Shooting Stars: 3 Keys to Game 4

The St. Louis Blues look to remain undefeated in road games this postseason, while the Dallas Stars need to bounce back from a tough Game 3 loss. The third period of the third game of the series was a crazy one with four goals scored in just over five minutes of game action. The game winning goal scored by Patrick Maroon came with under two minutes left in regulation.

The fourth game of the series will be played in Dallas on Wednesday night. The puck is set to drop at 9:30 p.m. eastern time, and can be viewed on NBCSN. Here are three things to expect from the Stars to bounce back and grab a win on home ice.

1) Production from Big Three

The trio of Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and Alexander Radulov have been held to three goals in the first three games of this series. They have looked like they’ve been struggling at times during the series, so it may be a good idea to break the line up and establish some depth throughout the lineup. If Head Coach Jim Montgomery decides to break up the trio then it would make it a bit harder for the St. Louis Blues to get the matchup that they want against that specific line. If the Stars want to win this series then they are going to have to find a way to get some production from its big three and breaking them up could be the start to getting them going.

2) Fast Start/Strong Finish

The team that has scored the first goal has won every game so far in this series. The Stars want to come out and feed off the energy from the home crowd. The team will want to make sure that they get the first goal of the game and play a solid 60-minute game. The Stars were under two minutes away from forcing overtime on Monday night, but instead gave up the game winning goal and a 2-1 series lead to the Blues. The team may want to shore up its late game defense if they want to have a shot at winning this series.

3) Ben Bishop

The Stars’ goalie has let up some soft goals in the series so far. He will want to shore up his play and make sure that he is in position to make the save. The Blues seem to have found a spot to score on Bishop. When he goes down into the butterfly to make a save, he is leaving a little bit of room between his body and where his arm is on his blocker side. The last two goals of the game for the Blues went through that hole on his blocker side. Bishop need to keep his arm closer to his body when going down into the butterfly.

If the Stars can manage to get some production from the big three and get solid goaltending from Bishop then they should be able to even the series at two games a piece.