After suffering a momentum crushing collapse in the third period on Sunday at the H-E-B Center, the Texas Stars headed to Milwaukee needing to survive on the road and avoid the wheels coming off of their Calder Cup campaign in the Central Division Finals.
The Stars floored it in the first period and never looked back as they secured a 6-1 victory over the Milwaukee Admirals Wednesday night at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena, wresting back control of the series and setting up a chance to close it out Friday night.
Texas got goals from Kole Lind, Curtis McKenzie, Kyle Capobianco, Jack Becker, Cameron Hughes, and Justin Hryckowian, while Remi Poirier made 30 saves in his series debut.
Stars winger Antonio Stranges also made his 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs debut Wednesday night after being injured against the Ontario Reign on March 19. He played on the third line with Becker and Emilio Pettersen.
Lind got the party started a little more than three minutes into the first period when he tipped a point shot from Kyle Looft. The goal was Lind’s fourth of the series and extended his playoff points streak to six games, the second longest in the league.
Milwaukee pushed back in the second period and got help from a series of penalties from Texas that put the Stars on a 5-on-3 penalty kill for a full two minutes. A combination of poor execution by the Admirals, and some excellent work from Poirier and the PK unit kept Milwaukee at bay.
“I think the 5-on-3 kill was massive," head coach Neil Graham said postgame. "That could have been a real momentum swing and for our guys to get that kill, it was two minutes, tip your hat to our killers. That was a great job by them.”
Right when it seemed as if the Admirals had seized back the momentum, McKenzie smothered the growing fire when he finished off an excellent cross-ice pass from Cameron Hughes at 13:18 of the second period.
Spenser Stastney briefly cut the deficit in half early in the third period, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Texas onslaught, as the Stars went on to four unanswered goals in the final frame.
The victory pushed Texas to a perfect 3-0 in the playoffs so far and gives them their first of two chances to win the series, with the first coming Friday night back in Milwaukee.
Tonight's lines
Blümel-Hryckowian-McKenzie
Hughes-Hyry-Lind
Pettersen-Becker-Stranges
Seminoff-Scott-Romano
Capobianco-Krys
Taylor-Karow
Looft-White
Poirier
Injures, scratches and notes
Bergsland, Wheatcroft, Thomson, Chisholm, Terness, Ertel, Bertucci, Arcuri, Kyrou, Martino, Punnett, Shlaine, Hemming (scratch)
McDonald (out for season)
Tonight's attendance was 4,061.
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