Stars Soar Past Eagles for First Win of Season

Oct 15, 2022

CEDAR PARK, Texas – The Texas Stars, American Hockey League affiliate of the NHL’s Dallas Stars, picked up their first win of the season to salvage a series split when they defeated the Colorado Eagles 5-1 at the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park Saturday night.

 

Matej Blumel opened the scoring 6:36 into the contest when he picked up a rebound from a Ryan Shea shot near the right side of the goal and found the open net for his second goal in as many games. At the 11:24 mark, Alexander Petrovic provided insurance to make it a 2-0 Stars’ lead when his wrist shot from the right point found twine over the left shoulder of Eagles’ goaltender Justus Annunen. Petrovic struck again for a second goal at 16:25 to make it 3-0 when he picked up a pass from Curtis McKenzie and fired it five-hole to beat Annunen. After 20 minutes of play, Texas grasped a three-goal lead over Colorado with a 15-6 advantage in shots on goal.

 

The Stars tacked on another pair of goals in the second period to take a 5-0 lead. First at 16:18, Blumel tallied his second goal of the night with a one-time blast on the power play to make it 4-0. Second-period scoring concluded when Marian Studenic tipped in a shot from Shea with 11.5 seconds left to give Texas a 5-0 advantage. The Stars led the Eagles 28-15 in shots on goal through 40 minutes of play.

 

Colorado worked its way into the score column 1:21 into the third period thanks to a goal by Brad Hunt. However, the Eagles were then held in check the remainder of the evening thanks to a strong Stars’ defensive effort and stout goaltending performance by veteran netminder Anton Khudobin. All in all, the Stars hung on to pick up their first victory of the season and salvaged a split of the two-game weekend series by a final score of 5-1.

 

In goal for the Stars, Khudobin picked up his first AHL victory since Jan. 28 with 30 saves on 31 shots. For the Eagles, Justus Annunen stopped 32 of the Stars’ 37 shots.

 

The Stars are on the road for their next action Oct. 21-22 in Des Moines, Iowa, to compete in a two-game series against the Iowa Wild.

Photo Credit: Tim Watkins

Game Info	Shots	Goaltenders	3 Stars (Xerox Business Solutions Southwest)
Boxscore	TEX: 37	W: Khudobin (TEX)	1: Petrovic (TEX)
Photo	OPP: 31	L: Annunen (COL)	2: Blumel (TEX)
Video			3: Khudobin (TEX)