AHL Schedule Released; Texas Stars Will Open Title Defense Against Iowa

Schedule features no Eastern conference teams, heavy diet of OKC and San Antonio
(Credit: Christina Shapiro/Texas Stars)

The American Hockey League announced the schedule for the 2014-15 season this morning, including a 76 game slate for the Texas Stars. The season will start with four banner raisings on October 11th against the Iowa Wild. The season will conclude against the San Antonio Rampage on April 18th. Oklahoma City and San Antonio dominate the schedule with each team playing 12 against the Stars.

Conference rivals Iowa and Charlotte each get 8 games, meaning that the West Division makes up 40 of the 76 games in the season slate. The Stars' longest road trip will stretch six games over twelve nights from February 13-24. It will immediately be followed by the team's longest home stand, a seven-game set at the Cedar Park Center that will stretch from February 27 to March 17. January will be the busiest month for Texas with 13 games, six on the road and seven at home.

The Stars' first matchup against Western Conference Finals opponent Toronto will be November 5th at Cedar Park Center. Texas defeated the Marlies 6-2 in Game 7 of the WCF, scoring six unanswered to make their way to their second Calder Cup Final in team history. Grand Rapids, which Texas defeated in six games to move on to the West Finals, will not visit the Cedar Park Center until March 27th. Texas will go to Van Andel early in the season on November 14th.

Texas will play all Western Conference opponents. Newcomer Adirondack will visit the Cedar Park Center just once on the season and Texas will visit Glens Falls just once as well. Rochester also will play a home-and-home with the Stars. Hamilton, Toronto, Utica, Chicago, Grand Rapids, Lake Erie, Milwaukee and Rockford will all make four appearances on the schedule, two at home and two on the road.

Friday and Saturday are once again the most common nights for home games; 23 of 38 home contests will be on those two nights. Game start times will be unchanged from prior years: 7:00p for Saturday games, 7:30p for Monday thru Friday, and 5:00p for Sunday.

Texas home games are spread out as follows:
Sunday - 3
Monday - 0
Tuesday - 3
Wednesday - 8
Thursday - 1
Friday - 9
Saturday - 14
After the Stars' open, they will play a very light October. Just 7 games fill the schedule from October 11th to 31st, mostly on Fridays and Saturdays. Texas gets just three 3-in-3s, which will all occur before January 1. Two of the three will be exclusively on the road, featuring games in Grand Rapids and Rockford from November 14-16 and Utica, Toronto and Hamilton from December 19-21. The final 3-in-3 will be just after Christmas, featuring Charlotte and a home-and-home with San Antonio.

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