Dallas Round-Up – Mavs, Stars Shaky Down The Stretch; Rangers Have Questions

While most will be betting on March Madness over the next few weeks, the stretch run is here for the Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars, and they’ve both had an up-and-down week. Meanwhile, the Texas Rangers have a couple of big questions to answer as they progress deeper into spring training.

Dallas Mavericks

The Mavericks began their week with a shootout win over New York, followed up by a defensive struggle which ended in a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, before they headed out west for a loss in Portland and another high-scoring win at Golden State. The Mavericks move into the next week tied with the Lakers at 6.5 games behind San Antonio in the Western Conference, and they will try to dig into the Spurs’ lead when they host San Antonio on Friday night. On Sunday, the Mavericks will welcome the Warriors back to town, and then Minnesota visits on Thursday. This is a good week for the Mavericks to get back into the swing of things in the NBA.

Dallas Stars

The Stars continue to be tough to nail down for NHL betting players, as they began with a shutout win at home against Minnesota, followed by losses to Los Angeles and San Jose, both at home as well. Dallas in the midst of a seven-game homestand that was a great chance to make up some ground in the West, but they lost three of the first four heading into this week. It gets really tough now as the Stars will get visits from Chicago on Thursday, Philadelphia on Saturday and Anaheim on Wednesday, and they may have to do it without forwards Loui Eriksson and Steve Ott, who were injured with hits to the head against the Sharks.

Texas Rangers

The Rangers are still trying to figure out what to do with Neftali Feliz, who said he wanted to return to the bullpen, where he had 40 saves as the American League Rookie of the Year last season. Now, reports have surfaced that Feliz does want to move to the starting rotation, which would be a huge blow to the bullpen and specifically Feliz’s closer role. The Rangers have to be careful with how they handle this, as they can look at how New York handled Joba Chamberlain as how not to do this. The Rangers also have to figure out what to do with Chris Davis, who was drafted in 2006 by the Rangers but hasn’t been able to crack the big-league team. Davis says he thinks it would be fair if the Rangers traded him to a team where he has a chance, and Texas could be in the market for a reliever to boost their sports betting odds.

Loui Eriksson Named to NHL Three Stars

Loui Eriksson of the Dallas Stars was named the “First Star” in the NHL’s “Three Stars” this week as league recognized his scoring accomplishments for the week of December 15-21. In an up and down month for the Dallas Stars, Louis Eriksson scored six times in a week that netted the Dallas Stars two wins and an unfortunate overtime loss to Ottawa.

Eriksson started the week with two goals in an overtime win against the Phoenix Coyotes. His second goal was the overtime game winner. The Swedish born player followed the Phoenix performance by logging his first hat trick in the NHL in a win over Columbus. He finished the week with a goal against Ottawa in front of a home crowd at The American Airlines Center in Dallas, TX.

The 23 year old NHL forward came to the Dallas Stars organization as a 2nd round draft choice (33rd overall) in the 2003 NHL entry draft. He spent the majority of the 2006 and 2007 seasons with the previous AHL affiliate of the Dallas Stars, the Iowa Stars. After transitioning to the NHL, Loui Eriksson is now proving his scoring leadership as he skates along side a talented and veteran Dallas Stars forward lineup in the 2008-2009 season.

Jeff Carter of the Philadelphia Flyers and Patrik Elias of the New Jersey Devils were named to the “Second Star” and “Third Star” positions.

Loui Eriksson’s Statistics For The Past Five Games

Game		G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PP	SH	S	S%	Shifts	TOI	FO%
Dec 20 ’08	DAL @ OTT	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	2	50.0	26	19:11	0.0
Dec 18 ’08	CBJ @ DAL	3	0	3	-1	0	1	0	4	75.0	29	23:57
Dec 16 ’08	PHX @ DAL *	2	0	2	1	0	0	0	4	50.0	26	22:05
Dec 13 ’08	DAL @ NSH	0	0	0	-1	0	0	0	1	0.0	22	17:28
Dec 12 ’08	DET @ DAL	0	0	0	-1	0	0	0	2	0.0	25	20:39
* scored game winning goal

Loui Eriksson and Dallas Stars Win Over Phoenix Coyotes

The Dallas Stars were able to hold on for an overtime win on Tuesday against the Phoenix Coyotes. Loui Eriksson, who has gone six games without a goal, scored both goals for the Stars.

Dallas jumped out to a quick first period lead with a goal coming in the third minute from Loui Eriksson. The game remained scoreless until Phoenix Coyotes wing Todd Fedoruk netted the equalizer at 10:51 in the third period, off a Peter Mueller rebound. With no one scoring the go ahead the game went to overtime.

3:39 into overtime, Loui Eriksson took a pass from Mike Ribeiro and put the rebound of his first shot past Phoenix Coyotes goalie Ilja Bryzgalov, who had 28 saves on the night.

Marty Turco, who made a season high 37 saves on Friday against Detroit, had 22 saves against Phoenix.

Tuesday’s game was the first the Dallas Stars played after announcing on Monday that controversial forward Sean Avery would no longer be a part of the team. Sean Avery had been banned for six games after off-color remarks regarding an ex-girlfriend, Elisha Cuthbert. Tuesday’s against Phoenix would have been his first game back with the Dallas Stars.

In addition to the loss of Sean Avery, the Dallas Stars have been ravaged by injuries this season and were without Jere Lehtinen, Steve Ott, Stephan Robidas, Joel Lundgvist, Sergei Zhubov, and captain Brendan Morrow.

The Stars face the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday.