Antonio Stranges' Four-Point Night Not Enough as Texas Stars Fall 6-4 to Coachella Valley

(Credit: Mike Zitek/Coachella Valley Firebirds)

 Constant travel can be hard for anybody, doubly so when it comes to the weekly grind of the American Hockey League schedule, and so far this season it had looked like the Texas Stars could not claim the title of road warriors. The California leg of the west coast road trip had shown flashes of improvement in the Stars’ road game, and through the first 30 minutes of Thursday night’s game against the Coachella Valley Firebirds, it looked as if the Stars had finally found their rhythm outside the state of Texas.

The Stars scored just 31 seconds into the game and added power play goals from Chase Wheatcroft and Antonio Stranges to jump to a 3-1 lead in the first period and dominated in every zone. But a parade to the penalty box all night led to a furious comeback by the Firebirds, who went 3-for-6 on the man advantage and sent the Stars out of California with a 6-4 loss at Acrisure Arena.

The collapse squandered a career night from Stranges who had a hand in every single goal for the Stars Thursday, assisting on the first two goals before scoring on the power play to cap the Stars’ fantastic first period. He later scored what looked to be the game-winner at the end of the second period.

Penalties would be the downfall for the Stars, though, as Ben Meyers scored twice on the man advantage and capped a hat trick with an empty goal to send the Stars packing.

Texas couldn’t ask for a better start when Lian Bischel’s point shot flew past Firebirds goaltender Nikke Kokko just 31 seconds into the game. It was an innocent enough shot that just managed to slip by a screened Kokko, and it was the first in what would be a barrage of goals for both sides.

Perhaps looking for a spark, or answering for a hit in last Friday’s game, John Hayden asked for and got a fight with Stars captain Curtis McKenzie. Though the bout was uneventful, it did look like it may have lit a spark for the Firebirds who scored shortly after courtesy of Ian McKinnon.

That spark was quickly put out by Wheatcroft when he scored the Stars’ first power play goal in 24 chances at 10:47 of the first period. The Stars winger managed to bank the puck in off of Kokko from below the goal line to put Texas back up 2-1.

Stranges would cap off the excellent first period showing with his third point of the night and the Stars’ second power play goal of the game. The Stars’ leading scorer fired a backhand shot past Kokko after sneaking in an unoccupied left wing side to make it 3-1.

Despite how dominant the Stars started, they gave the Firebirds multiple chances to get back into the game while on the power play, and they happily took the gifts without question. Max McCormick and Myers scored back-to-back power plays goals in the second period to make it 3-3 against the run of play.

Stranges was ready with an answer 1:17 later when Kole Lind forced a turnover against the boards and fed it to the Stars’ leading scorer to make it 4-3. The Stars needed just 20 more minutes to close out the win, instead they got three more goals against and a quiet ride to Nevada.

Texas will look to close out the six-game west coast trip on a high note when they drop the puck against the Henderson Silver Knights for a weekend series starting Saturday night at 8pm.

Tonight’s Lines
Stranges-Hryckowian-Lind
Hughes-Hyry-Blümel
Pettersen-Seminoff-McKenzie
Wheatcroft-Becker-McDonald 

Bischel-Petrovic
Capobianco-Looft
Karow-White

Hellberg

Injuries, scratches and notes
Krys, Kyrou, Arcuri, Romano (scratch) 

Tonight’s attendance was 6,728.

AHL Gamesheet - Texas at Coachella Valley - December 5 2024