Barons Halt Streaking Stars 3-2

In a game against the top team in the league, Texas played them tough but ultimately lost to the visiting Oklahoma City Barons 3-2 tonight. The loss stops Texas's streak at two. "I thought we outplayed them and had opportunities," said Coach Pyle. "We played just good enough to lose."

Texas went 0/6 on the power play in the game and allowed a PPG goal to OKC. The Stars rallied from down two in the third but couldn't close the gap with the power play goal being the difference. "If we don't give up that third one, we're right back in it." Beskorowany stopped 16 of 19 in the losing effort.

Oklahoma City got the first goal of the night late in the third period. Texas would have been first if not for that pesky high sticking rule. An amazing display of hand-eye coordination put the puck in the net from two feet above anyone's head. No goal.

Oklahoma City's Tanner House scored on a rebound shot from Hunter Tremblay's point shot, catching Beskorowany sliding right to left. Texas went 0/3 in the first period on the power play and outshot OKC 13-6.

Tristan Grant extended the lead on a breakaway goal that beat Besko clean six minutes into the second. The Stars got three more power play opportunities and couldn't close any of them. "We get shots, we're putting it to the net but we've got no finish. When you get opportunities, you've got to bury them."

Texas came to life in the third period as Scott Glennie collected his 3rd goal of the year, off a beauty of a feed from Wathier. Dan Spang had the second assist. With time winding down, Ryan Garbutt found himself in the box for tripping an OKC defenseman in the OKC zone. It was a needless penalty as Texas had numbers back to cover. Garbutt was going for the puck in the replay, but that was not the ultimate result of the play. Taylor Chorney scored his first goal of the year on the ensuing power play, setting the score at 3-1.

The Stars pulled Beskorowany with over two minutes left in the game to try for the second and third goals. They got one. Matt Fraser had a great shot across the net to find twine on the far side of the goal. His twelfth of the year was assisted by Morin and Spang.

Coach Pyle talked a lot about finish in the postgame comments. "We need 50 shots to get 3 goals and that's where we struggle. You're not going to win scoring two goals every night, you're going to need three and four."

Tonight's lines:
Tousignant-Garbutt-Fraser
Sawada-Morin-Hedden
Glennie-Sceviour-Wathier
Gazdic-Roman-Schultz

Spang-Labrie
Lukowich-Fortunus
Benn-Dillon

Beskorowany

Injuries, scratches, and notes:
Godard (scratched)
Larsen, Vincour, Bachman (callup)

Both even strength goals were scored against the fourth line (Gazdic-Roman-Schultz): "Our fourth line was minus-2 tonight, we need better effort from those guys. You need more from everybody."

Tulupov's misconduct penalty in the first period was incurred after he flipped off the penalty box camera for all to see. The refs caught it and gave him ten.

Tonight's attendance was 4,878.

AHL Gamesheet - Texas v. Oklahoma City - December 10 2011

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