(Credit: Ross Bonander/Texas Stars) |
In their second game of the season, the Texas Stars fell to the visiting Henderson Silver Knights by a 5-4 final margin. Texas pelted Henderson goalie Carl Lindbom with 47 shots, including 22 in the final period as they worked to overcome a two-goal deficit.
"Our bigger body of work was better than last night," said head coach Neil Graham of the loss. "Unfortunately, the mistakes we made tonight, they transitioned quicker, and our mistakes were larger and ended up in the back of our net."
Justin Hryckowian continued his hot streak from Friday with his first goal of the season, marking three points on the year. Kole Lind also scored his first as a Star. While it wasn't quite as penalty-filled as last night, there were still a combined nine power plays. Each team cashed in once with the extra man.
"We still took four [penalties] in the first after talking about it. It's a scenario we still have to address, and we have a smart group... Guys are digging in on the understanding, and now it's about the application."
Remi Poirier got his first start of the season, halting 22 of 27 shots against and taking the loss. In his first North American action, Henderson's Lindbom stopped 43 of 47.
Henderson opened the scoring in the first with Robert Hägg's power play marker. The defenseman cruised through the crease and deflected a Tanner Laczynski shot through Poirier's legs just as a 5-on-3 slid down to a 5-on-4 advantage. The Stars answered back with a laser beam from Christian Kyrou.
Christoffer Sedoff had a snipe from the left point through traffic to regain the Silver Knights' one-goal lead.
"There's a little bit of unluckiness on the second goal," noted Graham. "I thought the guy was in [Poirier's] crease, and by no means was it a penalty, but it was tough to fight for your position. He's got to get to the top of his crease, and he's got to make that a little more challenging."
Not to be outdone, Hryckowian finished off a big, paunchy rebound from the initial shot by Lian Bichsel. With the assistance of some power play time both ways, at the end of twenty, the shots were 16-10 Texas.
Henderson pulled away in the second period with three tallies to Texas' one. Laczynski had an early one, similar to last night's early middle frame response. He used Luke Krys as a screen to beat Poirier clean coming down the left wing.
Just over a minute later, Matyas Sapovaliv extended the lead to 4-2, the Silver Knights' first multi-goal lead of the game, from the hashes.
The Stars did have a tight power play goal from who else but Kyle McDonald, a noted power play specialist as a rookie. Arttu Hyry found Kole Lind across the entire ice through traffic. Lind zipped it to McDonald backdoor for the 4-3 score.
Henderson regained that two-goal lead with a Laczynski tip that was all skill. Dysin Mayo's initial shot was nowhere in the vicinity of the net, and Laczynski pulled it.
The third period was where Texas just poured it on. Having taken 16 shots in the first, they bested that mark for 22 in the final frame.
"I think that's a urgency that I'm kind of alluding to," said Cameron Hughes postgame. "We started playing fast, playing north. That's kind of what works in this league, in the NHL as well."
Lind notched his first as a Star on a messy goal mouth scramble halfway through. The entire team celebrated before any signal came from the goal light or referees on the ice. The play did get reviewed and came up good for the 5-4 score.
"I got robbed twice, and then Lind just put it in," said Hughes. "It went under the bar, in and out pretty quick. Both of us didn't actually know went in."
The Stars mounted the pressure as the period continued. Their momentum was stunted by a late high-sticking call to Kyle Looft that put them down a man with three minutes to go. They killed the penalty but had just 64 seconds to mount a 6-on-5 effort, ultimately coming up short.
"The final eight minutes, there was another gear of intensity that we brought," concluded Graham. "We need to bring that throughout the game."
Texas takes their traditional week-long break after opening weekend before heading to Tucson for a pair on Saturday and Sunday at 9 PM and 6 PM CT, respectively.
Tonight's lines:
Wheatcroft-Hughes-Lind
Blümel-Hyry-McKenzie
Pettersen-Hryckowian-McDonald
Becker-Seminoff-Romano
Capobianco-Petrovic
Bichsel-Krys
Looft-Kyrou
Poirier
Injuries, scratches and notes
Ertel, Karow, White, Punnett, Stranges, Arcuri, Kraws (scratch)
Tonight's attendance was 5,668.
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