Poirier Holds the Line: Stars Grind Out 2-1 Win Over Wolves

 

(Credit: Mason Zimmerman)

The Chicago Wolves came to Cedar Park on Tuesday night carrying a slide and a scouting report. They knew what Texas had done to Bakersfield two nights earlier - six goals, a dominant goaltender, and an offense that had finally remembered what it felt like to run. 

What the Wolves couldn’t know was whether that was a one-game heater or something more permanent. By the time the final horn sounded on a grinding 2-1 Texas victory, the answer was clear. 

This team doesn’t need a blowout to win anymore. Sometimes they just need Remi Poirier and twenty seconds.

Texas wasted no time sending a message. Just twenty seconds in, Cameron Hughes took a feed from Artem Shlaine, set up by a sharp pass from Matthew Seminoff,  and lifted the puck past Wolves netminder Cayden Primeau before the home crowd had fully settled into their seats. 

It was the kind of goal that shifts the entire weight of a game before either team has found its legs, and the H-E-B Center felt it immediately.

What followed was sixty minutes of defensive chess. Neither team gave the other much room. Lines were organized, passes were clean, and both squads spent long stretches neutralizing each other in the neutral zone. Texas Stars head coach Toby Petersen had warned his group all week: the Wolves are a handful.

“They’re a good team. They’re a dangerous team," said Petersen. "They’ve got some big D and some talented defensemen. We’re always aware of that.”

Chicago proved the point in the final two minutes of the second period, erupting for six shots on goal in a frantic late surge. Poirier answered every one. 

By the time Cross Hanas sealed it with an empty-netter with just under two minutes left in regulation, the only drama remaining was Noel Gunler’s late tally with 32 seconds left. A goal that made the final score look closer than the game ever felt.

It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t the kind of night that fills a highlight reel. But in late March, with the playoff picture tightening by the day, a boring win counts exactly as much as a beautiful one.

Remi Poirier was everything Toby Petersen needed him to be and then some. After Texas went up 1-0 in the opening seconds, the Wolves threw everything they had at him . Six shots on goal in the first frame alone, in a period where Chicago was clearly trying to reset the tone. 

He stopped all of them. Through the second, as Chicago dominated a long shift in the Stars’ zone and pushed hard in the final two minutes, Poirier held firm. 

He carried a shutout bid all the way to the 59:28 mark before Gunler finally solved him with the outcome already decided.

"He’s been awesome. He’s been our best player all year. You know, both games last weekend, the game against Bakersfield - that was unbelievable." said Cameron Hughes of Remi Poirier. "He’s a hell of a goalie, just a competitor, a gamer. He’s always going to bring it. And yeah, he’s been outstanding all year."

For much of this season, Poirier was the reason Texas stayed in games they had no business winning. Now he’s the reason games that are won stay won. That’s a different kind of value, and it’s one this team has built around.

The Wolves are too good to take lightly, and Petersen isn’t doing that. But he knows what this team is built on right now. “It’s good for our guys that we’re just finding ways to win games right now," said coach Petersen.  "All we can control is whether or not we go out there and get the W, and from there, chips fall in our favor.”

The race for home ice and playoff seeding in the Central runs through games exactly like this one: division opponents, tight margins, points taken from a team sitting ahead of you in the standings.

Grand Rapids has already secured their spot. Everything else - seeding, home ice, the right to play in May, is still being decided. Every point counts twice right now.

One win doesn’t clinch anything, and this team knows that better than anyone. They’ve been in the position of letting good weeks dissolve before. But something about this stretch feels different. 

The structure holds in the third period now, the penalty kill bends without breaking, and the roster has learned how to win the game in front of them rather than the one they wished they were playing. 

Tuesday wasn’t the kind of night that gets remembered in April. But it’s the kind of night that makes April possible. 

Remi Poirier held the line for 59 minutes. 

Twenty seconds was all Texas needed. That’s a winning formula.

Texas returns to the ice Wednesday night against the Chicago Wolves at the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park. Puck drop is 7:00 PM CT.

Tonight's lines:

Hughes-Shlaine-Seminoff. 

Hanas-Becker-Lind

Stranges-Scott-McKenzie

Martino-Chisholm-Pearson

Taylor-Krys

J. Poirier-Karow

Bertucci-Kolyachonok

R. Poirier

Injuries, scratches and notes

Hyry (callup)

McDonald (scratch)

Ertel, Looft (warm-up)

Wheatcroft, Tuomaala (injured)

Tonight’s attendance was 6,225.

AHL Gamesheet - Texas v. Chicago -  March 17 2026