The Carolina Hurricanes will stay in their home barn tonight as they look to host the Dallas Stars in this cross-conference matchup. The Hurricanes head into this game after beating the Lightning on Tuesday, snapping a four-game losing streak. The Stars have produced a lot of offense lately as they are fighting for their playoff lives at the moment, as they would be in the final wild-card position had the regular season ended today. It’s time to continue our NHL odds series with a Stars-Hurricanes prediction and pick.
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Here are the Stars-Hurricanes NHL Odds, Courtesy of FanDuel
NHL Odds: Stars-Hurricanes Odds
Dallas Stars: +1.5 (-158) (+176 ML)
Carolina Hurricanes: -1.5 (+128) (-215 ML)
Over: 6 (-106)
Under: 6 (-114)
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Why The Stars Can Cover The Spread/Win
If the season were to end today, the Dallas Stars would have found themselves in the last wild-card spot, fighting for that glorious Stanley Cup. The Stars' offense has greatly improved to now 3.30 goals per game average. Their top line might have problems against Carolina's shutdown defense, but they'll continue to look forward to the playoffs. Most of the Stars' playoff push up to this point can be credited to goaltender Jake Oettinger, who has a .917 save percentage on the year while allowing 2.49 goals against per game. He'll look to shut the door on a fearless Hurricanes team who's looking to solidify their spot as the top team in their division.
Why The Hurricanes Can Cover The Spread/Win
The Carolina Hurricanes are still one of the league's best teams, even if they're not killing teams each and every game. They haven't scored more than three goals in any game during the month of March, and have been playing very close, defensive battles. With that said, the Canes have a good offense, but an even better defense, starting with goaltender Frederik Andersen. He'll look to start between the pipes tonight for the Canes as he's sporting a .928 save percentage while allowing 2.06 goals against per game. He'll look to shut down a hot Stars team tonight and secure a couple more points for the Hurricanes.
Final Stars-Hurricanes Prediction & Pick
Both of these teams tend to play low-scoring, keep it close, kind of games. On the season, the Stars are 29-33 (46%) when it comes to going over the total goals in a game while the Hurricanes are 27-33-3 (45%) on the season. The NHL combined totals have started to regress as we win down the second half of the season. Refs are starting to let players get away with a little more mischief on defense as they have slowly entered into the unwritten “let them play” standards that are to come in playoffs. With that said, I like the under in this game. Typically I hate betting the under for total goals, but with a straight-up number like this and no half point, I'm a little more intrigued. Let's take it now while it is still a full number and the value is worth a bet.
Final Stars-Hurricanes Prediction and Pick: Under 6 (-114)