Late Ontario Goal Spoils Stars’ Comeback

Oct 23, 2026

CEDAR PARK, Texas— The Texas Stars, American Hockey League affiliate of the NHL’s Dallas Stars, came back from a 3-1 deficit, but suffered a 5-3 defeat to the Ontario Reign, who broke the deadlock in the final five minutes of the third period Friday at the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park.

Texas tallied the first goal for the sixth time in seven games this season just 1:07 into the first period. Ellis Rickwood rushed down the right wing, finding Mike Sgarbossa driving down the slot and the veteran opened the scoring.

Ontario responded just before the midway point of the second period as Kenta Isogai won a battle behind the Stars net and fed Koehn Zeimmer in the slot, who tied the game.

Ontario took the lead less than two minutes after their first goal as Cole Guttman found Kirill Kirsanov at the right point, and he unloaded on a shot from the circle for his first goal of the season. The Reign’s third marker of the period came on the power play, as Aatu Jamsen fired a slap shot from the right circle which went wide, but bounced off the back boards and right to Kenny Connors, who grew Ontario’s lead to 3-1. 

Matthew Seminoff swung the momentum back to Texas’ side when he scored his first goal of the season with three minutes left in the middle frame. Aram Minnetian let go of a shot from the right point that landed at the side of the net, Seminoff picked up the rebound and powered the puck over the goal line to cut the Reign lead to 3-2. 

Sgarbossa equalized the score with just over seven minutes left in the third frame. The forward threaded a shot through traffic from the high slot on the power play for his second multi-goal game of the season.

Martin Chromiak scored the eventual game-winning goal with 4:24 remaining when he crossed into the offensive zone and ripped a shot from the top of the left circle to give the Reign the lead.

Texas pulled Arno Tiefensee for an extra attacker with three minutes to go, and Chromiak found the open cage to double the Reign lead.

Tiefensee made 22 saves in the loss, while Erik Portillo allowed three goals on 23 shots in the win.

The two teams meet again Saturday at 7:00 p.m. at the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park. Tickets are on sale now at www.texasstars.com/tickets.

The Texas Stars are the primary development affiliate of the NHL’s Dallas Stars. For more information, call (512) GO-STARS (467-8277) or visit TexasStars.com. 

Photo Credit: Andy Nietupski
 

Game Info	Shots	Goaltenders	3 Stars (Ubeo Business Services)
Boxscore	TEX: 23	W: Portillo (ONT)	1: Chromiak (ONT)
Photo	ONT: 27	L: Tiefensee (TEX)	2: Sgarbossa (TEX)
			3: Connors (ONT)