Texas Stars Salvage Road Trip With 5-0 Win Over Wild

Chris Mueller (Credit: Reese Strickland)
Having lost all four prior games on the road trip, Texas found its offense and defense in the same game to put up a 5-0 win against the Iowa Wild tonight in Des Moines. Allen York, signed earlier in the day, got his first start and stopped all shots he faced in the game. It was the second time a first-time Stars' netminder collected a shutout in their first start.

The Texas power play got going again for the club as the Stars scored two on the man advantage, including a 5-on-3 tally. Wild goaltender Darcy Kuemper did not help his team in that regard, taking three minor penalties as his frustration mounted throughout the game.

The Stars set a season high for shots in the game, beating their previous high of 48 at Rockford with 49 tonight.

Matej Stransky opened the scoring with a bit of an unintentional goal. His pass from the left wing through the crease ticked off the skate of Wild defenseman Jon Landry and past Kuemper for the 1-0 lead. Brett Ritchie collected the only assist on the play. The Stars were outshooting the Wild 6-0 at that time and continued with that pace, outshooting Iowa 22-4 in the first period. It was the most shots Texas has had in a period on the season.

The second period was all Stars with three goals in the period. Chris Mueller found twine on the power play for the 2-0 lead with Sceviour and the captain, Max Fortunus, getting assists. The goal came as Texas found itself on a 5-on-3 power play and really got the period going.

Mike Hedden got his third of the season off a pretty pass from Brendan Ranford, who is looking better once again, at the 14 minute mark. Jamie Oleksiak finished off the period's scoring with a blast of a one-timer, which beat Kuemper high glove side right off the faceoff win by Dowling and pass from Ritchie. Tonight's game was one of Oleksiak's best on the season and it was good to see the goal as a reward.

Texas polished off the scoring in the third period with Colton Sceviour's ninth of the season. The fifth year man popped home the 5-0 goal off the assist from Curtis McKenzie and Aaron Rome.

The game saw the end of Travis Morin's point streak, though surely the win was an acceptable substitute. Texas returns home to Cedar Park on Friday for a two-game set against Milwaukee.

Tonight's lines:
McKenzie-Morin-Sceviour
Hedden-Dowling-Ritchie
Ranford-Mueller-Smith
Wathier-Peters-Stransky

Fortunus-Rome
Wrenn-Oleksiak
Jokipakka-Gaunce

York

Injuries, scratches, and notes:
Nemeth, Petersen, Glennie, Labrie (scratch)
Campbell, Nilstorp (injury)

Petersen scratched due to the veteran rule tonight.

Tonight's attendance was 7,514.

AHL Gamesheet - Texas at Iowa - November 2 2013

Comments

  1. Oh, dear! Could this be the end of Nilstorp's AHL/NHL career? Maybe they'll deal him to another team and keep York?

    ReplyDelete

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