Stars turning it round

Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author

The Texas Stars are accustomed to succeeding.

Western Convention finalists a 12 months in the past, the Stars have made the postseason in 11 of their 14 tries. They received the Calder Cup in 2014, and reached the Finals two different occasions. Being close to or on the prime of the Central Division standings has been a fairly dependable normal.

However the crew got here out of the gate with six straight losses this season, and had simply eight victories (8-13-2-1) by the point the primary third of their schedule had handed on Dec. 12.

To make sure, the Stars had suffered some vital offseason personnel losses. Ahead Matěj Blümel took his league-leading 39 objectives to the Boston Bruins group as a free agent. One other ahead, Justin Hryckowian, graduated to the Dallas Stars after successful the Dudley (Pink) Garrett Memorial Award because the AHL’s most excellent rookie final season. Standout defensemen Alex Petrovic and Kyle Capobianco discovered a roles in Dallas as nicely. And head coach Neil Graham joined the mother or father membership as an assistant coach.

Teaching basically has been a remarkably constant consider Cedar Park. Going again to 2014, they’d seen simply Graham (2019-25) and Derek Laxdal (2014-19) working the Texas bench. With Graham’s promotion, the group turned to Toby Petersen, a member of that 2014 championship crew, to steer its AHL affiliate.

And perhaps – simply perhaps – the Stars are again. They’ve earned factors in eight of their final 11 video games (7-3-1-0), together with a powerful 2-0 highway win over the dominating Grand Rapids Griffins on Friday night time. Rémi Poirier led the best way with 29 saves, Cameron Hughes and former Griffin Cross Hanas scored 51 seconds aside late within the center interval, and Texas handed the Griffins their first regulation loss in seven weeks.

Poirier got here again with 30 saves to backstop the Stars to a 3-1 win at Chicago on Saturday, securing the Howies Hockey Tape/AHL Participant of the Week nod from the AHL. The 24-year-old netminder has emerged as one of many Stars’ success tales regardless of the attempting starting to the season. In his fourth season with Texas, the web lastly and indisputably belongs to him. And he has taken on the workload to match his standing: his 24 appearances lead the AHL, whereas his 1,355 minutes place him second general. He holds a 10-10-4 document to go along with a 2.57 goals-against common and a .911 save proportion.

So Texas, for all of its troubles, has improved to 15-16-3-1 and climbed as much as fourth place within the Central Division. They’re simply three factors behind the third-place Manitoba Moose and path second-place Chicago by solely six factors. And the Stars’ energy play, a serious supply of problem this season, has began to awaken; after going 6-for-72 within the crew’s first 25 video games, the ability play has gone 7-for-26 since.

Eight of their subsequent 10 video games will probably be at dwelling to take them into the AHL All-Star break. Apart from a fast hop to go to Rockford and Iowa subsequent week, the Stars can settle in at dwelling starting with a go to from Coachella Valley tonight and Wednesday. Ontario, Henderson and Manitoba additionally make visits to H-E-B Middle within the subsequent month.

That mentioned, establishing a a lot stronger home-ice presence will probably be job-one. The Stars have received 4 straight dwelling video games after beginning the season 2-8-2-0 in Cedar Park, with all 4 of these wins coming towards their rivals from Milwaukee.

The second-half schedule is encouraging, too. Texas has simply two match-ups left with the league-leading Griffins, a visit to West Michigan in mid-February. However seven contests stay with the Wolves and 4 are left with the Moose. Ending within the prime three within the Central Division means avoiding a best-of-three first-round sequence.

Appreciable work stays to be achieved after such a tough begin. However Poirier’s goaltending is holding up, the ability play is discovering some life, and the Stars are settling in with their new head coach.

The subsequent month might inform simply how harmful this crew may grow to be down the stretch and – maybe – into the postseason.

On the American Hockey League beat for 20 years, TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams additionally at the moment covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a daily contributor on SiriusXM NHL Community Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his excellent protection of the league in 2016.