The Dallas Stars can close in on the Central Division title when they host the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday.
The Stars (49-20-9, 107 points) have begun to pull away atop the division, holding a five-point edge over the second-place Colorado Avalanche and seven on the third-place Winnipeg Jets.
Dallas widened the gap Sunday with a 7-4 road win against Colorado. The Stars and Avalanche each have four games remaining while the Jets have five.
“It’s completely in our hands, which is nice,” Stars forward Matt Duchene said. “If we take care of business, we’ll end up being where we want to be.”
The Stars also lead the way atop the Western Conference, sitting five points ahead of the Vancouver Canucks entering Monday, and are in the mix for the Presidents’ Trophy, awarded to the No. 1 team in the NHL overall. They’re three points behind the league-leading New York Rangers.
Dallas has gotten there thanks to a torrid run over the past 5 1/2 weeks, going 14-3-0 since Feb. 29. They’ve enjoyed two lengthy winning streaks over that stretch, with a five-game run from Feb. 29 through March 9 and rattling off eight straight — all in regulation — from March 16 through April 3.
Jamie Benn has been leading the offense during their current run, with 25 points (12 goals, 13 assists) in those 17 games. His 12 goals are tied with Wyatt Johnston for most by a Stars player during that stretch and includes a team-best three game-winning goals.
The Dallas captain enters Tuesday’s tilt on a three-game point streak, including tallies in three straight. He has been held off the scoresheet only twice during the Stars’ current run.
“He’s been unbelievable as of late,” Duchene said. “He was pretty snake-bitten for probably two-thirds, three-quarters of the year, and I think he’s got like eight or nine goals in his last eight or nine games.”
The Sabres (37-36-5, 79 points) arrive in Dallas on the heels of a 3-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday. Buffalo had a chance to pull within two points of an Eastern Conference wild-card spot but instead finds itself five points out with four games remaining and five teams to jump.
It’s the second time in three weeks that the Sabres were in Detroit with a chance to tighten the playoff race only to lose the game.
“It sucks,” forward Alex Tuch said. “Plain and simple, it just sucks. There’s no sugarcoating it.”
The Sabres have struggled to string wins together all season long. They won two straight only once from October through the end of December.
That finally changed when the calendar flipped to 2024. Buffalo has won consecutive games seven times from Jan. 1 on, including a pair of three-game winning streaks. But they haven’t won more than three straight.
“We’ve had multiple chances,” Tuch said. “If you can’t win more than three in a row, you’re probably not going to be in the playoffs. It’s tough. We’re going to keep pushing. Never know what will happen. Seen crazier things. So we’re going to keep pushing. … We’re going to focus on everything in our control and in this locker room and move on.”
After a rough go for much of the season largely due to a hand/wrist injury, Tage Thompson has been on a roll since early March. The center scored his team-leading 29th of the season against Detroit, putting him on the cusp of his third straight 30-goal campaign. Thompson has 20 points (11 goals, nine assists) in his past 14 games, including six multi-point efforts in that span.
