Texas entered California with a mission: to take points off some of the top AHL teams. The Ontario Reign and Coachella Valley Firebirds have hosted some of the top AHL players (e.g., Samuel Fagemo, Kole Lind, Cameron Hughes, among others), and even though Texas was able to sign two of Coachella’s top offensive players (Lind, Hughes), the games this weekend were still going to be difficult matchups.
Despite putting up 27 shots in Friday’s game against the Ontario Reign, Texas could not beat the Alaskan goaltender Phoenix Copley, who got his first shutout of the season at Texas’ expense. During the game, there was a lack of differentiation between the top lines and the bottom six.
I was primarily concerned with defender Christian Kyrou on the ‘third-pair’ with Michael Karow, where Kyrou looked like he may have been forcing plays and holding onto the puck longer because of a different style of D partner (stable, defensive-oriented Karow vs. someone with more dynamic offensive/skating instincts to support Kyrou’s puck-handling interests).
Players like Kyrou are determined to 'round out' their game, so there is plenty of time to 'earn' a top-4 spot in the D core. I will monitor Kyrou's deployment and results this year.
Going into Saturday’s contest against Coachella Valley, I was not confident in Texas getting any points this weekend. However, with an exciting finish to the third period (teams traded goals 1 minute apart), we headed to overtime tied 3-3. Arttu Hyry scored in the shootout to get the extra point for the Stars, which was an excellent finish to the weekend.
Arttu Hyry scores the only goal in the shootout and Texas takes a 4-3 win. @TexasStars | #TEXvsCV pic.twitter.com/sbbIUdC2Xx
— American Hockey League (@TheAHL) December 1, 2024
Texas has yet to lose in extra time this season.
Shoutout to Remi Poirier for covering the back-to-back, playing 125+ minutes of hockey in two days, and getting Texas 2 points in Saturday’s game.
Player of the week: Remi Poirier
Week Stats:
GP | GAA | SV% | SA |
|---|---|---|---|
2 | 3.36 | 0.857 | 49 |
Season Stats:
GP | GAA | SV% | SA |
|---|---|---|---|
7 | 3.56 | 0.860 | 179 |
Overall, Texas’ battle was there, but without any ‘pop’ from the top players on the roster against tough teams, the Stars ultimately fell short. Having a goal-scoring dynamo like Samuel Fagemo on our side, I am confident internal options can rise to the occasion. Even when the team isn’t scoring, it is encouraged for this squad looking to prove itself as a top team in the AHL this season.
Texas plays a rematch against Ontario and Coachella Valley next weekend, so look for a hungry Texas squad looking to earn more standings points than 1 out of 4 this time. Similarly, keep an eye out for the endurance of the Texas squad, who will continue to be away from home this weekend and plays four games in six days.
Week ahead:
- Tue Dec 3, 2024 @ Ontario
- Thu Dec 5, 2024 @ Coachella Valley
- Sat Dec 7, 2024 @ Henderson
- Sun Dec 8, 2024 @ Henderson