Bourque Lifts Texas Over Grand Rapids

The Texas Stars (15-7-2-1) overcame a sleepy start to defeat the Grand Rapids Griffins (9-12-3-1), 4-to-3 in overtime.  Mavrik Bourque netted all four the Texas goals. 

“Bourque was excellent.  His line drove the offense.  Four goals, you can’t say enough about the effort from him.  Massive, massive impact on the win,”  said Stars head coach Neil Graham. 

The Stars didn’t play their best hockey Tuesday night, allowing the Griffins’ Jonatan Berggren a goal just one minute into the contest.  Texas mustered only four shots on goal in the opening period. 

“It’s been a tough stretch of hockey, without a doubt,” said Graham.  “You could tell we didn’t have the same jump in our legs and the same sharpness in our decision making.  Our puck movement was a little slow.  We were a little predictable to the opposition.  Unfortunately, we had more turnovers in high danger areas, than we care to see.” 

Texas amped-up the production in the second period, starting with Bourque’s first goal on a power play to tie the game.  Grand Rapids reclaimed the lead on Tim Gettinger’s a minute later.  The Stars continued to fight and tied the score, again, 18 minutes into the period with another power play goal by Bourque.  Grand Rapids grabbed back the lead and the momentum on William Wallinder,s goal in the final minute of the frame. 

The Griffins appeared to have squelched the Stars in the final frame until Bourque broke free, again, and scored the game-tying goal, again, with less than two minutes remaining in regulation play. 

Early in the third period Graham appeared visually dissatisfied with the team’s performance.  He said, “We needed to address some of our foundational habits.  Regardless of score, there is a standard of compete and intensity that we expect.  I wasn’t seeing that and I though it important to reset up.”  

The ice was clearly tilted in Texas’ favor as the game went into overtime.  It took Bourque only 38 second to score the game-winning goal, his fourth of the contest. 

“At the end of the day, to fight to say in the movement, to stay around it, and get rewarded is massive for our group,” said Graham.    

Texas’ Remi Poirier (7-3-2) earned the win, making 26 saves on 29 shot-on-goal.  Grand Rapid’s Sebastina Cossa (4-5-3) went home with the loss, allowing four goals on 30 shots.