ANA vs DAL

DALLAS - Both the Stars and Ducks will try to integrate important scoring forwards into Game 4 Thursday night, and either could have a significant influence on the game.

The Ducks will bring in Corey Perry, their leading goal-scorer during the regular season with 29 goals, and they will play him on a top line with Ryan Getzlaf and Brad May. That should allow Anaheim to ice four lines with depth - any of which could come up with a big goal.

The Ducks were running out:

May-Getzlaf-Perry
Kunitz-Carter-Selanne
Pahlsson-Marchant-Moen
Sutherby-Weight-Bertuzzi

Perry, who has been out six weeks with a lacerated tendon in his leg, was coy about his return, and Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said that "if'' Perry returned, they would be very cautious with him and not overuse him. Still,
if this series goes six or seven games, the earlier that Perry gets in, the better it will be in the long run.

For Dallas, Antti Miettinen appears ready to return to the lineup.

Miettinen, who has been a healthy scratch for the first three games of the series, set career highs in goals (15) and points (34) and really could give Dallas some jump. He's a talented winger with a lot of "good'' skills, and he had chemistry on a line with Niklas Hagman and Jussi Jokinen earlier in the season.

Jokinen has been traded, but Toby Petersen is a solid play-making centre who will probably play between Hagman (27 goals) and Miettinen. That would automatically give the Stars' fourth line the ability to score, and would probably lead coach Dave Tippett to hand out more minutes to the fourth line in Game 4.

Miettinen has something to prove

The reason for Miettinen's absence is he is not great in any one area of the game. At 6-0, 190, he is not a big hitter. And with 91 career points in 238 games, he is not a big scorer.

The Stars were hoping to get more physicality out of Crombeen, but have changed their mind about how they are attacking.

Miettinen, 27, has three points in nine playoff games, and was a healthy scratch for the last three games of Dallas' first round playoff exit with Vancouver last season, so he has something to prove.

The Stars will probably skate out:

Morrow-Ribeiro-Lehtinen
Lundqvist-Richards-Eriksson
Ott-Modano-Barnes
Hagman-Petersen-Miettinen

Anaheim focused the defence pair of Scott Niedermayer-Chris Pronger on the Ribeiro line in Game 3 and will probably try to do more of the same in Game 4. The Stars can either try to keep Ribeiro away by making the last
change ... or they could just roll lines and see if they can out-depth the Ducks.

If the game does go overtime, Dallas is 2-8 in OT with Marty Turco in goal, while the Ducks are 12-1 in OT with Jean-Sebastien Giguere in net.