Gameday Preview: Stars v. Lake Erie Monsters

Texas Stars 28-18-13-1, 70 pts #7 Western Conference

v.

Lake Erie Monsters 27-25-5-3, 62 pts #12 Western Conference

March 17th at 7:30 PM

Cedar Park Center, Cedar Park, TX

The Monsters return to Cedar Park for their final matchup against Texas this season.

Lake Erie played the Stars last week, and Texas used its power play to carve up the visitors to the tune of a 6-4 final score. Since that game, Lake Erie split their weekend series with San Antonio. Surprisingly, they beat the Rampage 4-0 on Friday but lost 5-2 on Saturday.

Texas needs this win to complete a very successful homestand and send themselves off to the Midwest with a big points cushion. With Sunday's win, they've pushed themselves to sixth place by points percentage. It's a thin margin over Milwaukee but it's reinforced by the two games in hand they have over the Ads.

Ludwig Bystrom and Devin Shore will continue to work their way into the lineup more and more. With a few days sleeping in the Central Time Zone, Bystrom may get a full workload instead of being one of seven. With the addition of Oleksiak, that might be tough, and the Stars could end up skating seven defensemen again. William Wrenn would probably come out in that situation. He looked rusty against meager competition this weekend. William Wrenn has been assigned to Idaho.

Stars injury/call up report:
McKenzie, Ritchie (call up)
Honka, Faksa (injury)

Website: lakeeriemonsters.com
Blog (unofficial): Cleveland Plain Dealer
Twitter: @monstershockey