Gameday Preview: Texas Stars v. Manitoba Moose

      Texas Stars                           Manitoba Moose
  32-22-7-3, 75 pts, .578      v.     37-17-4-4, 82 pts, .661
#4 Pacific Division                    #1 Central Division

March 17th at 7:00 PM CST
H-E-B Center at Cedar Park, Cedar Park, TX

Last night against Cleveland was not great for the Stars. The worst team in the league played fast and loose at the H-E-B Center and came away with two points. Now Texas must turn around and play the best team in the west less than 24 hours later.

(Credit: Andy Nietupski/Texas Stars)
Coach Laxdal was brutally aware of how difficult the turnaround would be in last night's postgame. He noted as always that the team needed to fix their mistakes from last night and otherwise forget the game. One of those big mistakes that they fixed in the game, but need to not repeat tonight, is the penalty trouble.

During this home stand, Texas has been particularly bad on the disciplinary ledger, especially in the second period. Starting at 18:09 of the first, Texas went to the penalty box four straight times and gave up two power play goals on those chances.

Laxdal called it discipline, plain and simple. "It’s discipline and emotion. When [McKenzie] gets taken to the net, he ends up taking a penalty, and you can’t have that. Nothing else is going to work, your system, your structure, your details if you don’t have that controlled emotion."

The Stars will look to control their emotions tonight against a team that beat the Rampage last night in San Antonio. It was a come from behind victory for the Moose as Mason Appleton scored with the extra attacker to tie things 2-2 with 67 seconds left in the third.

Stars injury/call-up report:
Dickinson, Heatherington (call-up)

Moose Web Resources
Website: moosehockey.com
Twitter: @ManitobaMoose
Beat writer: @PwilliamsNHL

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