Stars Swept in Manitoba

Mar 3, 2024

WINNIPEG, Manitoba – The Texas Stars, American Hockey League affiliate of the NHL’s Dallas Stars, fell victim of a two-game weekend sweep with a 6-2 loss to the Manitoba Moose on Sunday afternoon at Canada Life Centre.

 

Jeff Malott buried a pass from Nikita Chibrikov past Remi Poirier to open the scoring in favor of the Moose 2:49 into the opening period. Manitoba then grabbed a 2-0 lead at 8:05 when C.J. Seuss cleaned up a rebound left of the goal initially fired Poirier’s way by Malott.

 

The Stars cut the deficit to 2-1 at 4:42 of the second period when Keaton Mastrodonato corralled a puck chipped out to center by Oskar Back for a breakaway, where he beat Collin Delia with a far-side shot from the hashes. Moments later at 4:57, Texas’ Jack Becker had a puck bounce off him and in near the top of the crease to tie it 2-2. Manitoba reclaimed a two-goal lead by scoring a pair to make it 4-2 in the final minute of the middle frame. Axel Jonsson-Fjallby scored first with exactly a minute left when he followed up on his rebound after Poirier stonewalled him on the backdoor following a two-on-one rush. Jeffrey Viel then snapped a shot past Poirier from the top of the left circle to put the Moose up by a pair 19 seconds prior to the second intermission.
 

The third period saw the Moose extend their lead to 5-2 when Jonsson-Fjallby wristed a shot past Poirier from the left circle with 2:58 elapsed. Henry Nikkanen capped an eventual 6-2 victory for the Moose by scoring an empty-net goal with 2:18 remaining in regulation.

 

Earning the win in goal for the Moose, Delia improved to 11-16-1 on the season after making 30 stops on 32 shots in the contest. For the Stars, Poirier came down with the loss to fall to 14-11-3 after allowing five goals and making 22 saves.

 

The Stars return home to host the San Jose Barracuda next Friday and Saturday with a face-off at 7:00 p.m. scheduled for both nights at the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park.

 

Photo Credit: Jonathan Kozub / Manitoba Moose

 

Game Info	Shots	Goaltenders	3 Stars (Ubeo Business Services)
Boxscore	TEX: 32	W: Delia (MB)	1: Jonsson-Fjallby (MB)
Photo	MB: 28	L: Poirier (TEX)	2: Malott (MB)
Video			3: Nikkanen (MB)