Poirier Guides Stars' Sweep Against Griffins
December 20, 2023 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Texas Stars News Release
CEDAR PARK, Texas - The Texas Stars, American Hockey League affiliate of the NHL's Dallas Stars, completed a two-game series sweep with a 6-2 victory against the Grand Rapids Griffins on Wednesday night at the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park.
Nolan Stevens beat Remi Poirier with a shot from the slot after intercepting a breakout pass to put Grand Rapids on top first 2:14 into the opening period. At the 7:31 mark, Mavrik Bourque connected on a one-timer passed across the slot by Logan Stankoven and beat Sebastian Cossa for a power-play goal to tie the game, 1-1. The Stars grabbed their first lead of the night when Artem Grushnikov scored his first career AHL goal on a slap shot from the top of the zone at 14:31 to make it 2-1.
The Stars maintained a steady hold on their 2-1 lead throughout the second period while outshooting the Griffins 11-9 in the stanza for a 24-20 advantage in shots on goal after 40 minutes of action.
In the third period, Ben Berard scored his first career AHL goal unassisted to provide insurance for the Stars at 7:28 in the form of a 3-1 lead. Scott Reedy then made it 4-1 with 8:30 left to play by slinging in a shot from the slot. With 6:50 remaining in regulation, Carter Mazur cut the Stars' lead to 4-2. However, Fredrik Karlstrom scored an empty-net goal eight seconds before Nick Caamano beat Cossa to tally one last goal for safe measure with 1:57 left on the clock, which secured a 6-2 victory and sweep of the two-game series.
With the win, Poirier improved to 8-3-2 after stopping 35 of the 37 shots he faced. For the Griffins, Cossa came down with the loss to fall to 4-6-3 on the season after allowing five goals on 37 shots.
The Stars travel Manitoba in their next action following the holiday break for a pair of games against the Manitoba Moose on Friday, Dec. 29 at 7:00 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 31 at 4:00 p.m. at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg.
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