Stars Wallop IceHogs, Extend Win-Streak to Eight

The H-E-B Center could have been channeling Oprah Winfred (“You get a goal, you get a goal, everyone gets a goal”) as the  Texas Stars (17-7-3-2) crushed the Rockford IceHogs (15-10-1-2) by a score of 6-to-1.  Texas extends its win streak to eight games with the victory. 

The Stars looked tired in the opening period, coming off a six-game road trip. Texas generated only 3 shots, but the one shot off the stick of Jacob Peterson found the back of the net late in the period. 

“We had moments with our hands were fine, we had moments when our legs were fine, we had moments when our brains were fine, but it rarely seemed to clicked all at the same time in the first (period),”  said Texas Stars head coach Neil Graham. 

Texas shook the weariness off their skates and pummeled the IceHogs with a five-goal second period, four  goals coming in a six-minute span.  Riley Damiani started the scoring barrage on a power play, followed by a goal from Tanner Kero, two goals from Marian Studenic and an unassisted goal by Riley Barber. 

“You can see when all three things click in the second (period) we had a little bit of an out-pour offensively,” said Graham.  “It was great to see everyone contributing, everyone got going at the same time.“  

The Stars began their celebration too early and their quality of play tanked in the final period.  Buddy Robinson put Rockford on the scoreboard early in the period.  The Stars were very lucky that two additional good looks fell their way. 

Texas goalkeeper Anton Khudobin (10-3-2) earned the win, making 26 saves against 27 shots. 

Rockford starting netminder Arvid Soderblom suffered the loss, allowing 5 goals on 12 shots before being replaced by Jaxson Stuber midway through the game.  Stauber allowed 1 goal against 9 shots.   

Graham showed pride in his team’s performance, saying, “we’ve understanding that if you play that same style for sixty minutes, even if it doesn’t happen right away, if you stay with it, overtime you’ll break through and we’ve seen it over the last eight games.”