Game one may not have ended for the Texas Stars in a positive way, but that doesn’t mean it was a waste. In fact, the Dallas Stars’ AHL affiliate proved that they can definitely go toe-to-toe with Toronto.
Dallas Stars fans were treated to an entertaining hockey double feature on Saturday. The night ended with game three of the Stanley Cup Final, but it began with game one of the Calder Cup Finals.
It’s in this game that the Texas Stars, the affiliate of the Dallas Stars, started their journey for their second ever Calder Cup championship.
Texas visited Toronto to square off with the Marlies after recently winning the Western Conference. Toronto, who won the East, is heavily favored in the series and looked as though they would reign supreme in this year’s playoffs.
That’s due to both their regular season performance and playoff action. The Marlies finished the regular season atop the league with 112 points (54-18-4). After narrowly escaping the Utica Comets in the quarterfinals round, they went on an eight-game win streak, sweeping both the Syracuse Crunch and Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
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They are arguably the most complete team in the AHL. With that being said, the Texas Stars are definitely in for a tough fight.
And after game one on Saturday, the fight became even more challenging. Texas traveled to Toronto for game one and, though they put up an admirable fight, lost 6-5 to the Marlies. Toronto now has a 1-0 series lead and will play game two on home ice on Sunday afternoon before the series shifts to Texas.
But the score doesn’t necessarily tell the story of the game. In fact, it shows that Texas put up a valiant fight and proved that they can go toe-to-toe with the AHL’s best.
The Stars started the game out with a few early leads. First it was a 1-0 lead, followed by a 2-1 mark. When Toronto tied it at 2-2, it only took 28 seconds for Austin Fyten to score for Texas and regain the lead. On top of that, Travis Morin popped in his second goal of the game just before the period ended to make it 4-2. But former Star Chris Mueller scored with 15 seconds left to make it a 4-3 contest after two.
The third period is where things began to melt. The Marlies scored two goals in the first 4:55 of the period to give themselves their first lead of the game. Justin Dowling helped the Stars claw back into the game with a tying goal a few minutes later. But midway through the final frame, Toronto picked up one last goal and held onto the 6-5 advantage from there.
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Before a few hiccups in the third period, though, that Texas Stars team looked good. They were evenly balanced and spread the puck around, with eight of the 18 skaters having at least one point. Justin Dowling (1G, 2A) and Travis Morin (2G, 1A) led the charge throughout the game and both had terrific outings.
The offense put together plenty of good looks, the power play (2/4) and penalty kill (3/4) looked good, and the team was energized for most of the game. The third period showed that Toronto is the best team in the AHL, but the first and second periods showed that Texas can run with the best of them. They made a few mistakes (just as every team does), but the Marlies made them pay for each one.
But the story here is the fight that the Texas Stars showed. They definitely are the underdog in this series, but they have now shown that they can go punch for punch. This Texas team is dangerous in their own sense and has only lost back-to-back games once this playoffs.
The overtime aficionados are back in action this afternoon starting at 3:00 p.m. in Toronto. Information on how to stream the game can be found here. Dallas Stars fans know what their AHL affiliate team is capable of after game one. That same level of effort needs to be present, and then some. That’s the only way Texas will take down the Toronto juggernaut.
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Do they have what it takes? We’ll find out once again this afternoon in Ontario.