Dallas Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen is day-to-day after suffering a groin injury on Friday night against the Vancouver Canucks, reports Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News, and will be re-evaluated once the team returns to Dallas.
Kari Lehtonen injury: Stars’ goaltender day-to-day with groin injury
The Dallas Stars netminder injured his groin early in the game on Friday night.
Rich Lam
Lehtonen was injured 13:49 into the first period when he was handcuffed by a hard shot that knocked the stick out of hand; the goaltender appeared to tweak his groin when making a quick lunge while in the butterfly at the top of his crease. The Finnish netminder, who has been the MVP for the Stars the past two seasons, has a history of groin injuries and missed close to a month last season with a similar issue.
Dallas Stars coach Glen Gulutzan stated after the game that he did not think the injury was as bad as last season’s, although a full prognosis will wait until the evaluation on Saturday.
Richard Bachman allowed three goals in relief of Lehtonen, with the Stars also having a few options in the AHL with Cristopher Nilstorp and Jack Campbell.
“We got Cristopher Nilstorp to improve our goaltending depth in the organization, and we feel good about these two goalies,” Stars general manager Joe Nieuwendyk said. “I’m not sure what Kari’s status is, but we feel confident in our goaltending throughout the organization.”
In his third season with the Stars, Lehtonen has a .934 save percentage and 2.12 goals-against average, and was 7-2-1 on the year before leaving with the injury on Friday night.
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