Stars Offense Explodes in a 7-3 Victory in San Jose

Nov 6, 2021

SAN JOSE, California – The Texas Stars, American Hockey League affiliate of the NHL’s Dallas Stars, defeated the San Jose Barracuda 7-3 in Saturday's matinee. Seven different Stars players scored while Jake Oettinger stood tall in net making 16 saves.

The Barracuda opened the scoring halfway through the first period when Noah Gregor entered the Stars zone and snapped a shot from the slot to beat Jake Oettinger and give San Jose the one goal lead. At 13:29, the Barracuda were caught for too many men on the ice which sent the Stars on the power play. Anthony Louis kept the puck in the zone and found Andreas Borgman at the blue line, Borgman hit the one-timer and beat Alexi Melnichuk to tie the score at one. With 1:21 left to play in the opening frame, San Jose attempted to exit their zone but Fredrik Karlstrom stole the puck and found Nick Caamano in the slot who stick handled through defenders in front of the net. Caamano quickly passed the puck to Oskar Back who took a shot at Melnichuk, that Caamano tipped in to give the Stars the 2-1 lead going into the first intermission.

In the second period, the Stars began the period on the power play but were unable to convert. At 3:28, Caamano blocked a pass to keep the puck inside the zone where Karlstrom picked it up and created a 2-on-1 with Josh Melnick streaking on the other side. Karlstrom held the defenders and goaltender to his side and then sauced a perfect pass to Melnick who one-timed it home to make the score 3-1. After the Melnick goal, there was some roughing around the benches between the Cuda and Stars which lead to a roughing penalty called on Jerad Rosburg. San Jose went on their first power play of the afternoon, where Jayden Halbgewachs cut the lead in half. After nearly ten minutes of continuous hockey, Karlstrom collected his second goal of the season when he backhanded a loose puck in front of the net to make the score 4-2. Three minutes later, the Barracuda struck again when Mark Alt threw a shot on net from the blue line that made it's way past Oettinger to cut the lead in half, again. Just as the second period was coming to a close, Riley Tufte and Joel L'Esperance found themselves with a 2-on-1 in San Jose's zone. Tufte collected the puck, passed it to L'Esperance who held the defender until the last moment and passed it back Tufte who made an incredible stick move to beat Melnichuk and put the Stars up 5-3 at the end of the second period.

In the final frame, San Jose began the period with a goalie change and Zachary Emond entered the game. At 3:09, Alex Petrovic picked up his first goal of the season when Caamano ran into the San Jose goaltender while driving to the net, leaving the net wide open for Petrovic. The goal was reviewed by the officials and deemed a good goal to give the Stars a 6-3 lead. With 30 seconds left in regulation, Riley Damiani found a streaking Curtis McKenzie for a breakaway towards the net of San Jose. McKenzie deked left, right and back to the left to beat Emond and make the score 7-3, which would be the final score from San Jose.

Oettinger made 16 saves on 19 shots while Melnichuk and Emond combined for 23 saves on 30 shots. 

Photo Credit: San Jose Barracuda

Game Info	Shots	Goaltenders	3 Stars (Xerox Business Solutions Southwest)
Boxscore	TEX: 30	W: Oettinger (TEX)	1: Fredrik Karlstrom (TEX)
Photo	OPP: 19	L: Melnichuk (SJ)	2: Nick Caamano (TEX)
Video			3: Noah Gregor (SJ)