Sellout Crowd Sees Stars End Regular Season in 4-1 Win
Apr 16, 2016
Boxscore
Photos
Postgame Video
Shots:
Stars - 22
Moose - 33
Stars Win 40 Games for Sixth Time in Seven-Year History
CEDAR PARK, Texas -- Jack Campbell provided a 32-save performance in net and Matej Stransky stayed hot with his ninth goal in the last 11 games to lead the Texas Stars to a 4-1 win over the Manitoba Moose on Saturday in front of a sellout crowd at Cedar Park Center in the Stars’ regular season finale.
Mattias Backman, Esa Lindell and Greg Rallo also scored for the Stars. The Stars (40-25-8-3) swept their four-game season series with the Moose (26-41-4-5) in the win. For the sixth time in their seven-year history, Texas finished the regular season with 40 wins in advance of beginning the Calder Cup Playoffs.
Texas will host the San Diego Gulls on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. CST in Game 1 of their opening round, best-of-five playoff series.
Both teams traded chances throughout the opening period in a fast-paced start, but Backman was the one who opened up the scoring with just under two minutes remaining. Gemel Smith set up the Stars defenseman in the left circle on a counter-attack rush for his eight of the season and a 1-0 Texas lead entering the break.
Midway through period two, Stransky snapped home his 23rd of the season from the left circle on another rush to make it a 2-0 advantage for the Stars.
Esa Lindell extended the Texas lead to three on an odd-man rush at 7:37 of the third for his 14th of the season, and Rallo buried an empty-net goal from center ice late in the period to cap off the Texas scoring. Dan DeSalvo was the lone goal-scorer for the Moose at 16:35 in between Lindell’s and Rallo’s goals to end Campbell’s shutout bid in the game.
Eric Comrie suffered the loss for the Moose stopping 19 of 22 shots. Campbell earned his seventh win of the year with 32 saves.
Both teams went scoreless on the power play as Texas finished 0-for-4 and Manitoba went 0-for-3.
The Texas Stars are the primary development affiliate of the NHL’s Dallas Stars and currently in their seventh season at Cedar Park Center. Full season, 24-game and 12-game ticket packages for the 2016-17 campaign are on sale now. For more information, call (512) GO-STARS (467-8277) or visit TexasStars.com.
| Three Stars: 1. Jack Campbell (TEX) 2. Matej Stransky (TEX) 3. Mattias Backman (TEX) |
Goaltenders: W - Campbell L - Comrie |
Photo Credit: Christina Shapiro/Texas Stars