The Texas Stars almost caught a case of déjà vu Saturday night against the Iowa Wild. For the second night in a row, the two teams entered penalty shootouts tied at 3-3. This time, Texas couldn’t find the deciding goal.
Iowa scored three unanswered goals in the third period to eventually defeat the Stars in H-E-B Center at Cedar Park, 4-3. The weekend series evened out, leaving the Stars with a 1–1 record.
Through the first period of the game, it felt as if yesterday’s match had stolen all the goals. Both teams failed to reach ten shots on goal to start the game, and every moment of good offense was met by better defense.
While Texas head coach Toby Petersen would’ve liked to see his offense get off to a hot start, he said he was confident in what he saw tonight to keep the team in games after losing last season’s standout goalkeeper, Rémi Poirier, last weekend to the New Jersey Devils.
“Our systems and our team play I thought was better tonight,” Petersen said. “We were stacking shifts together, kind of riding some big waves with some pretty good momentum there for a while.”
Stars goaltender Arno Tiefensee kept the puck bouncing off of him across the first two periods. Iowa had seven power play opportunities compared to Texas’ two, and it wasn’t until the fifth attempt that the Wild got one past him. After that goal, it began to fall apart for both him and the Stars’ defense.
The Texas Stars entered the third period barely hanging on to a 1-0 lead over the Iowa Wild after Texas forward Mike Sgarbossa capitalized on their first power play of the game for his first goal of the season.
Within two minutes of the final period starting, Texas added two more goals to the scoreboard. The Stars shot out of the gate, with Sgarbossa scoring again right before forward Ellis Rickwood also scored his first goal of the year.
“Entries were great, we got in there. The movement is one thing for sure,” Sgarbossa said. “You had a lot of talent on that power play. Everyone can shoot, everyone can make plays, now it’s just about building chemistry and reading off each other and that comes with a little bit of time.”
For Texas tonight, it ultimately came down to the Wild receiving more opportunities to take advantage of. While some of the calls on the Stars were considered controversial by the fans — who chanted “Refs you suck!” — Petersen will look to clean up the penalties and late mistakes that cost them the game.
“We have to address it, and we knew going into this game that we got to stay in the box. We just had to,” Petersen said. “We felt confident with our five-on-five game, but we knew that the one thing that would absolutely do us in would be an undisciplined game with penalties.”
Texas has been a part of two thrillers to start the season after last night’s win ended with a penalty shootout as well. Tonight felt like a sure thing early in the third period for the Stars before Iowa made the crowd full of cheers and held their breath with three straight goals, sending the game to overtime.
The Stars won’t return home for a game until Oct. 23 against the Ontario Reign. Their next game is next Saturday, Oct. 10, at 6:00 p.m. CT against the Hershey Bears at the GIANT Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
