Dallas @ Minnesota preview

Last Meeting ( Oct 19, 2018 ) Minnesota 3, Dallas 1

The Dallas Stars and Minnesota Stars are each laboring heading into the Christmas break and a lack of offensive production is the main culprit for both teams. Dallas has dropped five of six games overall and four straight on the road entering Saturday night's matchup at Minnesota, which will be attempting to avoid a season-high fourth consecutive defeat.

The Stars were unable to build on their shutout win over Calgary, playing what coach Jim Montgomery termed "pond hockey" in a 5-2 home loss to Chicago on Thursday. "There's no excuse," Montgomery said after watching his team fall into an early three-goal deficit. "It's a tough league. We've got to go to Minnesota and we've got to be a lot better than we were tonight." After erupting for 12 goals in lopsided wins over Montreal and Florida, the Wild have scored just twice during their three-game slide. “You got to keep shooting and you get a couple of greasy ones and the confidence slowly builds," Minnesota forward Eric Staal said. "It’s pretty simple. It’s not anything that no one knows.”

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

ABOUT THE STARS (17-15-3): Defenseman John Klingberg admitted his "timing was a little bit off" after he returned to the lineup following an 18-game absence due to hand surgery. Klingberg, who finished second among defensemen with a career-best 67 points last season, wound up a minus-3 but played a team-high 24:30 Wednesday night. "Really good in the offensive zone, a little rusty on rush defense," Montgomery said. "As the game went on, I thought he ... tried to make perfect plays, which stalled our transition. It was good to have him back. We were more dynamic offensively with him in the lineup."

ABOUT THE WILD (17-15-2): Already struggling to produce offense, Minnesota received a jarring setback when it was revealed Friday that defenseman Matt Dumba will undergo surgery that is expected to sidelined him for a "significant time." Dumba, who missed the past two games with an upper-body injury, entered Friday as the NHL's top goal-scoring defenseman with 12. "I've talked to three different doctors and yes, they're giving me a general timeline for it, but I don't want to say anything that just comes back and haunts us," general manager Paul Fenton said. "It really hurts, there's no question."

OVERTIME

1. Stars G Ben Bishop is 2-4-0 with a 1.97 goals-against average versus Minnesota.

2. Wild F Zach Parise has 15 goals and 31 points in 30 games against Dallas.

3. Stars C Jason Spezza is expected to return to the lineup Saturday while Martin Hanzal (back) will sit out.

PREDICTION: Wild 4, Stars 3