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| (Credit: Logan Foust) |
The final horn sounded, and for the first time in weeks, everyone in the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park exhaled.
The Texas Stars beat the Milwaukee Admirals 3-2 on Friday night, snapping a four-game losing streak and giving their fans something they'd been starving for: a reason to believe this season isn't lost.
It wasn't always pretty (it had its moments). It wasn't dominant. But it was a win, and right now, that's all that matters.
"That's the standard we've got to set from our team every night, :said Matthew Seminoff postgame about the win. "We got to use that as a building block."
Stars forward Cameron Hughes opened the scoring within the first two minutes of the game on a Texas power play that had the Admiral's Joakim Kemell serving two minutes for slashing.
The building came alive. The roar of the crowd and the goal horn sounded louder.
Head coach Toby Petersen called it the most complete game Texas had played all season, adding "they did what we asked, and that's one of the biggest positives coming out of this game: the way they responded."
Texas would continue to pressure Milwaukee throughout the remainder of the first, holding off the Admirals’ only power play opportunity.
Texas didn't want to let it slip away, but Milwaukee was not going to go quietly. Just after the horn sounded to signal the end of the first twenty, Milwaukee forward Oasiz Weisblatt got a late hit on Stars defender Michael Karow and was issued a two-minute roughing penalty to start the second period.
Coming into the second frame, Milwaukee would have Weisblatt serving the roughing penalty, and in an all too familiar momentum swing, Admirals Andreas Englund would score a short-handed goal, tying the game at one.
Just over a minute and a half later, Admirals forward Jake Lucchini would score one more, giving Milwaukee its first lead of the evening. Was this the dreaded momentum swing Texas has seen all too often this season? Perhaps, but it did not last long.
With another power play opportunity, Texas made quick work, tying the game at two, with Kole Lind scoring on Murray. But they were not done. Thirty-nine seconds after the Lind goal, Texas’ Matthew Seminoff would get the Stars back on top.
"Every single guy just was bought in," said Seminoff of the win. "You can have the best systems in the world, but if you're not working hard and competing... it was just a commitment and buy in from everyone."
Texas would close out the remainder of the frame with the lead and a 27 to 20 shots on goal lead. The Stars, finally, were playing like the team that made the Western Conference Finals nine months ago.
Stars netminder Arno Tiefensee faced 29 shots and turned aside 27. He had to be sharp in the third when Milwaukee threw everything at him.
After Saturday's crushing overtime loss to San Jose, where Remi Poirier slammed his stick in frustration, and head coach Toby Petersen argued a missed hand pass that led to the game-tying goal, the Stars needed their netminder to give them a chance tonight. Tiefensee delivered. "Remi's kept us in a lot of games we probably didn't have any business being in," Petersen had said after Saturday's loss. "He's doing his part."
Friday night, with Tiefensee between the pipes, the rest of the roster matched that standard.
Tonight, the power play clicked, scoring two goals on seven penalties. The penalty kill didn't break, leaving lead-leading Milwaukee, trying to figure out how to get past Texas. Special teams have been a sore spot all season, but Friday, they delivered when it mattered. It's the kind of execution that's been missing from the H-E-B Center all year.
With 40 seconds left in the final twenty, Milwaukee pulled Murray. The crowd stood. Everyone who'd watched this team crumble in big moments, the 10-1 blowout, the back-to-back weekend losses to San Jose, all those third-period collapses, held their breath.
The puck stayed out; Texas held on.
The relief in the locker room had to be palpable. After watching the referees miss a blatant hand pass Saturday, after Cameron Hughes took an interference penalty 18 seconds into overtime, after watching everything that could go wrong this season actually go wrong, something went right.
This doesn't fix everything. Texas is still 9-13-2. They're still sixth in the Central Division. Home ice is still just 3-8 instead of 2-8. But it's something. A foothold. Proof that the roster capable of winning last year is still in there somewhere, buried under months of bad breaks and blown assignments.
The defensive structure looked tighter. The neutral zone was cleaner. The third period didn't devolve into chaos. These are small things, fundamental things, but they're the building blocks this team has been missing since October.
The holiday break is coming. Road games loom after that. But Friday night, none of that mattered. The Stars needed a win, any win, to stop the bleeding, to give themselves something to build on, to remind themselves they're not completely broken.
They got it.
Whether this is the turning point or just a blip before more losses pile up remains to be seen. For now, though, Texas can take a breath. One win doesn't save a season, but it's a start.
Maybe, just maybe, they can take this with them.
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