Brad McClure's First AHL Goals Pushes Texas Past Iowa in OT

(Credit: Iowa Wild)

Brad McClure was the hero of overtime for Texas this evening, but it took a village to get him there. Phil Desrosiers had to be stellar in the contest, stopping 39 of 40 shots against him to earn his fifth win of the year in his sixth straight start. Desrosiers fended off shots from JT Brown and Nate Prosser in the process, who hadn't seen time in the AHL since 2013 and 2012, respectively.

Kahkonen was no slouch in the Wild net himself, stopping 35 of 37.

The Stars and Wild skated the first seven minutes of the game without a stop. Colton Beck had the best chance of the sequence, hitting iron behind Desrosiers. The Wild hit the post again in the frame, but it was Texas emerging from the first with a lead. On the power play, Ben Gleason fed Justin Dowling down low. The captain took a stride in from the left wing dot and wristed one past Kahkonen.

As the second began, Iowa got a power play goal of their own from Kyle Rau, brother of one-time Houston Aero Chad Rau. The tie score held for most of the rest of the contest.

In the second, Erik Condra rushed the net and bowled into Iowa goalie Kaapo Kahkonen. It looked like CJ Motte might be called into the game, but Kahkonen was deemed good to go and finished the game. Phil Desrosiers, meanwhile, lost the blade from his right skate in the third period and came out for just under two minutes as the equipment managers fixed up the busted blade. Colton Point faced no shots during his quick appearance.

Texas had a late chance for the go-ahead goal with a power play opportunity under five minutes left the game. Coming up empty, they would head to overtime. A frenetic period it was. Iowa had an early chance, followed by a Justin Dowling breakaway the other way. The ultimate game winner came off the stick of McClure in the period's fourth minute. Off the pass from Dillon Heatherington, McClure scored off his own rebound swooping left to right by Kahkonen for the victory.

Texas heads to Chicago for a day game on Thursday morning.

Tonight's lines:
Mersch-Dowling-Gurianov
Caamano-Morin-Condra
Mascherin-Hargrove-McClure
Naas-Payne-Calderone

Heatherington-Gleason
Bayreuther-Hanley
Nyberg-Hanna

Desrosiers
Point

Injuries, scratches, and notes:
Scarlett (season-ending ACL injury)
Markison (lower body)
Laberge (upper body)
Hansson, Phelan (scratch)

Tonight’s attendance was 2,842.

AHL Gamesheet - Texas at Iowa - February 19 2019