Texas Completes Perfect Road Trip With 3-2 Shootout Win Over Wolves

(Photo Credit: Chicago Wolves)

 Rosemont, IL - The Texas Stars showed their fortitude and resilience as they came back from multiple deficits, all while picking up a perfect 6-of-6 possible points on their first road trip of the season as Texas outlasted the 2022 Calder Cup champs, the Chicago Wolves, 3-2 in a seven-deep shootout in front of 5,130 Sunday afternoon at Allstate Arena in Rosemont.

Mavrik Bourque lit the lamp with 0.3 left in the game to provide the late game heroics, the team nailed 3-of-7 chances in the skills competition and Texas walked away with a 3-2 victory to complete their three-game sweep on their first road trip of the season.

While the first period was scoreless, it was not without it's own ebbs and flows. Texas outshot Chicago 8-1 through the first half of the opening period, the Wolves were able to regroup and pressure Stars netminder Remi Poirier with a barrage of shots over the last half of the period, equalizing the shots at ten apiece before heading to the break knotted at zero.

In a complete reversal of Wednesday mornings affair won by Texas 7-3, the teams continued to play close throughout the second, with no scoring until late in the middle stanza when Chicago struck first. Responding to a Stars 3-on-2 breakaway that saw Mavrik Bourque catch a post, the Wolves returned the favor, went the other way and cracked the scoreboard when Isaac Ratcliffe went bar down past Poirier with 3:17 left in the second period, giving Chicago a 1-0 lead that the Wolves would take to the second intermission after a period that once again saw the teams put up ten shots apiece.

The action picked up in the third period and just three minutes into the third when with Texas on the power play, forward Antonio Stranges found paydirt and lit the lamp for his first goal of the season with a laser from the top of the left circle to knot the score at 1-1.

The Stars finished the day 1-for-3 on the power play. Chicago went 0-for-5.

The period continued with Chicago dictating the pace, outshooting Texas 8-2 through the first fifteen minutes of the stanza before the Wolves finally took control of the contest on a Rocco Grimaldi goal with 4:27 left in regulation to give the Wolves a 2-1 edge late in the game.

With Texas on the power play, the Stars pulled Poirier with 1:38 left to create a 6-on-4 advantage. Texas went on the offensive and while they were unable to convert on the two-man advantage, the Stars finally found the back of the net as time was expiring when Bourque slipped one past Wolves goalie Keith Kinkaid with 0.3 seconds left to send the game to overtime.

While Chicago outshot Texas 3-1 in the extra frame, neither team was able to get the clincher in the free hockey period and it went to a shootout. Chicago nailed their first two but Texas successfully buried three of their next six, including Nic Caamano's game-winner in the seventh round to seal the victory.

In net, Poirier stopped 31-of-33 shots to earn his second win of the season, advancing his record to 2-1 for the season. Kinkaid turned away 27-of-29 as he saw his record drop to 0-0-0-1 in his season debut.

Up next, Texas heads home while getting a few days off before a pair of matchups against a division-rival in the Manitoba Moose starting Friday at the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park. Puck drop both Friday and Saturday is slated for 7 p.m.

Tonight's lines

Blumel-Bourque-Stankoven

McKenzie-Back-Karlstrom*

Stranges-Berard-McDonald

Caamano-Damiani-Seminoff

Pouliot-Kyrou*

Petrovic-Grushnikov

White-Karow

Murray

Injuries, scratches and notes

Arcuri, J. Murray, (scratch)

Bischel (suspension)

Bayreuther (out long-term/ankle), Reedy (upper-body injury)

Tonight's Attendance: 5,130

AHL Gamesheet - Texas at Milwaukee October 22, 2023