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Defeated the Desert Dogs: Oct 14-20 Texas Stars AHL report

Texas played two games against the Tucson Roadrunners this weekend and had a successful trip to the desert. As the team unpacks their luggage for an upcoming homestand, we will unpack Texas’ strong showing away from home in this week’s minor league report.

By Nick Lacoste |
Texas Stars v Toronto Marlies
Texas Stars v Toronto Marlies / Graig Abel/GettyImages

Texas has yet to play a game this year with less than 6 total goals scored. 

Texas Stars games include lots of action, lots of scoring, lots of mistakes, but lots of excitement.

The two games in Tucson were a tale of two different opposing goaltenders. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen two of the same type of goalie misplays in the same game. When Tucson was up 3-2 with 2 minutes left in the 2nd period on Saturday night, Matt Villalta, Tucson Roadrunners goalie, could not play the puck successfully behind the net after a Texas dump-in. Villalta's soft pass was intercepted by Antonio Stranges and sent quickly to Justin Hryckowian, who scored five-hole on a low wrist shot. 

Later in the same game, with less than 2 minutes to play in the game and tied 4-4, Villalta went for a puck off of another dump-in, tried to stickhandle, and shot the puck into Mathias Emilio Pettersen’s shin pad, who grabbed the puck and stuffed it into the open net ahead of a diving Villalta. Two goals were directly caused by a goalie being unable to play the puck outside his crease.

In my experience, a junior coach would never tell a goalie to leave their crease for the rest of the game if this happened once. In professional AHL hockey, the fact that this happened twice for both a game-tying goal and a game-winning goal is an absurd way to throw away 2 points in the loss. In the 2nd game, Jaxson Stauber was much better in net for Tucson and stopped 41 of 45 Texas shots in the game.

Texas was trailing 3-1 in both games this week and bounced back to win. Texas's resilience and fast-paced game are paying off. They are quick off the rush and play well as a team despite having played only four games this season.

Player of the week: Chase Wheatcroft

Week Stats

GP

G

A

P

2

2

2

4

Season Stats

GP

G

A

P

4

3

3

6

Things Texas is doing right:

  1. A ‘Shoot-first’ mentality: Texas is averaging 35+ shots per game and is aggressive on offense
  2. Playmaking patience: Conversely, Texas is doing an excellent job at understanding when to shoot and when to keep possession, often looking for high-danger angles. This team is full of good thinkers and creative playmakers.
  3. Resilience: This is an obvious positive after trailing 3-1 in both games this week. While you’d like to always be ahead in a hockey game, fighting back in pro hockey when down multiple goals in back-to-back days against the same team is impressive.

Things Texas can improve on next week:

  1. Cleaner Defensive Zone Breakouts: There were some issues off of dump-ins, where defenders were having trouble making passes and getting away from Tucson’s forecheckers. Centremen ‘below the puck’ needs more support to push the puck out of the zone rather than watch the play from afar.
  2. Quicker feet on defense: At times, wingers and defenders are gliding into their DZ assignments, which sometimes causes Texas to lose their body positioning and leverage in breakout opportunities. If you’re the first player to your assigned spot in the DZ, this will help the breakout have more support and options to evade opposing forecheckers on the way out of your zone.

Overall, The Texas Stars had a successful week, going 2-0 and receiving scoring from all over the lineup. 

Week ahead:

  • Fri Oct 25, 2024 vs. Iowa
  • Sat Oct 26, 2024 vs. Iowa
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