Chicago claims Game 2 in double OT, 4-3

For the most part, I stared at the gamesheet during the first period, due to the technical difficulties with the feed in Chicago. It appears as though the Wolves scored on a Spencer Mahachek tip of an Arturs Kulda shot. The big talk during the period was a hit by Garrett Stafford on Kevin Doell, apparently an elbow that went unpenalized. Again, I haven't seen the hit, so I don't know what to say on this one. Chicago and their fans were not happy about the call and booed Stafford whenever he touched the puck. Doell returned to the ice in the second period.

The Wolves widened their lead in the second period. Immediately off a faceoff, Ivan Vishnevskiy slapped a hard shot on net that was tipped in front by Jason Krog. Krog's stick took a little something off the shot and tricked and beat Krahn for the 2-0 Wolves lead. Chicago controlled play for the first half of the second period, outshooting Texas 11-5 and playing most of the 10 minutes in the Stars' end. Texas finally got a bit of momentum when they went on the power play. There were a few good chances on the power play, but the main item of interest was Chris Chelios's whack to the back of Francis Wathier's leg after the whistle on a play. The play went uncalled but play-by-play guy Josh Fisher described it as a "baseball swing" to the leg. We will see if Chelios gets any sort of suspension for the play that was clear on the video replay board.

Needing a goal badly to at least gain some momentum in the game, Texas took their shot. Greg Rallo and Andrew Hutchinson had a but of a give and go. Rallo's shot was collected by Aaron Gagnon and backhanded top shelf (where momma hides the cookies). The Stars had cut the lead in half, but Texas was still down going into the third period though. The Stars only had one win in the regular season when trailing after 2 periods.

Trevor Ludwig's penalty to end the second continued into the third. The Wolves took advantage. Brent Krahn bit hard on an attempt on the left side and lost his footing. He couldn't come back across the net as Tim Stapleton wrapped around the net and dished to Anthony Stewart whose shot went clearly into the yawning net.

Texas wasn't done yet though as with 8:03 left in the game, Landon Wilson had a nice feed to Andrew Hutchinson, who crept down from the point on the right side and potted his 3rd of the playoffs. Texas was only down one, 3-2, with 8 minutes left.

Texas got a power play on a Nathan Oystrick holding call with 5:14 left. There were a few great chances, including another great shot for Andrew Hutchinson, who missed an open net wide.

The Texas Stars pulled Brent Krahn with 80 seconds remaining in the game. Texas crashed the net hardcore and it was incredibly hard to tell who actually knocked it in. Peters, Wathier, Benn, and Morin were all crashing the net on the play. The goal was given to Peters in the building with an assist from Wathier. Texas closed out the period and took it to overtime for the second game in a row. Texas outshot Chicago 10-4 in the third period for a 29-27 overall shot count advantage through regulation.

Texas got a scare early at 25 seconds into the overtime as Chicago got one past Brent Krahn on a kick. Kyle Rehman immediately waved off the goal, and Chicago coach Lever went crazy on him. The Texas Stars had a great chance 13 minutes into the period when McCulloch had a breakaway that was ruined by a tough catch of the puck that bounced off a stray glove on the ice in the neutral zone. Benn had one ping off the pipe just seconds later on the same rush. No one scored, and we went to a second overtime.

Chicago put it away in the second overtime on a similar cram play. Final score of 4-3. Texas now takes the series back to their barn with a 1-1 tie.

Tonight's lines:
Benn-Gagnon-Rallo
Wathier-Peters-Sawada
Morin-Lindgren-Beaudoin
Wilson-Sceviour-McCulloch

Fortunus-Hutchinson
Tr. Ludwig-Stafford
Stephenson-Jancevski

Krahn

Injuries, scratches, and notes:
Korostin, Shelast, Ty. Ludwig, Graham, Chupp, Gazdic (scratched)

Perttu Lindgren disappeared at some point during the second overtime.

Tonight's attendance was 3,732.

AHL Gamesheet - Texas at Chicago - May 2 2010

Comments

  1. Where are they coming up with those attendance numbers? They'd be lucky if they had 1500 in either game.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That attendance sounds pretty accurate for the size crowd they had. Note that unlike some arenas (Milwaukee), Chicago sells upper bowl tickets for every game, so there was a larger amount of people than what you could see from TV.

    But playoff games are usually of poor attendance until the later rounds due to a large number of the regular season attendance being composed of corporations who do not renew for the playoffs due to the unknown dates of the games. (How's that for a run-on sentence)

    And Stafford's hit on Doell was just plain ugly. As textbook as "elbow to the head" can be.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It looked to me like they were counting all sold tickets and not actual attendance, but obviously I could only see what the camera showed. In the two games we've had in Austin so far, the attendance was clearly close to the number advertised.

    I was actually disappointed at our turnout for the first game, but after seeing the crowds in Rockford and Chicago I think we are doing quite well.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tommy, I was there on Sunday. You are accurate in your count I think. The upper bowl maybe had 200 people in it. MAYBE. My section in the lower level had less than 20 people. Each row seats more than that. It was a ghost town. Stafford clearly got away with the elbow but such is life. The fans around me definitely weren't willing to let that or anything else missed by the ref go. Especially the kicked goal.

    ReplyDelete
  5. HDH have you seen Stafford's hit by now? I assume you have. From a Stars point of view there's just no defending it; it's nasty. Whether it will warrant a suspension I don't know but it's an ugly elbow, high up. What's worse is that Stafford could have shoulder-checked him clean. Also, the ref is RIGHT THERE. How he missed it ...

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for commenting. Remember to keep it civil. Using a name will help us identify replies and build a Texas Stars community.