Kole Lind's Late Winner Keeps Stars in Reach of Central Division Crown After 3-1 Win Over Chicago

 

(Credit: Chicago Wolves)

With the finish line of the regular season in sight and a playoff spot already clinched, a team has to ride a fine line between maintaining their edge for the postseason and not slipping into a last few days of school mindset, where bad habits can creep back in at the worst time.  

For the Texas Stars, who clinched their spot in the AHL Playoffs nearly three weeks ago, the last remaining games in the schedule are both a chance to secure the Central Division crown and a final checklist before embarking on their Calder Cup campaign. 

The Stars showed some encouraging signs as they defeated the Chicago Wolves 3-1 Sunday afternoon at Allstate Arena, making it back-to-back wins over the weekend after snapping their season-long five-game losing streak.

Kole Lind scored the game-winner late in the third for his fourth goal of the weekend while goaltender Remi Poirier made 16 saves on 17 shots on the way to his 17th win of the season.

Justin Robidas opened the scoring mid-way through the first period when he redirected a cross-ice pass from Nikita Pavlychev past Poirier in what had been an opening period that clearly could show that the Stars were on their third game in as many nights.

The goal helped the Stars switched gears, though, as Justin Ertel answered only a minute later when he gathered the rebound off of a Kyle Looft point shot in front of the net and patiently waited out Wolves goaltender Dustin Tokarski who sprawled out trying to block the shot but left the top half of the net wide open.

The Stars would take control of play from that point forward, and while Tokarski played a great game for Chicago it wouldn’t be enough as Lind scored the eventual game-winner at 17:05 of the third period. Luke Krys wrapped the game up with an empty net goal at 18:48 of the third.

The win was Texas’ 24th road victory of the season, tying the Hershey Bears for the most in the AHL this year, and a testament to the Stars’ emphasis on maintaining their positive habits away from the H-E-B Center. And that ability to win on the road is invaluable come playoff time.

Poirier’s strong end to the road trip brought his season save percentage up to .907, a hair above Magnus Hellberg’s .905%, as the pair have more or less split the starts this season. It’s difficult to project who will get the net once the postseason starts but, after today’s win, Poirier finished off a 3-1 record against Chicago who Texas could possibly face in the first round.

With their road campaign wrapped, the Stars now head back to H-E-B Center for a two-game stint with the Manitoba Moose to close out the regular season and only two points off of the Central Division lead.

Tonight’s Lines
McKenzie-Hryckowian-Blümel
Hughes-Hyry-Lind
Wheatcroft-Chisholm-Pettersen
Becker-Seminoff-Ertel

Capobianco-Krys
Taylor-Karow
Bergsland-Looft

Poirier

Injuries, scratches and notes
White, Scott, Kyrou, Martino, Romano, Shlaine (scratch)
Stranges (upper-body injury)
McDonald (lower-body injury)
Petrovic (call up)

Tonight's attendance was 9,551.

AHL Gamesheet - Texas at Chicago - April 13 2025