Dallas Stars Prospects: Texas Stars Drop Game 3 To Toronto
By Josh Clark
The Dallas Stars’ AHL affiliate didn’t have an ideal start to their three-game stretch at home. The Texas Stars couldn’t pick up the win over the Toronto Marlies in game three. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t close, though.
The Texas Stars arrived home earlier this week with a 1-1 series tie in the Calder Cup Finals. That was definitely good news.
Through the first two games, the Dallas Stars’ AHL affiliate put on quite a showing against the Toronto Marlies. In game one of the series, the Stars put on an offensive onslaught against the AHL’s best regular season team. And somehow, they still lost 6-5.
In game two, the Stars and Marlies were both much more defensively sound and structured. But in this case, it was Texas who rallied from a deficit and finished on top with a 2-1 win.
Now let’s make one thing clear: the Marlies are a good team. They are well coached, well versed, and proved it in the regular season and the postseason up to this point. Meanwhile, the Texas Stars are a team built with an interesting mixture of budding prospects and veteran talent. They are considered an underdog and have been for quite some time. And yet, here they are, three wins away from a Calder Cup championship.
But their road to ultimate victory got a little narrower on Tuesday night. The Stars dropped a 2-1 decision to the Marlies to open up their play at home in front of a sellout crowd. Dallas Stars and Texas Stars fans alike engulfed the H-E-B Center for game three in hopes of a victory. While that didn’t necessarily happen, the game was still a good one.
Just as it was in the second game in Toronto, game three was a defensive-minded game. Both clubs jumped out of the gate with impressive speed in the first period, each making their own respective pushes. But neither team was able to conjure up many quality chances besides an opportunity for Roope Hintz for Texas and a late push by Toronto to end the period. Only 12 total shots were taken in the opening frame.
The second period brought about more scoring as Sheldon Dries started things off with a slick wrist shot to the top corner, far side. That was quickly leveled out three minutes later on a broken play as Texas got caught in their own zone and Chris Mueller tied it up. A few minutes after that, Calle Rosen scored to give Toronto the 2-1 advantage.
In the third period, the Marlies continued to hold down the fort as Texas struggled to mount an offensive comeback.
An interesting point from the game was the fact that the only penalty of the entire game was called on Curtis McKenzie in the third. After 16 combined penalties between the two teams in the first two games, only one was handed out on Tuesday night. That’s interesting.
But, as teams trailing in playoff series like to say, it takes four wins to make it count. The Stars showed some good things in game three such as their speed and dedication to defense along with another solid performance from Mike McKenna. But they will need more in game four on Thursday night if they don’t want to face the dreaded 3-1 deficit.
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Game three didn’t pan out the way the Dallas Stars faithful wanted it to, but that doesn’t mean that hope is lost. There’s a new game tomorrow and another chance to right the wrong. Let’s see what Texas makes of it.