The Phoenix Coyotes finish off their road trip in Dallas as they face the Stars for the fifth time. They have yet to beat the team in regulation however they have steadily improved their performance against them.

The last meeting on December 9th, had the Coyotes battle back with a goal in the third period to force overtime. With 4.6 seconds remaining, Jere Lehtinen scored the game winning goal on a quirky bounce that had the puck hitting goaltender Mikael Tellqvist twice and sliding off his back and shoulder into the net.

It is most likely why head coach Wayne Gretzky chose to start Tellqvist against the Stars to earn some redemption.

Brendan Morrow, Eric Lindros, and Mike Modano are still out with injuries, Sergei Zubov is day-to-day, Steve Ott will not play for another two weeks and Mike Smith is also day-to-day; however the Stars have been able to stay afloat with a 5-4-1 record in their last 10 games.

The tendencies of both clubs, percentage of wins when leading after the first and second periods, along with the percentage of wins when trailing after the first period, are pretty comparable. The stats diverge when trailing after the second period where the Coyotes have only won .124 of their games.

The specialty team stats still favor the Dallas Stars, but the Coyotes power-play has been clicking during the last eight games converting 10-for-35 power play chances (28.5%).

During the current win streak, the Coyotes have outscored their opposition 10-4 in the first period and have had only to come from behind twice to force a point or a victory.

Many people around the league gave Gretzky a double-take, and privately felt that he was out of his gourd when he stated that with the way the Coyotes have been playing, taking 10 points on the current road trip was a possibility.

The team believed him and it can make good on the promise in the American Airlines Center.

There is not a better time than now to beat the Stars.

Kevyn Adams, traded from the Carolina Hurricanes, will play in Tuesday night's game.

Original post by PB and software by Elliott Back

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