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| (Credit: Griffins Hockey) |
After defeating the Griffins 4-0 in the first game of the best-of-five playoff series, the Stars had to wait six days to play game two due to scheduling conflicts at Van Andel Arena. The wait was well worth it, as the visitors showed very little rust and dispatched the home team 4-2, taking a commanding 2-0 series lead.
After losing game one, the Griffins were intent on playing a physical brand of hockey to start the first period. It quickly backfired when Grand Rapid defensemen Antti Tuomisto and Stars captain Curtis McKenzie were called for incidental roughing penalties. Playing four on four, Texas took advantage of the open ice when Luke Krys took a pass from Hryckowian and sent a wrist shot past former Texas and Dallas Star Jack Campbell to put the visitors up 1-0 just over three minutes into game.
Prior to the game, Texas Stars play-by-play voice John Peterson asked Texas head coach Neil Graham about the expected physical response by Grand Rapids after game one and the coach noted, "They'll come hard. If you've been watching hockey this week, you see how aggressive and how much intent a team has after a loss. We're fully prepared for that, and it's really important that we also understand it's okay to have our own intent and our own push at the start, and that typically makes sure some pretty exciting hockey."
Later in the first period, the Stars went up 2-0 when Arttu Hyry found a rebound in front of the crease and poked it into the net for his first goal of the playoffs. Clearly the home team was trying to force the action with physical play, but Texas was well prepared for it and used the six-day layoff to focus on positioning and intent of play.
The second period began with the home team's undisciplined physical play getting them in immediate trouble when Nate Danielson was called for boarding one minute into the period. The visitors wasted little time on the power play when Hryckowian deflected Kyle Capobianco's shot to put the Stars up 3-0.
Not looking to let up, Matthew Seminoff found a streaking Curtis McKenzie for a breakaway and the Stars' captain didn't miss, beating Campbell glove side high to put Texas up 4-0.
Prior to the period ending, Grand Rapids used a power play to get on the board when former Texas Star Sheldon Dries scored to make it 4-1 at the end of the period. Through two periods, Texas outshot Grand Rapids 21-16.
The Griffins cut the Stars lead in half just over five minutes into third period when Michael Brandsegg-Nygård beat Poirier just after Texas had killed off a Grand Rapids power play to make it 4-2.
Needing to stem the tide, Poirier stepped up in a big way. Just over seven minutes left in the game Austin Watson had a golden opportunity to cut further into the lead as he let off a shot at point blank range, but the Stars' netminder denied his chance preserving the two goal lead. The Stars held firm for the remainder of the period and forced the play so much that Grand Rapids was unable to pull Campbell for an extra skater until 1:07 left in the game, which by then was too late.
Next up, the Stars look to close out the series when they return home to the H-E-B Center in Cedar Park on Friday, May 9th at 7 PM.
Tonight's lines
Hughes-Hyry-Lind
Blümel-Hryckowian-McKenzie
Pettersen-Becker-Wheatcroft
Romano-Scott-Seminoff
Capobianco-Krys
Karow-Taylor
Looft-Bergsland
Poirier
Scratches, injuries and notes
Petrovic (callup)
Thomson, Kyrou, Arcuri, Martino, Punnett, Shlaine (scratch)
Stranges (upper body injury, week-to-week)
McDonald (lower body injury, out for season)
Tonight's attendance was 5,837.
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