Stars Shut Down San Diego for a 5-2 Win
January 23, 2016 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Texas Stars News Release
CEDAR PARK, Texas - The Texas Stars used a balanced attack to open up a three-goal lead and skated their way to a 5-2 victory over the San Diego Gulls on Saturday night in front of 5,460 in attendance at Cedar Park Center.
Radek Faksa's late second period goal stood up as the game-winner. Faksa, Derek Hulak and Greg Rallo each finished with a goal and two assists for Texas (22-16-3-3). Maxime Lagace stopped 29 of 31 shots in net as the Stars tallied their fourth win over San Diego (19-17-1-1) in five meetings this season.
Texas closes out their three-game weekend tomorrow in San Antonio at 4 p.m. CST.
Faksa's game-winner came with 35 seconds left in period two to cap off an odd-man rush as Rallo tallied the assist for a 3-1 Texas lead. Four minutes into the third, Rallo struck from the left circle for his team-leading 16th of the season, and 10th power play goal of the year, to make it a 4-1 score favoring the Stars and Texas never looked back.
Mattias Backman began the scoring for Texas with a wrist shot from the point that deflected off a San Diego player past Anton Khudobin at 11:59 of the first. Less than four minutes later, Hulak scored his ninth of the season to give Texas the 2-0 lead, but Simon Despres answered back on the power play for the Gulls at 17:25 to make it 2-1 entering the break.
Faksa's goal was the only offense in period two. Kenny Ryan tried to pull San Diego back with a shorthanded goal at 5:32 of the third to make it 4-2, but Brendan Ranford sealed the Texas win with an empty-net goal in the final minute of regulation for his 14th on the year.
Khudobin finished 20 of 24 in net for the Gulls, and has given up nine goals in five periods of play this season against the Stars.
Texas finished 1-for-4 on the power play while the Gulls went 1-for-6.
Backman (one goal, one assist) and Stephen Johns (two assists) also finished with multi-point games for the Stars. Texas has won five of their last eight games (5-2-1-0).
The Texas Stars are the primary development affiliate of the NHL's Dallas Stars and currently in their seventh season at Cedar Park Center. Full season, 24-game and 12-game ticket packages for the 2015-16 campaign are on sale now. For more information, call (512) GO-STARS (467-8277) or visit TexasStars.com.
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