Dallas @ Nashville preview

Last Meeting ( Apr 24, 2019 ) Dallas 0, Nashville 0

The Nashville Predators own games in hand on every team in the Western Conference and hope to continue using them to climb back into playoff position when the Dallas Stars visit Saturday night. The Predators, who lost six straight in November, have recorded points in seven of their last nine games (5-2-2) despite suffering a 4-3 loss at Buffalo on Thursday when they coughed up a pair of leads.

“There’s definitely a turnaround from where we were. … but every time we seem to take our foot off the gas a little bit, or take a step back from holding ourselves to the standard that we have been playing at, we lose hockey games,” Nashville forward Austin Watson told NHL.com. “We’ve got to find a way to continue to stay consistent and holding ourselves to a high standard of hockey.” The teams have not met since the Stars won the first-round playoff series 4-2 last spring and the Central Division rivals will battle again Jan. 1 outdoors at the Cotton Bowl in the 2020 Winter Classic. Dallas allowed three goals during a three-game winning streak before dropping a 3-2 decision in overtime to Vegas on Friday, and trails first-place Colorado by five points in the division after starting the season 1-7-1. Stars center Tyler Seguin had an assist in the loss to push his team-leading total to 24 points, but the 27-year-old is mired in a 10-game goal-scoring drought.

TV: 6:30 p.m. ET, FS Southwest Plus (Dallas), FS Tennessee (Nashville)

ABOUT THE STARS (18-11-4): Captain Jamie Benn scored his second goal in four contests Friday after a six-game drought and right wing Alexander Radulov posted an assist for his fourth point in the past three games. John Klingberg (two goals, 10 points) missed Friday’s game to deal with a family illness, but coach Rick Bowness told reporters that he expects the talented defenseman to be available Saturday. Ben Bishop (12-7-2) made 28 saves to take the loss against Vegas, which likely makes Anton Khudobin (6-5-1, .922 save percentage) the starter in the second of a back-to-back after losing his last two outings.

ABOUT THE PREDATORS (14-11-5): Defenseman Roman Josi boasts 26 points - 11 on the power play - and a plus-11 rating to lead the team, but the captain has not added to his total of seven goals in 11 games. Forwards Calle Jarnkrok (five points, four games and Filip Forsberg (one, four, three) have picked up their production to reach 22 points while center Ryan Johansen has scored in back-to-back contests. Former Vezina winner Pekka Rinne (10-4-3, .897 SP) sat out the last two games in favor of Jusse Saros (4-1-2, .894) after allowing a total of 25 goals in his last seven appearances between the pipes.

OVERTIME

1. Dallas D Taylor Fedun, who replaced Klingberg in the lineup Friday, scored his second goal in his past four games.

2. Nashville C Kyle Turris has three points in four games since being a healthy scratch in the previous seven contests.

3. The Predators are 2-for-35 on the power play in the last nine games while the Stars are 12-for-12 on the kill in the past five.

PREDICTION: Predators 4, Stars 3