CEDAR PARK, Texas. – Friday night, the Texas Stars defeated the Cleveland Monsters 4-1 in front of a sold-out crowd at H-E-B Center in Cedar Park.
Following a scoreless first period, Jack Becker put the Stars on the board first when he buried a rebound into a vacant net after an Alexander Petrovic slapshot from the point pulled Cleveland goaltender Zach Sawchenko out of position and unable to contest the shot. Justin Hryckowian put the Stars up 2-0 just over one minute later when he passed the puck off the boards to himself at center ice, skated in the Cleveland zone, and beat Sawchenko with a wrist shot from the right wing faceoff dot. James Malatesta cut the Stars’ lead in half with a mirror image of the Hryckowian goal when he put a wrist shot from the left wing faceoff dot past Stars goaltender Remi Poirier. Matej Blümel put the Stars up 3-1 when he collected a turnover at the Cleveland blue line and on the breakaway, put a snap-shot from point-blank range over Sawchenko’s right shoulder. The Stars would take a 3-1 lead into the second intermission.
The Stars extended their lead to three early in the third period when Emilio Pettersen put a wrist shot from the top of the left circle past a partially screened Sawchenko. Cleveland would not go quietly as they heavily outshot the Stars in the remainder of the third period, but would never be able to get anything more past Poirier, who had an outstanding game, stopping 38 of 39 shots faced for the win.
Check out this photo gallery from Inside The Rink’s Rick Crossman for highlights from the game.
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