Gameday Preview: Texas Stars at Manitoba Moose

Texas Stars 23-18-3-2, 51 pts #6 Central Division

at

Manitoba Moose 20-21-3-2, 45 pts #8 Central Division

February 9th at 6:00 PM

MTS Centre, Winnipeg, MB

With a single win under their belt, Texas has already outperformed their last road trip. Last time out, Texas dropped five in a row and had eight straight road losses going back to December. A strong performance from their clear starter, Landon Bow, and a goal by rookie phenom Joel L'Esperance ended that skid in Milwaukee on Wednesday.

(Credit: Texas Stars)

This weekend, Texas heads north of the border to face Manitoba without Landon Bow, who is still on recall to the NHL as of this morning. Colton Point has been recalled from Idaho, and fourth-year man Philippe Desrosiers is the leading masked man for Texas this weekend.

Even though Texas isn't in the Pacific anymore, the battle of points vs. points percentage rages on. Sixth in the division by points, Texas still has three games in hand over most teams ahead of them. If they win at their current percentage, they're a playoff team in April.

Manitoba, on the other hand, is unlikely to be a playoff team. However, that doesn't mean Texas can write them off. Manitoba has taken two of the three games this season, including a really tough shootout loss in Cedar Park to end their home point streak. Following that win, Manitoba collected 11 of 12 points in their next six games. They followed that with just four points in the next six after that.

Stars injury/call up report:

Scarlett (season-ending ACL injury)

Fedun, Hintz, Gurianov, Bow (call up)