Texas Stars Dominate in 4-0 Win Over Grand Rapids Griffins in Postseason Opener

(Credit: Mark Newman/Nicholas Carrillo)

The Texas Stars kicked off the 2025 postseason after a 10-day layoff following the end of their regular season. Considering that the opening round is a best-of-five series, it can be darkly ironic how quickly things could spiral out of control if you get off on the wrong foot.

After a convincing 4-0 victory Tuesday night at Van Andel Arena, though, it’s pretty clear that the Stars have launched right out of the starting blocks. Stars goaltender Remi Poirier made 29 saves to earn the second postseason shutout of his career, while Kole Lind recorded a goal and an assist in the victory.

It was exactly the kind of start you would want from a team that had not seen game action in more than a week and was a complete effort all the way down from the veterans to the young players on the roster.

“It solidifies what we are trying to do,” Texas Head Coach Neil Graham said postgame. “If nothing else it’s a little affirmation that the plan can work and we have to stick with it. Right from there we reset very quickly mentally [after the opening goal] and that was important too, not to get too excited early in the hockey game and make sure we were ready for our next moment.”

The first moment came early in the first period when Kyle Capobianco fired a shot from the point that got past a screened Sebastian Cossa to make it 1-0 at 3:41 of the first period.

Sure enough, Texas did not let off the throttle after the opening goal and kept the puck in the Grand Rapids end for most of the period.

The effort paid off when Stars captain Curtis McKenzie, who was skating in his 91st postseason game, scored off a wonderful feed from Matěj Blümel to make it 2-0. The goal was McKenzie's 8th in his last eight postseason games dating back to 2024.

The Griffins pushed back in the second period and managed to force the Stars onto their heels on an early penalty kill. Their momentum came to a halt, though, when Lind finished off a pretty passing sequence on the first of Texas’ two power plays all night.

Emilio Pettersen put a cap to the night when he tipped rookie defenseman Tommy Bergsland’s point shot to make it 4-0. The primary assist was Bergsland’s first professional point in his first playoff start in what was an admirable night paired with Kyle Looft.

Texas will put their 1-0 series lead back on the line Monday, May 5th at Van Andel Arena.

“It’s kind of like the week we just had,” Stars forward Cameron Hughes said post game. “I think we’ll put in the same kind of work we did. We know they’re going to reset and be better…we’ll be ready for it."

Tonight's lines
Hughes-Hyry-Lind
Blümel-Hryckowian-McKenzie
Pettersen-Becker-Wheatcroft
Romano-Scott-Seminoff 

Capobianco-Krys
Karow-Kyrou
Looft-Bergsland

Poirier

Scratches, injuries and notes
Petrovic (callup)
Thomson, Arcuri, Martino, Punnett, Shlaine
Stranges (upper body injury, week-to-week)
McDonald (lower body injury, out for season)

Tonight's attendance was 5,204.

AHL Gamesheet - Texas at Grand Rapids, Game 1 - April 30 2025