Stars Pounce Early for Matinee Win in Chicago

Oct 18, 2023

ROSEMONT, Illinois – The Texas Stars, American Hockey League affiliate of the NHL’s Dallas Stars, picked up their first win of the season, 7-3, over the Chicago Wolves on Wednesday afternoon at Allstate Arena.

 

Curtis McKenzie gave Texas a fast start by scoring 39 seconds into the contest. The Texas captain’s wrist shot near the right dasher beat Adam Scheel on the far side to give the Stars the lead. Then at the 7:14 mark of the period, Matej Blumel extended his point streak to three games by scoring his first goal of the season off a face-off to make it 2-0. Extending the lead to 3-0 by following up on a strong hustle-play and pass from Matthew Seminoff was Riley Damiani, who provided insurance by tapping in his first goal of the season with 16:37 elapsed. With 38 seconds left, Dominic Franco drove past the Stars defense with speed and slid the puck past Remi Poirier to cut the deficit to 3-1.

 

In the second period, Austin Strand cut the Stars lead to 3-2 at 2:16 with a shot from the top of the slot that beat Poirier into the top-left corner. Texas pushed its lead back to a pair at 5:21 when Kyle McDonald cleaned up a rebound fired by Scott Reedy near the point. The Stars eventually carried a 5-2 lead into the second intermission after Mavrik Bourque finished on a one-timer near the slot fed out of the corner by Logan Stankoven with 2:30 remaining.

 

The third period saw Chicago mount a comeback with less than 10 minutes to play. Cory Conacher cut the deficit to 5-3 with 8:52 left in regulation when he buried a rebound on a two-man advantage courtesy of a power play with the goalie pulled. However, Fredrik Karlstrom and Bourque later iced the game for a 7-3 Stars’ win by scoring empty-net goals in the final three minutes of regulation.

 

In goal for the Stars, Poirier picked up the win to improve to 1-1-0 on the season after he made saves on 28 of 31 shots. Scheel, now 0-1-1, came down with the loss for the Wolves after surrendering five goals on 31 shots faced.

 

The Stars head to Wisconsin next to take on the Milwaukee Admirals at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. before wrapping up the road trip back in Rosemont on Sunday, taking on the Chicago Wolves at 3:00 p.m.

 

Photo Credit: Ross Dettman / Chicago Wolves

 

Game Info	Shots	Goaltenders	3 Stars (Ubeo Business Services)
Boxscore	TEX: 33	W: Poirier (TEX)	1: Bourque (TEX)
Photo	CHI: 31	L: Scheel (CHI)	2: Stankoven (TEX)
Video			3: McKenzie (TEX)