Joel Kiviranta's Two Goals Pace Stars in 4-3 Win Over Penguins

For the first time in the history of both franchises, the Texas Stars squared off with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in their building and came away with a 4-3 win. That pushes their current point streak to five games as the Stars have won five of their last six.

(credit: Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins)

Forward Joel Kiviranta had the hot hand in the contest and tallied two successive goals in the second period to give the Stars a 3-1 lead. The first came within the first two minutes of the middle frame, while the second was a thing of beauty ten minutes later.

Kiviranta's second tally

The teams traded a pair of goals in the opening period with Michael Mersch scoring on the rush when Riley Tufte’s bid produced a rebound. The goal gave Mersch his eighth of the season.

Jake Oettinger got the nod between the pipes and played a strong game when he was needed, particularly in the third period. His only real gaffe of the game led to a wraparound goal from Andreas Martinsen which tied the game at one halfway through the first period. Oettinger mishandled the puck behind the net, was stripped and struggled to get back in time.

After Kiviranta’s goals, the Penguins pushed back and had the Stars on their heels by the end of the second period as they scored two goals in short order. Familiar foe and former Rampage Andrew Agozzino had a power play goal and Pierre-Oliver Joseph scored from in front of Oettinger’s crease less than a minute later.

The Stars responded in a big way by earning a late power play that carried over into the third period. After gaining a bit of momentum from early zone time, Nick Caamano buried what would be the game winner just over a minute into the final frame. Jason Robertson made a heads up play by just pushing the puck over the blue line to give Caamano a chance on the rush.

Caamano goes five hole

Oettinger did his best work when things got hairy late in regulation. The Penguins mucked things up in the offensive zone and forced the Stars to chase for a few shifts in a row. Oettinger stood on his head to finish with a respectable 26 saves on 29 shots.

All of a sudden, the Stars are beating quality teams in various time zones.

They finish off the weekend set against the Penguins tomorrow night at 6:05 CST.

Tonight's lines:
Robertson-L’Esperance-Louis
Mascherin-Gardner-Caamano
Mersch-Melnick-McClure
Tufte-Kiviranta

Heatherington-Hanley
Bayreuther-Scarlett
Gleason-Cecconi
Djuse

Oettinger

Injuries, scratches, and notes:
Nyberg, Cuglietta, MacKay (scratch)
Kero (injury)

Tonight’s attendance was 3,465.

AHL Gamesheet - Texas at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton - December 6 2019

Comments