Stars Streak Stopped at Three With 3-2 Loss in Cleveland

Greg Rallo continued his hot hand at scoring with his 19th of the year, but Texas broke their win streak at 3 with a loss to the Monsters in Cleveland tonight. Stephen Johns, who had a massive cheering section at the game, scored the other Stars goal on the night.

Philippe Desrosiers took the loss, stopping 23 of 26.

Here's the release:

Greg Rallo scored late in the third period to pull the Texas Stars within one, but a final push came up short in a 3-2 loss to the Lake Erie Monsters on Friday evening at Quicken Loans Arena.

The loss ends a three-game win streak for the Stars. Rallo’s goal was his team-leading 19th of the season, and leaves him tied for third in the AHL overall, after forcing home a loose puck in front with 3:55 to play in regulation. Philippe Desrosiers suffered the loss with 23 saves.

The Stars (24-17-3-3) and Monsters (22-15-4-3) close out their two-game set Saturday at 12 p.m. CST

After a scoreless first period, Lake Erie opened up things offensively at 16:57 of the second as Manny Malhotra tipped in a power play goal off John Ramage’s point shot to make it 1-0, Monsters.

In front of more than 80 family and friends who made the trip from his native Pennsylvania, Stephen Johns knotted things up for the Stars less than two minutes later. Radek Faksa’s forecheck effort created a centering feed and the Stars’ defenseman snapped in his third of the year from the right circle. The Monsters came back 42 seconds later to regain the 2-1 lead off a centering feed that deflected in off a crowd of players in front of the Texas net at 19:11. Lukas Sedlak received credit.

Trent Vogelhuber’s third period goal at 7:52 held up as the game-winner with a wrist shot from the right circle to make it a 3-1 score.

The Stars finished 0-for-2 on the power play. Lake Erie went 1-for-4.

Tonight's lines:
McKenzie-Morin-Ranford
Ritchie-Dickinson-Elie
Rallo-Faksa-Hulak
Stransky-Smith-Ully

Lindell-Honka
Johns-Oleksiak
Backman-Bystrom

Desrosiers

Injuries, scratches, and notes:
Shore, Dowling, Blacker (injury)
Evans, Mangene, Kane, Muse (scratch)

Tonight's attendance was 9,533.

AHL Gamesheet - Texas at Lake Erie - January 29 2016