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AHL Texas Stars

Stars Fall to Admirals in Game One

May 12, 2023 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Texas Stars News Release


The Texas Stars suffered their first loss of the 2023 Calder Cup Playoffs Friday in a 2-1 loss to the Milwaukee Admirals in Game One of the Central Division Finals at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. The Admirals lead the best-of-five series 1-0.

Game Two of the series is Saturday at 6:00 p.m. CT in Milwaukee before the series shifts back to Texas for Game Three on Wednesday, May 17 at 7:00 p.m. CT. Games Four and Five, if necessary, will also be in Cedar Park, as the Stars still hold home-ice advantage.

Stars forward Rhett Gardner (3-3-6) scored his third goal in four games so far in the postseason, giving the Stars a 1-0 lead just 6:30 into the game. It's the second straight playoff series where Gardner has opened the scoring. The fourth-year pro also gave Texas a 1-0 lead in the first period of Game One against Rockford on Apr. 28.

Texas has scored the first goal in all four playoff games so far, going 3-1 to show for it. During the regular season, the Stars scored first in 43 of the 72 games, with a record of 31-7-3-2.

Friday's loss was the Stars' first road defeat since Mar. 18 of the regular season, when Texas suffered a 6-5 overtime loss at San Jose. Texas had won four straight road games since, including both road contests in the series at Rockford.

Stars goaltender Matt Murray has allowed two goals or less in all five career games against Milwaukee going back to last April. The rookie is 3-2-0 in his career against the Admirals and his only two defeats have come by 2-1 scores. The loss was also Murray's first of these playoffs as he stopped 31 of 33 shots. He is 3-3 in his Calder Cup Playoffs career and has only allowed 11 total goals in six postseason games.

Friday's game was the seventh one-goal game of the nine meetings in the regular season and playoffs between Texas and Milwaukee. Going back even further, 13 of the last 19 matchups since over the last three seasons have been one-goal affairs, including five overtime games.

QUOTES:

Head Coach Neil Graham (on suffering first loss of the playoffs)

"You lose game one and you have to dust yourself off and regroup awfully quick for Game Two. It's a quick turnaround tomorrow. It's our first test of adversity here in terms of losing a game. It's important for us to push through. We'll respond. I have a lot of faith in our group, I have a lot of faith in our leadership, and tomorrow is a new day."

Graham (on response following Milwaukee's 5-on-3 power play goal)

"Obviously it's a tough situation when you go down 5-on-3 for that length of time, you almost get through it, and then they squeak one by you there near the end of it against some fatigued [penalty] killers. So that one's on us and we're going to have to get a little smarter in those situations going forward, but at the end of the day, like I said, it's one game. We've got to move on and clean up a few areas in our game as we talk about win or loss and be back at it tomorrow."

Graham (on the difficulty to generate chances late in the game)

"We lost a little bit of momentum there in the third after the goal and then we never really found a lot of that momentum back. That's playoff hockey. You've got to find ways to push through and create in different areas. We didn't create nearly enough in the third to tie the game or even take a lead. Again, things that we can address, things that we can look at. I have faith in our group and our ability to execute."

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