One Point From 1,000: Jamie Benn's Milestone Chase Headlines Stars–Jets Thursday at the AAC

DALLAS — Jamie Benn will try again Thursday night for his 1,000th career point as the Dallas Stars host the Winnipeg Jets at American Airlines Center. The puck drops at 7 p.m. CT. All 999 of Benn's points have come with Dallas, and Mike Modano — who finished with 1,359 — is the only player in franchise history to reach four figures. Point 999 came Saturday in a 4-3 win over the San Jose Sharks, when Roope Hintz dug a puck out from below the goal line and found Benn in the slot. The captain, taken 129th overall in the fifth round of the 2007 draft, is in his 18th season. "I think Jamie's playing great hockey," Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. "Offensively, he's making plays and taking pucks down the ice."

Dallas (10-5-2) has not played since Saturday, a four-day break Gulutzan welcomed — because by Saturday night the list of Stars working through bumps and bruises had grown beyond Miro Heiskanen. Heiskanen, hurt November 3 in a 6-5 win over Washington, has an upper-body injury, has missed two games and is day-to-day; at the time he was hurt he had 3 goals and 8 assists in 15 games and was playing a team-high 24:53 a night. Rookie defenseman Trey Taylor was reassigned to the AHL's Texas Stars on Monday and Kyle Capobianco is on injured reserve, leaving Dallas with five healthy defensemen. Thomas Harley ran the point on the top power-play unit Saturday and produced a goal and 2 assists — all with the man advantage — in a 3-for-5 power-play night.

The test Thursday is special teams, in both directions. Dallas's power play ranks eighth in the NHL at 27.5% and its penalty kill is first at 89.7%, and Jake Oettinger — 9-3-1 with a 1.99 goals-against average, a .906 save percentage and 3 shutouts in 13 starts — backstops a team whose 39 goals allowed were the fewest in the league entering the week. But Winnipeg arrives with seven power-play goals across its last four games, all of them wins.

The Jets (8-8-3) have won four straight after a nine-game winless slide, beating New Jersey 4-2 on Tuesday behind two goals each from Dawson Mercer and Kyle Connor, who leads Winnipeg with 15 goals; Mark Scheifele carries a four-game point streak. Winnipeg is three points behind Dallas with two more games played, and the first meeting between the teams, on October 22, needed overtime before Dallas won 3-2. Thursday is also military and veterans appreciation night at the AAC (this station's event file is SQ-20261111-037); the game streams on Prime Video in the Stars' regional territory with the radio call on The Ticket, 96.7 FM and 1310 AM. Buffalo visits Saturday and Florida on Sunday to close the homestand.