Tucson Bests Texas 3-2 With First Period Effort

A familiar story for Texas played out again this evening in the desert. Texas let up three goals in the first period and had to fight to get back in the game. They got to two but couldn't tie it at three. Stransky and Honka were the Stars' scorers.

Landon Bow stopped 16 of 19.

Here's the release:

For the second straight night the Texas Stars vastly outshot the Tucson Roadrunners but came up short in a 3-2 final at Tucson Arena in front of 4,825 fans in attendance on Saturday night.

Julius Honka and Matej Stransky scored for the Stars (17-15-1-2). Texas outshot the Roadrunners (18-9-4-0) 38-19 in the game after putting up 40 shots on net in Friday’s matchup. Tucson scored all three goals in period one before holding off Texas’ comeback efforts through the final 40 minutes of play.

The Stars wrap up their four-game road trip on Monday afternoon in an I-35 Rivalry matchup against the San Antonio Rampage at 3 p.m. CST.

Stefan Fournier on a breakaway at 5:14, Christian Fischer on the power play at 7:40 and Michael Bunting on an odd-man rush at 13:27 were the first period goal-scorers for Tucson to open up the 3-0 lead.

Honka’s goal was the only offense in period two on a wrist shot from the point. Honka’s fourth of the season snapped a 20-game drought for the Texas defenseman. Mattias Backman and Gemel Smith tallied the assists.

In the third, Stransky threw an innocent shot on net from the boards that slipped through Tucson netminder Adin Hill when he failed to get back in position quick enough to make a save. The Stars had a late power play opportunity in the third, but could not find the back of the net for the equalizer.

Hill earned the win with 36 saves in net. Landon Bow suffered the loss for Texas going 16 of 19.

Texas finished 0-for-4 on the power play. Tucson went 1-for-5.

Tonight's lines:
Ully-Morin-DeFazio
Ranford-Smith-Stransky
Herbert-Dickinson-Werek
Van Brabant-Fyten-Gurianov

Honka-Backman
Bodnarchuk-Ebert
Mangene-Stevenson

Bow

Injuries, scratches, and notes:
Elie, Bystrom, Dowling (scratch)

Tonight's attendance was 4,825.

AHL Gamesheet - Texas at Tucson- January 14 2017