Texas Has Found Its Game Flying High on 5-Game Win Streak

(Credit: Texas Stars)

The Texas Stars completed the month of January on a five-game win streak, battling into a playoff spot with the opportunity to jump into the top three in the division (the top three teams earn a first-round bye) this weekend. It appears that the squad has finally found its way back to its winning ways, though this year it looks a little different.

Last season, Texas was essentially a lock for the playoffs in late October. They finished the year 2nd in the Central Division, just two points behind their rival, the Milwaukee Admirals. The Ads only topped Texas in the last month of the season after the Stars went through their only true rough patch of the year. Of course, Texas got their revenge when they eliminated Milwaukee in the Division Finals. 

Regardless, the Stars' success in 2024-25 was driven almost entirely by their offense. They finished the regular season with 240 goals for. The next closest team was over 20 goals away at 218. Their goals against were pretty solid, sitting at third in the division, but nowhere close to the same dominance they saw on the other side of the puck. 

We’ve been over how large the loss of Justin Hryckowian and Matěj Blümel has been for the Stars' offense numerous times, but the goal-scoring dissipation goes even deeper than that. Outside of Cameron Hughes, the top ten point producers from last season are either injured, playing in Dallas, or have taken a big step back in point production. 

The Stars’ top scorers were literally removed from the roster, but it seems like they took a good chunk of the secondary scoring with them. Stranges was 0.78 points per game last season, this year, just 0.55 . Lind was 0.70, now 0.50. In these players' defense, they are being asked to do a lot more. Keeping the same production while playing higher up in the lineup is easier said than done, but Texas was surely expecting more points from these types of players. 

So clearly, with all those factors against them, Texas wasn’t going to have the same high-flying offense to power them through the regular season this go-around. An adjustment had to be made. It took some growing pains, but Texas has found a way to make defense and goaltending their calling card. 

In six of their nine wins in January, the Stars didn’t allow more than one goal. Lots of credit goes to Remi Poirier and the German rookie Arno Tiefensee, but the team defense has truly been impressive as well. Take the shutdown third period from Saturday night, for example. The Knights did officially record 12 shots on goal, but the Stars clogged up the middle of their own zone, ensuring most of those shots came from distance. 

Even more impressive for Texas, their defensive improvement started when the blue line was perhaps at its most dilapidated. This was the Stars’ defense pairs in the first game of 2026:

Taylor-Bergsland
Bertucci-Karow
Punnett-Hreschuk

That's five rookies, and three of the six are on minor league deals. So it wasn’t just blue liners leading the way; it was solid team defense top to bottom. 

The goals are finally starting to find their way into the net as well. The top line of Hughes, Artem Shlaine and Matthew Seminoff has been on fire. The trio averaged 3 points per game in January and contributed 5 game-winning goals. 

The team as a whole was held to fewer than three goals for only two games this month (one of which they won). That happened 13 times in the first three months of the year. Stranges and Lind are starting to heat up, Luke Krys and Kyle McDonald are scoring in bunches after returning from injuries, and the depth of the roster has begun to contribute consistently.

The common trend this season, before this winning streak, was Texas finding a way to lose. The Stars found the most dumbfounding and heartbreaking ways to fall short. From bad bounces to last-minute collapses, you could not count on the victory until that clock stopped, and maybe not even then.

During their current win streak, the Stars have flipped that trend on its head and found ways to win no matter what the game throws at them. The best example of that came this Friday, when Texas was down 3-0 just five minutes into the contest. In response, they turned the game into a track meet, tied the game up twice in the third period (the second time on a 6-on-5), and found a way to steal the game in OT. 

The Stars know who they are now, and that's what provides the most confidence for the rest of the year. They excel in low-scoring, tight-checking games where they can help their goalies excel. They also proved there is still more offense to squeeze from the roster, and when they need it, they can find six tallies to bail out their rookie netminder. 

They've mastered a new method. They’ve learned how to win. Now it's time to execute and keep piling them up.