Texas Stars Fall to Manitoba Moose 5-3

Oct 5, 2019

CEDAR PARK, Texas –The Texas Stars, American Hockey League affiliate of the NHL’s Dallas Stars, fell to the Manitoba Moose in their first meeting of the season on Saturday night at the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park. Conner Bleackley notched a pair of impressive goals in his Stars debut, but a late Manitoba goal ultimately burned Texas who overcame a two-goal deficit in the tilt.

 

The Moose opened scoring 1:08 into the contest as a shot slipped past Jake Oettinger in a 2-on-1, but Texas responded within moments to level the score. Bleackleychased the puck into the offensive zone as Moose goalie Mikhail Berdinattempted to play the puck in the right circle. Bleackley beat Berdin before tucking the puck into the left corner of an empty net. However, with less than a minute remaining in the period, Logan Shaw deflected a shot from the point past Oettinger to give Manitoba the advantage.

 

Texas has a chance on the man advantage early in the second period, but with six seconds remaining the chance shifted to 4-on-4 play due to a tripping call on Joel Kiviranta. Right off the faceoff, Logan Stanleyfired a shot toward the net that passed Oettinger for a goal. Texas battled through a period full of chances, tallying 13 total shots on goal. The Stars finally broke through at 18:33 as Jason Robertsonbattled to tap in his first career goal.

 

Seven minutes into the final frame, Bleackley leveled the score at three with his second goal of the night. Gavin Bayreuther sent the puck around the boards and Adam Mascherin picked it up behind the goal. The forward then slid the puck to Bleackley, who was parked in front of the Moose net. Bleackley then fired a rocket past Berdin to level the game at two. As the team’s battled back-and-forth for the go-ahead goal, Riley Tufte came inches away, but the puck was covered by Berdin as it rest on the goal line.

 

Eventually, the Moose broke through with a late goal to take the lead. With less than a minute remaining in regulation and Oettinger on the bench, Manitoba scored an empty net goal to conclude scoring in a 5-3 game. 

 

Berdin earned his first win of the season after stopping 26 of 29 shots by the Stars. Oettinger suffered the loss but stopped 31 of 35 Moose shots. The Moose held the Stars to no goals on three power play opportunities while Texas killed off all five of their penalties. 

 

The Texas Stars travel to Des Moines, Iowa next weekend and face the Iowa Wild in two games at Wells Fargo Arena on Friday, Oct. 11 and Saturday, Oct 12 at 7 p.m.

Game Info	Shots	Goaltenders	3 Stars (Xerox Business Solutions Southwest)
Boxscore	TEX: 29	W: Mikhail Berdin (MB)	1: Logan Shaw (MB)
Photo	OPP: 36	L: Jake Oettinger (TEX)	2: Conner Bleackley (TEX)
Video			3: Jason Robertson (TEX)