CEDAR PARK, Texas – Friday night, the Texas Stars opened the 2024-25 season with a 4-3 victory over the Henderson Silver Knights.
In a penalty-filled first period that had both teams shaking off some off-season rust, the Stars took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission thanks to two goals from a pair of Stars defensemen, Luke Krys and Alex Petrovic, within a 20-second time frame.
The Silver Knights cut the Stars’ lead to one just 20 seconds into the second period when Jonas Rondbjerg put a snap-shot from the slot past Stars netminder Magnus Hellberg. Chase Wheatcroft restored the Stars’ two-goal lead when he put a wrist shot from the left circle over the left shoulder of Akira Schmid. Despite a combined 22 minutes in penalties in the second neither team would score on the power play. The Stars would take a 3-1 lead into the second intermission.
The third period would have the fewest penalties in the game but saw both teams score on the power play. Matej Blümel picked up where he left off last season with his first goal of the season when he slid a loose puck at the top of the crease past Schmid, giving the Stars their first power play goal of the night and a 4-2 lead. Jonas Rondbjerg would score his second goal of the night off a one-timer pass from Tanner Laczynski on a 5-3 power play. Despite outshooting the Stars 13-6 in the third period the Knights would not be able to tie the game and Texas would hold on to win 4-3.
Magnus Hellberg stopped 37-40 shots for the win and Akira Schmid stopped 18-22 shots in the loss.
Check out this photo gallery from Inside The Rink’s Rick Crossman for highlights from the game.
