Stars Fight Past Wolves

The Texas Stars (28-26-6-6) showed a competitive spirit that we’ve not seen enough of this season as they took on the Chicago Wolves (44-14-5-5). The Stars fought with their sticks and with their fists to defeat the Wolves, 3-2. 

Texas goaltender Matt Murray made his first career start as a professional and took home the win, making 20 saves against 22 shots.  Chicago goalkeeper Pyotr Kochetkov endured the loss, allowing 3 goals on 22 shots.  

Commenting on Murray’s professional debut, Texas Stars head coach Neil Graham said, “I thought he did a real nice job… his goalie handles were good, he made some key saves for us and I thought he settled in well.”

The Stars came out ready for a fight, literally, starting just a minute and a half into the game, sending Texas’ Ty Dellandrea and Chicago’s jack Drury to the sin bin for 5 minutes.  The Wolves’ Josh Leivo and the Stars’ Ben Gleason called the penalty box home just 10 minutes late. 

Between the two fights, Texas scored twice off the sticks of Joel L’Esperance and Riley Damiani.  Stegan Noesen found the back of the net for Chicago in the final minute of the frame. 

The team exchanged goal in the second period, Texas’s from Fredrik Karlstrom and Chicago’s by Ryan Suzuki. 

Neither team scored in the final period, despite an intense push by the Wolves in the final two minutes of play, after pulling their goal.  Texas’ defense hunkered down, allowing Chicago just one shot on goal. 

Aside from the emotion of the fights, both teams played a controlled and purposeful game.  Neither team took more than 8 shots in a period, but those shots counted. 

“I thought guys bought in to a mentality tonight and there was a sixty-minute plan and I thought they executed it pretty well,” Graham said after the game.