Stars even series at 2 with 3-2 win over Chicago

The Stars made sure that tonight's game was not like yesterday's and battled back to tie the best-of-seven series at 2.

Texas struck first in the game with Travis Morin's first goal of the playoffs. Morin, who had 7 assists so far in the postseason but no goals, found twine on a breakaway homerun pass from Landon Wilson that he shot glove-side high on Mannino. At 6:23 into the first, it was the Stars' first shot of the game. The Wolves would even it up five minutes later on the power play with Aaron Gagnon in the box for slashing. Brett Sterling tipped a Nathan Oystrick shot from the point and beat Krahn. Texas went to the room tied at 1.

There was no scoring in the second period, but that doesn't mean there weren't highlights. Warren Peters and Spencer Machacek had been getting into it all game, with most of the hits going toward Machacek from Peters. Warren took it a little far at 7:34 of the second in the Wolves zone and got a boarding major and a game misconduct for his play. Having given up three power play goals the night before, this was a sink-or-swim moment for Texas. "That .. was a little bit of a defining moment in the game," said Coach Gulutzan afterwards. The Stars battled hard and killed off all 5 minutes. "We had struggled with the PK," said Gulutzan, "and I think when you kill a 5 minute penalty off like that I think it gave us some momentum and confidence." Texas managed an 11-5 shot differential in the second period, nearly a complete reversal from the first period's 12-6 advantage for Chicago. Although no goals were scored in the 2nd, the momentum was swinging.

Just six minutes into the third, Texas took the advantage again. Again, it was Travis Morin. Greg Rallo bombed a shot from the high slot and Morin collected a rebound off Mannino and beat him stickside on a backhander. Less than three minutes later, Brett Sterling again answered the bell with an odd-man rush that was finished off by his tap into the net behind Krahn.

Andrew Hutchinson took a hard fall behind the Chicago net which led to a Texas power play. Noah Welch held him up for an interference call with 8 minutes left in the game. With Dan Jancevski rotated down low and Greg Rallo up at the point, Rallo took a slapper in on net. The initial shot bounced off Mannino and was fed by Wathier to Jancevski, who was in the crease area with an empty net. "If I missed that," Jancevski said, "I'd probably be in trouble." Jancevski didn't fail and put the Stars up 3-2 with 6 minutes to play.

The Stars had a few tense moments to end the game as Landon Wilson got his stick high on former Star Ivan Vishnevskiy and went to the box for two. Texas killed it and even got one of their own when Joey Crabb interfered with Maxime Fortunus in the offense zone with just under 3 minutes left. Your final score would be 3-2.

Texas did the things they needed to do. They only took 3 penalties in the game, although one of them was the 5 minute boarding major. They minimized shots, only allowing 23 in the game. The Wolves got off 12 shots in the first and then only 11 in the rest of the game. Of Krahn's play, Coach said, "In a seven game series, you don't need great goaltending every night; you need your good goalie to bounce back and that's what he did."

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

Tr. Ludwig-Hutchinson
Fortunus-Graham
Stephenson-Jancevski

Krahn

Injuries, scratches, and notes:
Stafford (suspended, game 2 of 3)
Korostin, Shelast, Ty. Ludwig, Chupp, Gazdic (scratched)

Tonight's attendance was 3,017. That number went down a few in the second period though when one fan stuck his hand in the gap in the glass by the Chicago bench and knocked over all of the players' sticks. Then, another fan threw a beer onto the ice just before a faceoff. Both were ejected. All of this transpired after the Stars penalty on Warren Peters.

AHL Gamesheet - Texas v. Chicago - May 5 2010

Comments

  1. Stars fans must remember: Thou shalt not throw anything on the ice...

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  2. It is a shame that so-called 'fans' behave atrociously. It is disrepctful towards all players!

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  3. I heard from an off-ice official that a game misconduct comes with an automatic 1 game suspension. If this is the case, then no Peters Friday night. The hit was bad, but I don't think it was worthy of a game misconduct and a suspension. I guess we'll have to see what the league says.

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  4. It's not an automatic suspension unless he was to have two game misconducts in the playoffs, and I don't see a record of one in the IceHogs series. The only way he's suspended is from league review.

    ReplyDelete

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