five meetings versus the Stars last season.

3. Dallas recalled F Nick Caamano from Texas of the American Hockey League.

PREDICTION: Stars 3, Wild 2