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| (Credit: Texas Stars) |
Kole Lind’s breakaway, overtime goal sent the Stars’ sellout crowd home happy in a 6-5 slugfest against the San Diego Gulls. Tonight's contest could not have been anymore different than last night's tight-checking 2-1 game. The Stars found the goals they needed, though, to overcome a two-goal deficit and split the weekend series.
Lind’s game-winner was an absolute beauty and was really needed for Lind, who had a rough night otherwise. He got a breakaway from center ice in overtime but had a Gull defender draped on him like a blanket the whole way. He muscled through the contact and lifted the game-winner over the San Diego goalies’ shoulders from his knees to secure the two points for Texas.
“That feels like the story of the year for me,” Lind said when asked if he felt like he was fighting through a lot to get the overtime goal. “Just, not getting a bounce, or breaking my stick at the wrong time, but [I] stuck with it all night, and the rest of the team did a heck of a job to keep us in that game and give us a chance to go win it in overtime.”
Hughes and Shlaine's connections in the third were masterful. They’ve become commonplace for Hughes, who is going to have to start an orchard soon with all the apples he’s picking up. “Hughes has been incredible for us all year,” head coach Toby Petersen said post-game. “ He just goes out there and puts his nose downwards. And it's great to watch and see him get rewarded like that in a big game like this, where we needed the win.”
The Stars started this one on the wrong foot, giving up a power play goal just two minutes into the game, but Texas pushed back hard, utilizing a strong forecheck to generate chance after chance and eventually leading to a power play opportunity of their own. On that man advantage, newcomer Jeremie Poirier flipped a backhand pass to Cameron Hughes at the top of the zone. Hughes unleashed a wrister from the high slot that easily sailed past the Gulls' netminder, tying the game up at one a piece.
Texas kept up that pressure throughout the remainder of the period and drew another call in the final few minutes of the frame. Despite being down a man, San Diego went up the ice right after the faceoff on an odd-man rush and squeaked a shot through Tiefensee’s five-hole. Despite controlling the majority of play, Texas found themselves down after one.
Texas carried their same pace of play into the next frame and immediately got their goal back. Poirier lofted up a looping prayer of a shot from the point that somehow found its way to the back of the net. It felt like Texas was due for some luck, and they definitely got it there.
Just a few minutes later, the Stars game fell apart. They gave up two goals in less than two minutes due to some suspect passes in their own zone. On the first, Ertel got leveled at his own blueline and couldn’t get the puck out, eventually leading to a shot from the high slot beating Arno Tiefensee. The second was an unfortunate clearing attempt from Lind that hit Harrison Scott in the ankle. That led to an unassisted breakaway goal to give the Gulls the two-goal lead. This felt like a big inflection point in the contest and a brutal gut punch to a Stars team that was largely playing quite well.
Speaking of punches, they flew just a few minutes later when Sean Chisholm absolutely walloped Roland McKeown, who had just cup checked Kyle McDonald after the play. This was one of the better fights of the year. Chisholm landed a load of punches and skated to the box with a torn jersey while encouraging the crowd to get on their feet, to which the Stars faithful gleefully obliged. “Got to give a big shout out to [Chisholm], “Lind said. “Unbelievable fight got the momentum back our way.”
As Lind said, that tilt seemed to put Texas back on track as they re-established forecheck and went back to work. That forecheck led to the Stars' third goal, where Curtis McKenzie gave Antonio Stranges an absolute gift in front of the Gulls' net. Stranges deposited that grade A chance with ease and shrunk the deficit back down to one.
The Stars carried the momentum from the fight and the goal into the third and rolled over San Diego to start the period, thanks to repeated connections between Hughes and Shlaine. Shlaine tapped in a backdoor layup just a minute and a half into the final frame, thanks to a quick feed from Hughes. The go-ahead goal was similar but better. Hughes sent another pass across the zone, this time a no-look backhand saucer. Shlaine got it on one hop, right on his tape, and knocked home his second of the period to give Texas their first lead of the night.
That felt like the end of the story. Stars should continue to smother the Gulls and ride off into the sunset, but San Diego went off script. Nikolas Brouillard made a tremendous individual effort break into the zone and beat Tiefensee on the glove hand. Really felt like Tiefensee should have had that one. On the replay, you could see he lifted his glove as the shot came, but the puck ended up going right where his glove hand was before the shot. A tough night seeing the puck for the German.
Both sides had a few more chances before regulation ended, but overtime felt inevitable after the last San Diego goal. Texas started the extra period with some solid defense, which eventually led to the puck squirting out of their zone and gave Lind the previously mentioned breakaway opportunity. Thanks to some dogged work from Lind and an especially spiffy finish, the Stars fans went home happy.
The Stars head on to an important road trip to Chicago next weekend, where they’ll look to jump Manitoba in the standings and earn the first-round bye. The first game of the two-game set is Saturday, March 7th, at 7 pm.
Tonight’s lines
Hughes-Shlaine-Seminoff
Martino-Scott-Lind
Stranges-Becker-McKenzie
Ertel-Chisholm-McDonald
Taylor-Kolyachonok
Poirier-Krys
Bertucci-Karow
Tiefensee
Injuries, scratches and notes
Hyry (callup)
Bergsland (scratch)
Wheatcroft, Hanas, Tuomaala (injury)
Looft (warm-up)
Tonight’s attendance was 6,778, a sellout.
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