Campbell Sets Stars’ Franchise Record in 6-4 Win Over Iowa
Apr 7, 2015DES MOINES, Iowa -- Six different goal scorers and 33 saves by Jack Campbell were enough for the Texas Stars to hold on in a 6-4 win on Tuesday night over the Iowa Wild at Wells Fargo Arena to close out the season series between the two clubs in front of 3,136 in attendance.
The win was the 47th in the Stars career of Campbell, who passed Christopher Nilstorp for the team's franchise record, and the Stars (36-21-13-1) passed Oklahoma City to take over fifth place in the AHL's Western Conference. Julius Honka (two assists) and Travis Morin (one goal, one assist) each finished with multi-point games. With the win, the Stars' magic number to clinch a playoff spot sits at four.
Texas will host the Hamilton Bulldogs in a weekend pair of games, starting Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Cedar Park Center.
Brett Ritchie opened up the scoring with a power play goal 5:52 into the game on a rebound goal for his 13th of the year, and Kevin Henderson tapped in a loose puck less than two minutes later to make it a 2-0 Texas lead. Iowa (22-44-2-2) responded late in the first as Jonathon Blum buried a slap shot from the point at 16:15 on the first of three Wild two-man advantage situations in the game.
In period two, Texas regained the two-goal lead with Matej Stransky forcing a turnover in the corner then feeding Gemel Smith in the slot for the rookie's 10th of the season. The Wild came right back with two of their own to knot the game at 3-3 when Brett Sutter slipped one home at 10:27 and Stephane Veilleux wristed in a sharp-angled shot on a rebound play minutes later. Just 18 seconds after Veilleux tied it, Texas' Greg Rallo scored his team-leading 25th to finish a chaotic play through traffic by slamming home a loose puck past Iowa's John Curry, who suffered the loss stopping 31 of 36 shots in net.
Devin Shore extended the Texas lead to 5-3 at 5:09 of the third, snapping in his third of the season from the slot. 90 seconds later, Jared Knight finished off a counter-attack rush for the Wild to make it a one-goal game again. Iowa opted for the extra attacker late with a power play for the 6-on-4 advantage, but Morin tallied an empty-net goal with 25 seconds to play for his 21st of the season and team-leading 58th point overall.
Texas finished 1-for-4 on the power play while the Wild went 1-for-7.
Henderson appeared in his 350th career AHL game. The Stars finished their season series against Iowa going 6-1-1-0. Campbell is carrying a 9-3-0 record over his current run of 12 consecutive starts for Texas in net.
Photo Credit: Ted Sandeen/Iowa Wild
| Three Stars: 1. Jared Knight (IA) 2. Julius Honka (TEX) 3. Devin Shore (TEX) |
Shots: Stars - 37 Wild - 37 |
Goaltenders: W - Campbell L - CampCurry |