CEDAR PARK, Texas. – Saturday night, the Texas Stars overcame a two-goal deficit on their way to defeating the visiting Rockford IceHogs 4-3, thanks to a third period shorthanded goal from Matej Blümel. With the win, the Stars overtook the Grand Rapids Griffins to move into first place in the Central Division.
Samuel Savoie opened the scoring for Rockford early in the first period when he put a shot from the left wing faceoff dot high glove side past Stars goaltender Ben Kraws. Antonio Stranges tied the game 1-1 when he deflected a backdoor pass from Gavin White past Rockford Drew Commesso. The IceHogs responded by scoring two goals in four minutes. The first came off a backhand shot from Joey Anderson, giving the IceHogs a 2-1 lead. The second goal came when Brett Seney pulled Kraws out of position and wrapped behind the net to set up a wide open Andreas Athanasiou for the tap in. Kole Lind cut the Stars’ deficit to 1 with 3:22 remaining in the first period when he redirected a shot from Kyle Capobianco past Commesso, making the score 3-2 into the first intermission.
In the second period, Ben Gaudreau would be called on to replace Commesso after he left the ice with an injury 15 minutes into the period. The Stars tied the game 3-3 with 1:24 left in the period when Capobianco lobbed a wrist shot from the left point past a heavily screened Gaudreau.
Matej Blümel gave the Stars their first lead of the game and scored the eventual game-winning goal when he skated into the IceHogs zone shorthanded and beat Gaudreau with a wrist shot from the high slot, at 10:28 of the third period.
Check out this photo gallery from Inside The Rink’s Rick Crossman for highlights from the game.
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