Gameday Preview: Stars at Syracuse Crunch

Texas Stars 34-22-4-5, 77 pts #3 West Division

at

Syracuse Crunch 22-33-3-4, 51 pts #7 East Division

March 11th at 6:00 PM

Onondaga County War Memorial at Oncenter, Syracuse, NY

Neither the Texas Stars nor the Syracuse Crunch have played since the debacle in Cedar Park on Monday. The Stars and Crunch close out their season series tonight with Texas's second ever game at War Memorial. The last time Texas visited was February 17th of last year. Richard Bachman got the win, making 23 saves on 24 shots against. Mathieu Beaudoin, Aaron Gagnon and Greg Rallo scored for the Stars.

The Stars' only goal on Monday was scored by Brad Lukowich, who will be out of the lineup after a one game suspension was handed down by the league. The goalie he scored it on, Ray Emery, will also be out of the lineup. Anaheim called up the goaltender to back up Dan Ellis with Jonas Hiller out with vertigo. Replacing Emery is J-P Levasseur. He is 8-20-3 and has yet to have a winning record in four seasons in the AHL.

The importance of the Stars five game road stand cannot be overstated. With all five games coming against non-divisional opponents, it doesn't matter how the Stars get points, it just matters that they stay at their current points pace, approximately 60%. It's a tall order, but it's necessary to stay in the race.

Stars injury/call up report:
Wathier (day-to-day lower body)
Lukowich (suspension)
Vincour (call up)

The Stars have re-added Michael Neal to the active roster due to injuries. While Francis Wathier was expected to be ready, he is still day-to-day with a lower body injury.

Since Brent Krahn did not make it onto the Clear Day roster, I have removed him from the active list of injuries.

Website: syracusecrunch.com
Twitter: @SyracuseCrunch
Newspaper: Syracuse.com Crunch Hockey Blog