Texas Stars Collapse Late, Fall 7-6 in Shootout

After leading 6-3 in the second, Texas dropped tonight's contest in Stockton by a 7-6 shootout final. Goal scorers for Texas included Remi Elie, Gemel Smith, Ludwig Bystrom, Brendan Ranford (2), and Matej Stransky.

Here's the release:

The Stockton Heat capped off a three-goal comeback effort with a 7-6 shootout win over the Texas Stars on Saturday night at Stockton Arena to begin a three-game road trip for the Stars.

Brendan Ranford tallied two goals for the Stars (17-13-2-3) and Greg Rallo extended his point streak to eight games with a first period assist. Turner Elson scored the shootout-winner for the Heat (10-14-0-3). Texas is on a four-game point streak (3-0-0-1) and also tallied a power play goal for the fifth straight game.

Texas visits the San Jose Barracuda on Sunday at 7 p.m. CST.

The offense was off and rolling between both teams with four goals in the game’s first 10 minutes. Remi Elie snapped home his fourth of the year from the right side of the goal at 1:35. Stockton’s Bill Arnold tied things up when a shot from the blue line deflected off his skate in front of the net, and past John Muse, just 33 seconds later. Ranford pushed Texas in front, 2-1, with a wrist shot from the right circle at 3:14 for his ninth of the season, and Ludwig Bystrom scored his first of the season at 9:59 on the power play.

Stockton made it a 3-2 score late in the first from Derek Grant on a rebound goal. Heat goaltender Joni Ortio started the game, but was replaced by Kent Simpson after Ranford’s first period goal.

Period two was more of the same offensively between both clubs. Ranford buried his second of the night at 2:50 and Gemel Smith scored 10 seconds later to give Texas a 5-2 lead. Arnold added another at 5:17 to close the game to 5-3, but Matej Stransky responded for the Stars at 17:13 from the right circle to give Texas the three-goal cushion again. From there, Stockton made their comeback push starting with Freddie Hamilton’s power play goal in the period’s final seconds.

In the third, Turner Elson struck quickly from the slot on the power play to pull the Heat within one just 22 seconds in. Bryce Van Brabant then knotted things at 6-6 at 3:20 on a deflection goal and the offense went quiet for both teams the rest of the way before Stockton’s shootout heroics.

Ortio returned to start the third period for the Heat and finished 15 of 17 overall to earn the win. Muse suffered the loss going 38 of 44 for Texas. Kent Simpson made 14 saves in his relief appearance for the Heat.

Travis Morin was the Stars only goal-scorer in the shootout. Grant also scored for Stockton before Elson’s winner in round five.

The Stars finished 1-for-5 on the power play. Stockton when 2-for-7.

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

Lindell-Honka
Bystrom-Johns
Backman-Blacker

Muse

Injuries, scratches, and notes:
Faksa (callup)
Troock, Shore, Lagace (injury)
Evans, Kane, Mangene (scratch)

Tonight's attendance was 4,758.

AHL Gamesheet - Texas at Stockton - January 2 2016