Texas Stars Hope Week of Practice Yields Results Against Colorado

(Credit: Andy Nietupski/Texas Stars)

After a full six days off, the Texas Stars (3-7-0-2, 7th Central) take the ice this weekend in search of their first win since October 19. It's a stretch of six games in which they've netted just a single point, a shootout loss in Milwaukee on October 25th. In the four games since, they've been outscored 24-10.

With so long between games, Texas was able to take it back to basics a bit. Shooting drills and hard skates were on the menu this week as the team searches for a spark somewhere. Luckily for the Stars, Colorado (5-6-0-0, 5th Pacific) comes in off a pair of midweek games against Ontario, one of which they won 4-0 and the other they lost 4-0.

Tonight's game is notable in that the Stars and Eagles haven't played each other ever before, despite this being Colorado's second year in the AHL. Scheduling oddities left the two unmatched last season, but they'll play a total of four contests this year.

Despite that, several members of the Eagles will certainly be very familiar with Cedar Park as they make their return. Sheldon Dries plays his first game back since the Stars lost in the Calder Cup Finals in 2018. Dries has bounced between the Avalanche and Eagles in the last year, racking up 40 games in the NHL in 2018-19, but now has 4-4=8 in 11 games with the Eagles. Erik Condra has suffered an offensive power outage compared to last year's numbers with Texas, tallying just a single goal in 10 games. Finally, Kevin Connauton, who played just 15 games with Texas five years ago, also makes his first return.

Injuries and callups
Hanley, Bayreuther (callup)