Texas Stars Lose to Laval in 4-3 Overtime Thriller

(Credit: Laval Rocket)

The Texas Stars lost an exhilarating 4-3 contest in overtime to the Laval Rocket. Anthony Louis scored a last-minute goal to send the game to overtime but the Stars were unable to find a winner in the extra frame.

Even though the penalty kill units have been strong for the Stars this season, giving up five power plays in the first two periods ended up leading to a costly Laval goal. The PK was 4-for-4 to start the night but a costly fifth opportunity given up at the end of the second period allowed the Laval PP to finally find their way through.

On a more positive note for the Stars, their PP was lethal and opportunistic during tonight’s game. The PP scored on both of their first two opportunities and finished out the night 2-for-4 overall. For a unit that has struggled mightily to this point in the season, converting two opportunities in one night could be a spark that leads to a higher rate of success moving forward.

The first period was a game of special teams survival. Cameron Hillis opened the scoring for Laval with a 5-on-5 goal but much of the rest of the period was 5-on-4. After conceding the game’s first goal, Texas proceeded to take three penalties in a span of 10 minutes. The Stars made it through that stint of shorthanded play and then ended up with a power play for themselves late in the period. Ben Gleason made the most of the chance and tied the game at 1-1 with just 1:07 remaining in the first frame.

The second period started as a mirror-image of the first with a 5-on-5 Laval goal that was followed by a power play goal for Texas to tie the game. Kevin Roy converted the goal for Laval after a plethora of shots from the Rocket and Anthony Louis fired a power play goal into the back of the net for the Stars. Later, during Laval’s fifth PP of the game, Jean-Sébastien Dea scored and finally punctured the Stars’ PK to make it 3-2.

Down a goal entering the third period, the Stars turned up their offensive pressure. Texas outshot Laval 13-3 during the period but could not get one through Cayden Primeau over the first 19 minutes of the final frame. However, with just eight seconds to go, Anthony Louis scored on a rebound from a Riley Damiani shot to tie the game at 3-3.

In overtime, Laval ended up closing the game out and earning their first-ever win against Texas. Despite a few quality chances for the Stars, Laval was the team to find twine in OT after Brandon Gignac fired a shot past Adam Scheel.

With the loss in overtime, Texas is still yet to sweep a two-game series this season. The Stars posted a 1-2-1-0 record on their four-game road trip in Canada and now move into a stretch of 11 straight home games in December and January.

The Stars will return to home ice on December 9 at 7 PM to take on the Chicago Wolves.

Tonight's lines

Tufte-Back-Caamano
McKenzie-Damiani-Louis
Karlstrom-Dellandrea-Aksiantsiuk
Gregoire-Gardner-Melnick

Harley-Petrovic
Shea-Cecconi
Rosburg-Gleason

Scheel

Injuries, scratches and notes

L’Esperance, Borgman, Barteaux, Felhaber, Kawaguchi (scratch)

Martin (arm laceration)

Comeau (back, week-to-week)