Gameday Preview: Stars at Oklahoma City Barons

Texas Stars 3-3-0-0, 6 pts #10 Western Conference

at

Oklahoma City Barons 3-3-0-0, 6 pts #9 Western Conference

October 28th at 4:00 PM

Cox Convention Center, Oklahoma City, OK

The first game against the Oklahoma City Barons had to be one that was circled on the calendar for every organization that plays them this season. However, for all the hype about the Barons, so far they are doing no better than the Texas Stars in the standings. They are even-keel at .500 and only ahead of Texas by one rank by virtue of goals scored.

OKC hsa three players clicking at a point per game or better: Justin Schultz, Teemu Hartikainen and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Coming in at just under that pace are Jordan Eberle and Magnus Paajarvi at five in six games.

OKC's Justin Schultz is tied with eight other players for the league lead in point scored at ten total. He and Mikael Granlund are the only rookies among that grouping. What makes it more impressive is that Schultz is a defenseman and is also tied with Texas's Cody Eakin for the league lead in shorthanded goals. He's clearly a player who can hurt you multiple ways.

OKC also returns the reigning AHL goalie of the year in Yann Danis. He is 2-2 with an inflated 3.27 GAA and sub-900 SV%. It could be a run and gun, last goal wins season in Oklahoma. The Barons have failed to allow fewer than two goals in any of their games so far. They average 3.33 goals against per game as a team.

For Texas, this is a chance to build on the win over Milwaukee and show off what they learned the rest of the week in practice. The Stars were working on special teams before Milwaukee and hopefully continued that trend. They scored a power play goal against the Ads and were perfect on the penalty kill.

Stars injury/call up report:
Sceviour (injury)

Website: okcbarons.com
Blog (unofficial): NewsOK's Barons Hockey
Blog (unofficial): Oil Field Hockey
Twitter: @OKCBaronsHockey