Gameday Preview: Texas Stars at Manitoba Moose

Texas Stars 10-7-1-1, 22 pts, 0.579 #4 Pacific Division

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Manitoba Moose 10-7-1-1, 22 pts, 0.579 #3 Central Division

December 3rd at 2:00 PM

MTS Centre, Winnipeg, MB

Texas makes its first and only visit to Canada this season for a pair of afternoon games in Manitoba. The Moose come in with the same record as Texas, ranked 3rd in the Central division. Their play so far has been extremely streaky. They are on a three-game winning streak with a string of road victories in Milwaukee, Chicago and Rockford. They lost 4 of 5 before that and won four in a row before that.

Many of the names on the Moose roster are recognizable still from the Calder Cup year as former IceCaps, including Brenden Kichton, JC Lipon and Patrice Cormier. Another name that is imminently recognizable is Scott Glennie. The former Star put his career back on the map after losing an entire year to injury. In 12 games, Glennie has 2-6=8 with a power play goal and a game winner among them.

In net, the Moose have Eric Comrie with a 6-5-1 record (.920 SV%). Ondrej Pavelec was demoted from the NHL and has a 4-2-1 record (.906). Ken Wiebe at the Winnipeg Sun wrote a great article considering Pavelec's position in the organization.

Texas is coming off a tough loss in Chicago where they seemed to have control of the game until a late power play goal downed them. Playing from behind has been a huge issue for the Stars this season. When you combine it with their penalty trouble, that's where much of the trouble has come in. So, it's cliche but Texas needs to score first and not take penalties.

Sometimes the simplest things are the hardest.

Stars injury/call up report:
Honka (call up)
Backman (mid-body injury)

Website: moosehockey.com
Twitter: @ManitobaMoose
Newspaper: Winnipeg Free Press
Beat writer: @pwilliamsNHL