"Disconnected" Stars Shutout by Milwaukee Admirals

(Credit: Christina Shapiro/Texas Stars)

Pick your adjective to describe tonight's Texas game, and none of them are positive. Coach Laxdal went with "disconnected" to describe the 2-0 loss to Juuse Saros and the Milwaukee Admirals.

"Our guys were trying to work but pulling different directions. It just didn't seem like we were connected."

Milwaukee scored late in the first period and that would be all they needed as Texas could not generate on offense throughout the contest. Many of their best chances came in the first ten minutes of the game.

The Texas power play came up empty for the second time in three games despite four opportunities. Milwaukee wasn't reinventing the wheel on the penalty kill, according to Laxdal. It was the power play itself.

"Our power play was the worst I've seen it in a long time," he added.

The Ads' PK was clogged things up at the blue line, but Texas was not clean on zone entries and struggled to get much offensive zone time on the PP, especially in the second period when they had three straight power plays.

"We had struggles getting into the zone," said Greg Rallo, playing his first game in two months after coming back from a concussion. "The breakout was a problem tonight. They clogged it up, didn't do anything special. They put four guys on the blue line and stood us up."

Maxime Lagace was the single bright spot for Texas as the game could have easily been over in the first period unless Lagace stopped two Ads breakaways.

The Stars were looking for the fancy shot often in the game and needed to battle more at the net for the close-in 'ugly' goals.

"I don't know what the words are; we need to put an emphasis on stopping in front of the net and getting goals. It's a willingness and mindset. You can't teach it. Most goals are scored within five or six feet of the net."

Milwaukee added a second goal late, also on the power play, to seal things up.

Texas was not aided by the injury bug as Jason Dickinson was a late scratch with the flu and another unnamed defenseman was also fighting off symptoms during the game.

The Stars have tomorrow off and will hit the ice again on Friday to prep for Saturday's game against these same Admirals.

Tonight's lines:
McKenzie-Smith-Stransky
Hulak-Dowling-Ranford
Ully-Army-Rallo
Elie-Kane-Molin

Backman-Blacker
Honka-Lindell
Evans-Bystrom

Lagace

Injuries, scratches, and notes:
Faksa, Ritchie, Johns (call up)
Shore, Morin (injury)
Dickinson (flu)
Troock, Mangene (scratch)

Tonight's attendance was 3,265.

AHL Gamesheet - Texas v. Milwaukee - March 23 2016