Bourque’s Four-Point Night Sparks Stars Win in Game One

Apr 23, 2024

CEDAR PARK, Texas – The Texas Stars, American Hockey League affiliate of the NHL’s Dallas Stars, used a four-point showing from Mavrik Bourque to surge past the Manitoba Moose 6-3 on Tuesday in Game One of a best-of-three first round series at the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park.

The Stars surged out to a 15-5 shots advantage in the first period, but Thomas Milic kept Texas at bay to start. The Moose scored first on a wacky bounce, when Mark Liwiski headed a puck up in the air, before it bounced off the top of the net and back down into the crease. Daniel Torgersson swept the loose puck in with 4:06 left in the frame. Texas answered 37 seconds later when Bourque snapped a quick shot over Milic’s blocker to tie the game going into the break.

Texas grew its lead to 4-1 with three straight goals to start the middle period. Curtis McKenzie cleaned up a rebound and chipped a puck over Milic 1:42 into the stanza to make it 2-1. Michael Karow then added some insurance with a wrist shot from the left circle that beat the Moose goaltender on the glove side. Karow’s defensive partner, Christian Kyrou, made it 4-1 when Bourque found him left alone in the slot. The assist was Bourque’s third point of the night. Manitoba closed the gap back to two with a power play goal from Nikita Chibrikov with 4:21 left in the period.

The Moose closed the gap to one when Parker Ford buried a loose puck outside the crease during a net-mouth scramble 6:19 into the third period. But Bourque scored his second goal 1:08 later for his fourth point of the game to make it 5-3 and put the game out of reach. Matej Blumel picked up an empty-net goal in the final minute to complete the scoring as the Stars moved to within a win of advancing. Remi Poirier stopped 21 of 24 for his first Calder Cup Playoff win in his first start.

Game Two of the best-of-three series is Thursday at 7:00 p.m. A Stars win would send Texas to the division semifinals, where they’d face the Milwaukee Admirals. If the Mosse win, then Game Three would be Friday at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are available at www.texasstars.com/tickets.

The Texas Stars are the primary development affiliate of the NHL’s Dallas Stars. For more information, call (512) GO-STARS (467-8277) or visit TexasStars.com.

Game Info	Shots	Goaltenders	3 Stars (Ubeo Business Services)
Boxscore	TEX: 36	W: Poirier(TEX)	1: Bourque (TEX)
Photo	MB: 24	L: Milic (MB)	2: McKenzie (TEX)
Video			3: Kyrou (TEX)