Gameday Preview: Stars v. Grand Rapids Griffins

Texas Stars
38-24-4-6, 86 pts
#3 West Division
v.Grand Rapids Griffins
35-28-2-8, 80 pts
#5 North Division
March 26th at 7:00 PM
Cedar Park Center, Cedar Park, TX

It's the same team, same place for the Texas Stars tonight, but now the Griffins have a chip on their shoulder. Grand Rapids blew a three goal lead in last night's contest to give the Stars two hard earned points. The lack of points for the Griffins dropped them into a three way tie for 3rd place in the North division.

"They're going to come in hard off the bat," said Texas forward Colton Sceviour. "I think it's going to be a lot lower scoring affair, but some of the bad blood [from last night] might carry over."

With last night's win, the Stars put four point between themselves and the fourth place Oklahoma City Barons. While Texas seems unlikely to catch Houston or Milwaukee at this point to gain home-ice advantage, the Stars have been able to control their own destiny in the playoff race over the last month.

With other teams doing a lot of scoreboard watching, Texas decided that they needed to get in on their own merits. Coach Gulutzan had this to say: "We decided that we don't want or need anyone's help. We don't want to wake up in the morning and look [at the other scores]. We just want to wake up and worry about what we're going to do."

Tonight's game is another massive chance to score two more points. If the Stars can win tomorrow night, the Sports Club Stats site puts the Stars' shot at the playoffs at 97.7%. Coach Gulutzan knows though that the games are played on the ice: "They're hungry for points; we're hungry for points." Puck drops at 7.

Stars injury/call up report:
Larsen (hip pointer, day-to-day)
Vincour, Segal, Lukowich (call up)

Website: griffinshockey.com
Twitter: @GriffinsHockey
Blog: Griffins Hockey on MLive.com

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