Lehtonen expected to play against Minnesota Saturday

Kari Lehtonen has been battling some illness, but that wasn't the reason he didn't play Thursday against Washington, coach Marc Crawford said. The decision to play Andrew Raycroft had already been made.

Still, the timing of Lehtonen's illness seems perfect, as Lehtonen said he feels much better today and he is ready to play Saturday against Minnesota. Crawford said the plan is to stay on the schedule of playing Lehtonen in eight of every 10 games, which means he is scheduled to play Saturday.

Krys Barch (foot) and Toby Petersen (hand) have some nagging injuries, so the Stars expect to call up a forward from the Texas Stars this afternoon just to cover themselves. Brian Sutherby (a healthy scratch against Washington) will almost surely go into the lineup Saturday, and then they will test both Barch and Petersen in the morning to see if either is ready.

The Stars had an upbeat practice and look like they're having a lot of fun in this five-game winning streak. They have confidence and they seem to have a lot of jump right now.

By the way, the longest winning streak is a very doable seven games (in 1979-80, 1996-97, 1997-98 and 2007-08). Because there were ties in the past before the shootout, games would end in ties and that would break the winning streak. The Stars' longest unbeaten streak, for instance, is 15 games in 1998-99.

Just a fun fact to know that the record winning streak isn't that long.