(Credit: Andy Nietupski/Texas Stars) |
The Stars move to the Central Division this season, where every single team will play the same 76 games. All the Pacific teams will continue to play 68, including new addition Colorado. Bizarrely, the Eagles will not play Texas next season.
Also of note, Texas will shift all weekday home games forward half an hour, putting them at 7 PM, same as Saturday games. This was the schedule in the playoffs, and it worked well. There is a lone home game on Sunday this year in March, which will be played at 5 PM. Texas will have one day game in Chicago in January.
Texas will see each team in the Central eight times with the Pacific matchups ranging from zero (Colorado) to four each (Tucson). There are two 3-in-3s, and they come back to back in the season November 23-25 and November 30-December 2.
Here's the release:
The Texas Stars, American Hockey League affiliate of the NHL’s Dallas Stars, announced Wednesday their 76-game schedule for the upcoming 2018-19 season. The franchise will kick off its 10th anniversary season of play at H-E-B Center at Cedar Park with Opening Weekend on Friday, Oct. 5 against the Grand Rapids Griffins and Saturday, Oct. 6 against the Milwaukee Admirals.
The complete schedule and more information are available online at http://www.texasstars.com. Single-game tickets for all 38 home games will go on sale at a later date this summer.
Prior to the season opener, the Stars will raise their Western Conference Championship banner after advancing to last season’s Calder Cup Finals. The 2018-19 campaign will conclude Saturday, April 14 against the San Antonio Rampage on Fan Appreciation Night. New this season, all Friday and Saturday home games will begin at 7 p.m. CT at H-E-B Center.
The Stars will move to the AHL’s Central Division this year to face the Rampage, Griffins, Admirals, Chicago Wolves, Iowa Wild, Manitoba Moose and Rockford IceHogs. The Stars will visit the IceHogs on Saturday, Oct. 13 for the first meeting between the two teams since Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals when Texas eliminated Rockford to advance to the Calder Cup Finals. The Stars open their season series against the Wild at home on Oct. 19 and 20. Their first matchup against the Wolves is at home on Oct. 26 and the Moose visit on Nov. 14 for their first game against the Stars.
A full promotional schedule of ticket specials and theme nights for home games this season will also be announced at a later date.
In total, the Stars play 27 of their 38 home games on Friday or Saturday. Eight games will be played on Wednesday, two on Thursday and one on Sunday. 13 different teams will visit H-E-B Center this season. The team’s most common opponent is San Antonio with 14 meetings between the two rivals. Of their 76 total games, 62 will be played within the Central Division for the Stars. The other 14 will be played against the AHL’s Pacific Division (Bakersfield Condors, Ontario Reign, San Diego Gulls, San Jose Barracuda, Stockton Heat and Tucson Roadrunners). The one Western Conference team the Stars will not face this year is the expansion Colorado Eagles.
Texas will play six of its first nine games at home through October and wrap things up hosting four of their last five in April. March is the busiest month for the team with 15 scheduled games. The longest road trip of the season is a five-game, 10-day stretch along the west coast in January. Prior to that, the Stars play a five-game stretch to begin January for their longest homestand of the season at H-E-B Center, and the team will enjoy a 25-day period over December and January where they do not leave Central Texas. Only one three-in-three weekend is scheduled this year for Nov. 23, 24, 25 – all against San Antonio.
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