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VANCOUVER –After playing to rave reviews in his National Hockey League debut on Thursday, Quinn Hughes gets a second taste of big league action when the Vancouver Canucks (33-35-10) host the Dallas Stars (41-31-6) tonight at Rogers Arena. Hughes had an assist, turned heads in overtime and was thwarted on his first NHL shootout attempt.

The Canucks, who were officially eliminated from playoff contention with Colorado’s win last night, defeated Los Angeles 3-2 in a four-round shootout two nights ago. Tanner Pearson was the only player on either team to score in the skills competition. In regulation time, Alex Edler scored for a second straight game and Brock Boeser cashed in for the third time in five games. Thatcher Demko made a season-high 37 saves for the victory.

Edler’s goal was the 94th of his career moving him into top spot in franchise history for goals by defensemen. He has scored five times in his past 12 games and with 10 on the season is one off his career high set in 2011-12.

Boeser’s goal gives him 26 on the season pulling him within one of Elias Pettersson and Bo Horvat for the team lead with four games remaining.
Jacob Markstrom returns to the net to make his 59th start of the season. Jake Virtanen is nursing a lower body injury and will not play tonight. He’ll be replaced in the line-up by Sven Baertschi who was a healthy scratch on Thursday.

Tonight is the Canucks’ 40th home game of the season. They are 18-16-5 in front of their home fans this season. One win in their final two home games will give the Canucks their most home ice wins in the past four seasons. They went 18-17-6 in 2016-17, last season they were 16-18-7 at home.

The Stars will clinch a playoff spot with a victory tonight. They start the day in possession of the first Wild Card spot in the West with 88 points -- just two back of St. Louis in the race for third spot in the Central Division. A win will get them to 90 points and will ensure their participation in the post-season.

Dallas has been idle since a 3-2 shootout win in Edmonton on Thursday night. The Stars rallied from a 2-0 deficit with goals from Alexander Radulov and Miro Heiskanen. Anton Khudobin made 40 saves and then turned aside four of the five Oiler shootout attempts. He’ll get the start in goal tonight.

The Stars have won three straight and are 10-4-1 in their past 15. They have also won seven straight road contests and can match the franchise record with another one tonight.

Once thought of as a team that could score goals, but not prevent them, Dallas rolls into Vancouver as the second-best defensive team in the NHL. Only the New York Islanders (187) have allowed fewer goals than the Stars (190) this season. Since Christmas, the Stars have been the stingiest team in the league allowing 88 goals in their last 41 games. At even strength, Dallas boasts the best even-strength save percentage in the NHL at 93.7%.

Offensively, Tyler Seguin leads the team with 31 goals and 75 points. Alex Radulov has 26 goals and 39 assists for 65 points while captain Jamie Benn has 27 goals and 25 assists for 52 points.

Seguin rides a six-game point streak into action tonight (4 goals and 6 assists) while Radulov has scored in back to back games and has two goals and three assists for five points on a four-game streak.

Tim Schaller scored his only two goals of the season as the Canucks beat the Stars 3-2 in a shootout in Dallas on March 17th while the Stars were 2-1 winners in Vancouver on December 1st. The Stars have won their last three visits and are 8-0-1 in their past nine road games against the Canucks. 
 
POSSIBLE CANUCKS LINE-UP 

Pearson-Horvat-Eriksson
Leivo-Pettersson-Boeser
Spooner-Gaudette-Granlund
Schaller-Beagle-Virtanen
 

Edler-Biega
Hutton-Stecher
Hughes-Schenn
 
Markstrom

POSSIBLE STARS LINE-UP

Janmark-Seguin-Radulov
Benn-Hintz-Dickinson
Cogliano-Faksa-Comeau
Nichushkin-L’Esperance-Ritchie
 
Lindell-Klingberg
Heiskanen-Polak
Fedun-Lovejoy
 
Khudobin