Stars Fall 5-4 in Overtime to Grand Rapids

Nov 19, 2021

CEDAR PARK, Texas – The Texas Stars, American Hockey League affiliate of the NHL’s Dallas Stars dropped a back-and-forth, high-scoring game 5-4 to the Grand Rapids Griffins in overtime on Friday at the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park.

Dominik Shine put the Griffins in front 10:29 into the first period when he snuck a shot past Colton Point. Shortly after, the Griffins added to their lead when Taro Hirose scored from a similar spot as Shine. The Stars answered on the power play late in the period. Riley Damiani drove the puck down the zone to Curtis McKenzie in front of the net, he passed it back to Joel L’Esperance who then sniped it past Calvin Pickard. At 18:15, the Griffins closed out the period with another goal, when Brian Lashoff snuck a shot through traffic.

Adam Scheel replaced Point in the net to start the second period. Following a Jerad Rosburg fight with Shine, Oskar Back found Ty Dellandrea in the Griffins zone and Dellandrea threw a puck off of a Griffins skate and in to cut the deficit to 3-2. Coming out of a brief four-on-four situation, the Stars tied the game early in a power play when Thomas Harley sniped a pass from the blue line down to L’Esperance and he knocked it home. Just 40 seconds after L’Esperance’s second goal of the night, Jeremy Gregoire and Harley raced in a 2-on-1. Harley found Gregoire in front of the net and Gregoire jammed a puck past Pickard to give Texas the lead. With 2:57 left in the middle frame, the Griffins evened the score at 4-4 thanks to a goal from Tyler Spezia.

The teams skated through a scoreless third period into overtime with Texas outshooting Grand Rapids 27-23 in regulation. The Stars, playing in their third straight overtime game, couldn’t find the net, as Turner Elson scored instead for the Griffins 1:30 into the extra period.

Texas picked up a point in the standings in the 5-4 overtime loss and will look to bounce back Saturday at 7:00 p.m. at H-E-B Center at Cedar Park in the final game of Hockey Fights Cancer Weekend.

Photo Credit: Andy Nietupski

Game Info	Shots	Goaltenders	3 Stars (Xerox Business Solutions Southwest)
Boxscore	TEX: 27	W: Calvin Pickard (GR)	1: Turner Elson (GR)
Photo	GR: 23	L: Adam Scheel (TEX)	2: Joel L'Esperance (TEX)
Video			3: Tyler Spezia (GR)