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| Credit: Henderson Silver Knights |
The Texas Stars were steamrolled Sunday night by the Henderson Silver Knights in a 7-2 blowout. The Stars trailed the entirety of the game; simply exiting their own zone seemed like a monumental task at times. This was an especially astonishing drop-off in play after the Stars won a spirited 6-3 game against the Knights the night before.
The common trope in a poor effort like this is to blame the netminder, but that would be a wild over-simplification. Arno Tiefensee was peppered all night with breakaways and odd-man rushes that would have been too much even for the league's top goalies. That being said, Tiefensee’s play did leave something to be desired, much like the rest of the team.
It’s hard to find anything good in this one. The Stars could not break the Knights' forecheck all game. The only clean exits came in the form of high flips, a play where it’s very difficult to maintain possession. Their turnovers, misreads and general lack of defensive execution had them chasing the Knights all game long. This was one of the worst showings from Texas as of late.
If you had to pick something positive for Texas, it would probably be Matthew Seminoff's power play goal scored after the contest was out of hand in the third; it was his fourth in five games. He’s grown extremely comfortable in the dangerous bumper spot right at the top of the crease on the power play. His quick hands and ability to swiftly elevate the puck have given him success in that spot where time is of the essence.
Henderson stormed out of the gates, scoring just 19 seconds into the contest. Raphael Lavoie snuck behind Luke Krys and got a mini breakaway from the blue line in. He pretty calmly lifted a wrister over the pad of Tiefensee to take the early 1-0 lead.
The Knights kept that momentum going as they continued to dominate the first frame, outshooting Texas 12 to 1, and scoring a second goal about midway through off a deflected point shot. Texas’ single shot on goal was the lowest SOG total in a period all year for the Stars.
Texas could not exit their zone as the Knights sent wave after wave of forecheck against the Stars' defense. That pressure forced the Stars to repeatedly ice the puck, further fueling Henderson’s attack. That continued throughout the night.
The second was no better for the Stars, and it started as a mirror image of the first, with an early Knights goal. Just over a minute in, Henderson found a late trailer on the rush who beat the blocker of Tiefensee from the low slot.
The Stars were given a couple of gifts later in the middle frame as the Knights took back-to-back minor penalties, essentially giving the Stars four minutes on the man advantage. That segment of power play hockey ended with a short-handed breakaway goal for the Knights, putting an exclamation point on the Stars' poor power play effort and overall play up to that point.
The Knights netted two more tallies, one at the end of the second and one at the beginning of the third, to bring the score to 6-0, before the Stars mercifully put a couple of pucks in the Knights’ net. The first was the aforementioned power play tally from Seminoff. Karow found the second just a few minutes later with a seeing eye snap shot through traffic just a few minutes later.
The Knights quickly dispelled any inkling of a comeback with their seventh goal of the night, again on an odd-man rush. The remainder of the game ended without much excitement. An especially sad sight in a mostly empty building.
The Stars will need to wash this one away quickly as they head to San Jose for a midweek tilt against the Baracuda. That game will be on Wednesday at 9 PM, where Dylan Hryckowian is expected to make his much-anticipated professional debut for the Texas Stars.
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