Stars Edge Griffins in 2-1 Thriller
Nov 10, 2017|
Three Stars: Shots: Goaltenders: |
CEDAR PARK, Texas - Landon Bow made 33 saves, and Sheldon Dries tallied the game-winner shorthanded, as the Texas Stars opened a three-game homestand with a 2-1 win over the Grand Rapids Griffins Friday night at H-E-B Center at Cedar Park in front of 5,245 fans.
Dries' game-winner came on a shorthanded breakaway at 8:47 in the third as he beat Grand Rapids' Tom McCollum for his third of the season and the Stars' first shorthanded tally of the year. From there, Bow and the Stars' defense shut the door on the AHL's defending Calder Cup champions.
"The defenseman bobbled it a little bit. I thought I could dive in and scoop it up," said Dries. "Luckily I did and luckily it went in and we got the result tonight."
Texas (7-6-0-1) and Grand Rapids (6-7-0-1) face off again Saturday at 7 p.m. CST.
The Stars got on the board late in the first when Colin Markison found the back of the net for his second goal in as many games. Travis Morin tallied his 14th assist of the season on the goal to take over the AHL lead.
The Griffins peppered Bow early with 16 shots in the first period but he kept the Grand Rapids offense at bay, including 1:11 of a 5-on-3 power play. The Stars rookie goaltender has given up just four goals in his last three games, stopping 70 of 74 shots over that span (.945 save percentage).
"The team really helped keep the high-scoring chances down," said Bow. "Getting a lot of blocked shots. These guys are sacrificing their bodies night in and night out, and it's really helped me leaving those ones from the outside that don't have too much on them."
Grand Rapids finally broke through at 12:49 of the second on Tyler Bertuzzi's second of the season to knot the score, before Dries buried the game-winner.
"You could tell the first ten minutes we kind of weathered the storm a little bit," said Dries. "They had the pressure on. But once we setlled in, I thought we played a pretty strong game and we got the win. That's the most important thing."
Texas finished 0-for-1 on the power play. Grand Rapids went 0-for-3.