Stars fall short again, lose to Griffins 5-4

The Stars opened up the scoring just three minutes in on a slick move by the top line forwards. Greg Rallo made a spin move against the grain behind the net to Aaron Gagnon out front who beat Larsson to make it 1-0. Ethan Graham had his first point as a Star on the play with the second assist.

The Stars power play looked good on early chances in the period, but no chances came of it. Ethan Graham got a his first Texas goal eight minutes after his first assist as a Star. Graham's shot from the point over Larsson's left shoulder made it 2-0. The Griffins called a much needed timeout after allowing 2 goals on 7 shots. We would go to the break still at 2-0.

The Griffins came out of the break energized, scoring on a redirect in front just 44 seconds into the period. The Stars had a lot of great chances on the power play just a few minutes later for Kindl's delay of game. Travis Morin missed an open net chance that he had to get off very quickly.

Doug Janik, the one-time Stars prospect, scored on a shot where Bachman was screened from the point to make it 2-2. Hutchinson would take a hooking minor with 4 minutes left in the 2nd and Grand Rapids would score on a one-timer from the bottom of the left win circle. Bachman actually got in front of the shot but it wasn't fully controlled and trickled in. Remember now that Texas is 0-15-1-1 when trailing after two.

Texas wasn't done quite yet though. A bad rebound by Larsson on a Wathier shot came right to Greg Rallo in the slot who buried it to tie the score at three a piece. Texas had a lot of chances in the moments after that goal, including a point blank chance by Sergei Korostin. Korostin was unable to score, perhaps gripping his stick a bit tightly after being out of the lineup for so many games.

Matt Stephenson's minor for hooking led to a Griffins power play goal to make it 4-3. Bachman thought he had the puck but it popped loose on the left side and Rissmiller puts it in on a mad scramble

Justin Abdelkader would close out the scoring for the Griffins to make it 5-3. Todd Ford came in with 11 minutes left in the game to relieve Bachman. Texas would pull Ford with 90 seconds left in the game for the extra skater. Aaron Gagnon managed one, with assists from Beaudoin and Hutchinson, but Texas could not get a second and the score ended at 5-4. Texas is now 1-4-0-0 against Grand Rapids and has a 0-16-1-1 record when trailing after two periods.

The Griffins seem to have the Stars number this season. Despite being one of the worst teams in the league, they always come to play against Texas, taking four of the five contests played. Daniel Larsson has started all of the wins, giving him a 4-0-0-0 record against Texas.

Tonight's lines:
McCulloch-Gagnon-Rallo
Wathier-Peters-Sawada
Lindgren-Morin-Beaudoin
Sceviour-Tousignant-Korostin

Stafford-Graham
Fortunus-Hutchinson
Jancevski-Stephenson

Bachman

Injuries, scratches, and notes:
Wilson and Krahn (injured)
Ludwig (day-to-day lower body)
Climie (day-to-day "strep-type" infection)
Gazdic and Shelast (scratched)

Tonight's attendance was 5,687.

AHL Gamesheet - Texas at Grand Rapids - February 21 2010

Comments

  1. Looking at the game sheet, a couple stats stand out:

    Stafford: +4, the best of the afternoon for either team.
    The Griffins only dressed four D.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's almost like we go into some of these games thinking we've already won and we don't have to fight for it. We win against the ridiculously good teams and lose against the ridiculously bad teams. Now, I'm not a hockey coach (or even a hockey player - yet) but it seems to me like maybe they're just taking it for granted that they're going to win against some of these teams and only getting really fired up when it's a team they shouldn't have a chance against (Hamilton) or a team that's really pissed them off (Peoria).

    ReplyDelete
  3. peoria seems to piss off a few others LOL.

    ReplyDelete

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