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Revitalized Stars look for second straight win

Oct 16, 2008 - 10:03 AM Dallas (1-1-1) at St. Louis (2-1-0), 8:30pm EDT

ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- It took a rare performance from a rookie making his NHL debut to snap the Dallas Stars out of their early-season doldrums. With their first victory of the campaign now out of the way, the Stars look to finally get their veteran goaltender untracked as they visit the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night.

Highly touted Swedish prospect Fabian Brunnstrom, who signed a two-year deal with the Stars in May after a heated bidding war, turned heads on Wednesday night by recording three goals in his debut. Brunnstrom capped the hat trick with less than four minutes remaining in the third period as Dallas notched its first win of the season with a 6-4 triumph over the Nashville Predators.

But the Stars, who advanced to the Western Conference finals last season before bowing to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings, still have problems to work out. For one, goaltender Marty Turco has gotten off to a rough start, giving up 12 goals on 78 shots (an .846 save percentage) over the first three games of the campaign.

Even during Wednesday's victory, Turco couldn't hold a two-goal lead in the second period, surrendering a pair of goals within six minutes as the Predators leveled the contest.

The Stars also haven't gotten much production out of their power-play unit, which has converted just 2-of-18 opportunities this season.

It's been the exact opposite for their Thursday night opponent. St. Louis leads the league in power-play percentage, converting 7-of-14 (50 percent) in three games.

Veteran center Keith Tkachuk leads the team with four goals with the man-advantage, including two in the Blues' season-opening victory over the Predators. Paul Kariya and center Andy McDonald are tied for the league lead with six assists.