Lehtonen, Bernier in goal tonight

The goalie match-up will be Kari Lehtonen vs. Jonathan Bernier.

The Stars still have their skeleton crew, with Matt Niskanen and Toby Petersen the only injuries and the only extra bodies.

Niskanen skated today and actually took some wrist shots. He said he was surprised the amount of power he had.

``It felt better than before I got hurt,'' he said with a little smile.

Niskanen very much wants to get back to full practice and get back to games as quickly as possible, but he knows the deep cut in his left hand has to heal before he can get into serious battle. While he might soon be able to take a slap shot, the real test will be the one-handed stick checking he will have to do. As a right-handed shot, he grips the top of the stick with his left hand (which had stitches in the palm), and he has to be able to use the stick aggressively without fear of opening up the cut again.

He will probably return to a full practice soon and he might be able to play on the road trip that starts Thursday in Edmonton and ends Tuesday in Vancouver. Stars coach Marc Crawford said that Petersen (who has a deep bruise on his leg), will also go on the trip, but that he might not play in any of the three games.

Lines for tonight will probably look something like this:

Neal-Richards-Eriksson
Morrow-Ribeiro-Langenbrunner
Ott-Benn-Burish
Sutherby-Wandell-Barch

Grossman-Robidas
Woywitka-Daley
Skrastins-Fistric

Lehtonen