Caamano's Four-Goal Night Leads Texas Past Colorado 5-3

(Photo Credit: Andy Nietupski/Texas Stars)

Cedar Park, TX - Nick Caamano scored four goals, including three in the third, as the Texas Stars pulled away and skated to a 5-3 win over the Colorado Eagles in front of 4,200 at the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park Wednesday night. Caamano's four-goal night was just the third four-goal game in Stars history (Brett Richie - April 4, 2014 vs Lake Erie Monsters, Mavrik Bourque - December 19, 2023) and the first hat trick of the veteran forward's professional career.

Colorado got on the board first late in the opening period when Jason Polin took a rink-wide pass from former Star Fredrik Olofsson and snapped a shot past Ben Kraws to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead with 3:14 left in the first.

Texas surprisingly answered right back when Green Bay native Michael Karow fired a shot at the goal that Matej Blümel redirected off of Fredrik Karlström's back and behind Eagles goalie Arvid Holm to level the game back at 1-1 with 1:28 left in the first.

The teams closed out the period at 1-1 with Colorado outshooting the Stars 12-9 for the period.

Caamano connected on his first strike after he muscled his way through the Colorado defense and buried it off of Holm's gear to give Texas their first lead of the game at 2-1 with 8:31 left in the second.

Despite the Stars seemingly dictating the pace, Colorado got right back into it when the Eagles tied the game 2-2 with Peter Holland scoring on the short side following a drop pass from Corey Schueneman near the right post as he was driving behind the net.

The teams headed to the second intermission having seen the Eagles once again outshoot the Stars, this by an 11-8 margin, giving them a 23-17 edge though forty.

The third period was the Nick Caamano show. Just 2:38 into the frame, the veteran forward went top shelf over Holm's left shoulder to make it 3-2.  Jack Ahcan scored to tie it 3-3 with 8:04 left in regulation, but Caamano wasn't done. The former fifth round draft pick of the Stars tipped in an Alex Petrovic shot to make it 4-3 Texas with 3:01 remaining in regulation for his first professional hat trick.

Caamano capped off his four-goal night with an empty netter with six seconds left to put the nail in the Eagles coffin and lay to wake the Stars 5-3 victory.

Between the pipes, Kraws wasn't terrible in his second professional career start. The rookie, making his second consecutive start, fought off 24 of the 27 shots he saw as his record improved to 2-0-0. Holm stopped 22 of the 26 shots he saw as his record dropped to 4-6-0.

With the win, the Stars improve to 31-28-4-2 (68 pts.) and maintain their stronghold on the fourth spot in the Central Division.

Up next, the Eagles and Stars matchup again on Wednesday with faceoff set for 7:00 P.M.

Tonight's lines:
Petterrson-Bourque-McKenzie
Blümel-Hryckowian-Karlström
Wheatcroft-Becker-Berard
Caamano-Seminoff-McDonald

Pouliot-Petrovic
Bayreuther-White
Karow-Krys

Kraws

Injuries, scratches and notes
Stankoven (callup)
Romano, Haiskanen, Rassell, Kyrou (scratch)

Poirier, Stranges (injury, day-to-day)

Bäck (injury, week-to-week)
Reedy (out for the season - upper body)

Tonight's attendance was 4,200.

AHL Gamesheet - Texas v. Colorado - April 2 2024