Texas Controls Its Home Ice Destiny in Round 1

(Credit: Andy Nietupski/Texas Stars)

The season has come down to its final week, and while the Texas Stars will not have home ice advantage if they advance past the first round, they are in full control of their home ice advantage in their series against Manitoba. 

Texas leads Manitoba by five points with three games remaining for the Moose. To overcome the Stars and claim home ice in their best-of-3 series, Manitoba has to be perfect. Actually, they have to be better than perfect. Six points are not enough.

The Moose play one more game before visiting Texas this weekend. That has to be a win for Manitoba to still be in the conversation on Friday. It can, however, be any kind of win, not just a regulation win. This weekend is where the better-than-perfect play comes for MB.

Because Texas holds the first tie-break over Manitoba (regulation and overtime wins), the Moose cannot give up a single point to Texas this weekend. If the Stars earn even a single point, they will own all three games of the first series.

To summarize, here's what Manitoba needs to do for home ice advantage over Texas:

Wednesday - Reg/OT/SO win over Milwaukee
Friday - Regulation win over Texas

Saturday - Regulation win over Texas

Two of Texas' six games against MB have gone past sixty with the Stars losing both. Those games were also the other two homes games of the season for Texas, all the way back in October.