Gameday Preview: Texas Stars v. Manitoba Moose

Texas Stars 18-15-1-2, 39 pts, 0.542 #6 Pacific Division

v.

Manitoba Moose 15-17-3-2, 35 pts, 0.473 #6 Central Division

January 18th at 7:30 PM

H-E-B Center at Cedar Park, Cedar Park, TX

Texas returns home for just a single game before hitting the road again this weekend. Their opponent tonight is Manitoba. The Moose just broke up a five-game losing streak with a win against Chicago at home. It was a really solid win against the Wolves as they came back from a 1-0 deficit to score four straight and stopped seven power play chances for Chicago.

The Moose will be without their starting goaltender for tonight's game though. With the Jets nearly tied with the Dallas Stars in the mediocre middle of the Central Division, they recalled Ondrej Pavelec. The team will start him against Arizona this evening. That leaves Eric Comrie in net. As of this writing, the Moose do not have any other goalies on their roster. Watch for that to change before the game. The Moose added Garrett Bartus on a PTO this morning. The one-time Steelheads has never played an AHL game. He started the year in SPHL and has risen to the ECHL and now the AHL.

This will be the first return to Texas for Scott Glennie, who played with the Stars for four full seasons, including winning the Calder Cup. After missing last year to shoulder injury, he signed an AHL deal with the Moose and has kicked in 5-10=15 in 28 GP.

One thing to watch, as it has been all season, is to watch the Stars' first period. They have one of the worst margins in the period at minus-11. Only Charlotte, Hartford and Rockford are worse at -26, -13 and -13, respectively. Texas catches up in the second period with a +4 but they don't always make it all the way back, as we saw in Tucson on Saturday.

Here's the full chart of all teams in all periods

(Click to enlarge)

Stars injury/call up report:
Dowling (questionable)

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