Texas Stars Fall in Physical Game Against Peoria Rivermen
Chris Kennedy is a new contributor to Big D Hockey and I hope you’ll join me in welcoming him. He has offered to send us some insight and perspective on some of the Texas Stars games this season, and as it’s hard for BDH staff to cover the whole state, it’s something we gladly welcomed. Thanks Chris!
After three wins on the road in three nights, the Texas Stars returned home to the Cedar Park Center hoping to continue the streak on Wednesday against the Peoria Rivermen. The Rivermen scored first about midway through the first period when Cam Paddock deflected Tyson Strachan’s shot past Texas goaltender Matt Climie. Texas quickly answered on a power play when Greg Rallo went top shelf on Ben Bishop for his team leading eleventh goal of the season. Texas forward Francis Wathier was called for a hooking penalty with 1:13 remaining in the first, Peoria forward Julian Talbot took advantage of the penalty with 28 seconds left in the period putting Peoria up 2-1 going into the first intermission.
The game quickly turned ugly in the second when Stars goalie Matt Climie came out of the net to play the puck and was run over hard by Yan Stastny. Defenseman Dan Jancevski came to the defense of Climie and landed a few good punches on Stastny before they both went down. Both players received five minutes for fighting, Stastny got two for goaltender interference, and Jancevski got two for roughing, eliminating the power play the Stars would have received. Midway through the period, Peoria took advantage of another power play against the Stars’ third ranked penalty kill when Brett Sonne beat Climie putting the Rivermen up, 3-1. Six minutes later, Peoria beat Climie once again to make it 4-1 when goalie Ben Bishop hooked up Barry Tallackson with a beautiful pass straight down the middle of the ice for a breakaway. With just over thirty seconds left in the second, Warren Peters got even for Stastny’s hit on Climie; when Bishop decided to play the puck behind the net Peters took him down, Danny Richmond immediately dropped the gloves with Peters, both players landed some good punches until they ran out of gas and were split up. Peters left the ice with blood around his eye. He recently recovered from a broken orbital bone, hopefully it wasn’t re-injured.
The start of the third period brought more of the same, with another fight just two and a half minutes in between Strachan and Scott McCulloch. Both got five minutes for fighting, and a minute later, Stastny once again put a hit on Matt Climie putting Texas on the power play. The man advantage did not help Texas, however. Their power play could not get set up. Peoria cleared the zone shortly after Texas came in every time, and it eventually paid off for Peoria with a short-handed goal by Adam Cracknell which finished off the scoring for the night at 5-1, with just under fifteen minutes remaining in the game. Peoria continued to play tough throughout, but with a four goal lead, had stopped putting much pressure on in the offensive zone and were content to let the clock run down.
Stars defenseman Brad Lukowich missed the game with an injury, and his veteran leadership as well as his ability to move the puck on the power play seemed to be greatly missed, as the Stars defense has looked as bad as I’ve seen all year. The physical presence of enforcer Luke Gazdic, who was sent down to Idaho one day earlier, also seemed to be an important piece that was missing versus a very big Peoria team. But, it was probably a necessary move to carry another d-man with Lukowich’s absence. Goalie Matt Climie also seems to be weak with the glove, as it seems that most of the goals he lets in go high glove side, but part of that may be attributed to the multiple hits he took from behind in the game.
Texas plays again Friday against the Rockford Ice Hogs, with a rematch against the Hogs on Saturday. Both games are at the Cedar Park Center, where the Stars are hoping to improve on their league best 40 points on the season.