Dallas, TX (My Sportsbook) - The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim try to start a season with consecutive wins for the first time in franchise history tonight when they visit the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center.

Anaheim, which was 1-8 all-time in season openers heading into this year, posted a 4-3 victory in St. Louis Thursday night. The newly assembled line of sophomore Andy McDonald and rookies Stanislav Chistov and Alexei Smirnov combined for three goals and six assists, with McDonald leading the way with a career-high four points.

Mike Leclerc also scored for the Ducks, giving them a 4-2 lead on the power- play with 2:55 left in the game, while goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere turned aside 24 shots.

The performance of the youngsters was welcomed, but somewhat surprising considering the preseason hype surrounding Anaheim revolved around new acquisitions Adam Oates and Petr Sykora, who were brought in to help out captain Paul Kariya. The trio was held scoreless on the night.

Anaheim finishes up its early road trip tonight and heads home for a four-game set. The Ducks face Detroit on Sunday and also welcome Los Angeles, Vancouver and Colorado to town before heading back to the road.

Dallas, meanwhile, skated to a 1-1 road tie with Colorado on Wednesday night, but suffered a damaging roster loss. Center Jason Arnott, acquired from New Jersey last March, sustained a sprained left ankle in the first period and is expected to miss between 10-14 days.

As far as the game went, rookie Niko Kapanen scored his first NHL goal 4:20 into the match, and Bill Guerin picked up his first point as a Star with an assist on the tally. Goaltender Marty Turco, meanwhile, made 40 saves on the night, allowing only a Radim Vrbata score 7:18 into the third. Turco, of course, has immense pressure on him as he is now running the show in net in place of Ed Belfour, who left for Toronto over the summer.

One development after the game was Dallas' Mike Modano's criticism of the officiating, as he wondered why no calls were made on two occasions when he was hauled down to the ice. The NHL has said strict enforcement of neutral zone obstruction would be a priority this season.

"The calls were limited as the game went along, I thought," said Modano, who was specifically unhappy with the third period. "I was hauled down a couple times. It was a good game to have on national TV for [Director of Officiating Andy] Van Hellemond to see. That's what they talked about all summer. They want to set a precedent, and you have a finish like that."

Tonight's home opener, the 10th for the Stars since moving to Dallas, comes after the club went 18-13-6-4 at home in 2001-02.

Anaheim went 3-1-1 against Dallas last season, but the Stars are 7-3-1 in the last 11 meetings overall. The Ducks are 3-16-1 in their last 20 trips to Big D.