Stars End Homestand with 5-2 Loss
Apr 3, 2021
CEDAR PARK, Texas – The Texas Stars, American Hockey League affiliate of the NHL’s Dallas Stars, wrapped up their stretch of four games in five days against Iowa and were dealt their third straight loss, falling 5-2 at H-E-B Center at Cedar Park tonight. It is the first time that the Stars have dropped three straight games in regulation since Dec. of 2019.
Wild opened the scoring for the fourth straight game as Will Bitten notched his first goal of the season. The winger got free at the right side of the net as a shot came sailing toward the crease. The attempt was deflected off a body and came right to Bitten’s stick to slam the puck past Tomas Sholl’s outstretched left leg. The goal at 10:32 kicked off a stretch of three goals in less than a minute.
Iowa extended the lead to 2-0 23 seconds later. A battle below the Stars goal line was won by Mitchell Chaffe before kicking the puck out to Connor Dewar in the right circle. His quick pass across the crease found Damien Giroux wide open and the forward slammed the puck into a wide open net for his fifth goal of the year.
Texas’ Adam Mascherin didn’t skip a beat, scoring his 12th goal of the year 28 seconds later. Ben Gleason fired a shot from the middle of the blue line before it hit Nick Baptiste and rebounded right to the third-year winger. While falling to the ice, he lifted the puck past Hunter Jones blocker and narrowed the score to 2-1. His goal pushed him to the team lead with 24 points (12-12=24) and 12 goals, which both rank second in the AHL this year.
A 25 shot second period from Iowa shocked the Stars as the Wild rallied for three goals in the middle period. Mitch McLain began the avalanche with his third goal of the season at 3:19. A shot from Bitten redirected off McLain’s body as he traveled to the net. Bryce Misley then added his first pro goal exactly six minutes later. The rookie battled at the right side of the crease for a loose puck with Jarrett Burton and Cody McLeod before lifting it past a prone Sholl. Burton finished off the period with a shot from the left circle on a 2-on-1 in the final three minutes of the period for his third goal of the year.
The Stars came out attempting to win the third period and bring more positives out of the game. The team scored once and out shot the Wild 11-7 in the final period. Julius Honka net his first goal of the year with five minutes left in the game as the defenseman walked in from the left circle to first the puck past the glove of Jones in the crease.
Sholl saw a season high 45 shots against his crease and tied a career high with 40 saves in the game. At the opposite end, Jones won his third straight game against Texas with 21 saves and 93 stops on 96 shots on the week. The team’s power play woes continued as well tonight as the team finished 0-for-4 on the man advantage but also stopped Iowa’s three chances.
Texas will hit the road eight games away from home beginning with four straight games against the Colorado Eagles in six days. The series begins on Tuesday, Apr. 6 at 8:05 p.m. CT.
Photo Credit: Mollie Kendall
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| Game Info |
Shots |
Goaltenders |
3 Stars (Xerox Business Solutions Southwest) |
| Boxscore |
TEX: 23 |
W: Hunter Jones (IA) |
1: Will Bitten (IA) |
| Photo |
IA: 45 |
L: Tomas Sholl (TEX) |
2: Damien Giroux (IA) |
| Video |
|
|
3: Jarrett Burton (IA) |