Texas Stars fans watched as the puck slid from three-quarters of the ice away straight into Texas’ open net. The puck signified the Iowa Wild going up two goals with less than a minute on the clock, and Iowa fans were set to go home happy — until the icing call came in.
The controversial call from the refs gave the Stars another chance to tie the game, one that they took off the stick of forward Dylan Hryckowian with 22 seconds left on the clock. In an instant, Texas went from losing another game to the Iowa Wild to coming back to win 4-3 after a shootout.
“I think after the icing call we saw it as an opportunity to really pounce on,” Hryckowian said. “It was a crazy last minute of the game, and we were just lucky to be on the right end of it.”
The Texas Stars opened their season at the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park on Friday night. To begin its season, Texas faced something it had done only twice in eight chances last season: besting the Iowa Wild.
Recent transactions would not make the task easy. On Sept. 27, Texas lost its starting goaltender from a season ago, Rémi Poirier, to the New Jersey Devils. The signing shook things up for the Stars just five days before the season began. Texas turned to goaltender Brandon Halverson to protect the net in the opener.
Halverson stepped in right where Poirier left off, conceding only three goals on 36 shots from Iowa and shutting down all three shots from Iowa during the shootout. Halverson kept Texas in a game where their offense was dangerously inefficient, scoring two goals early before falling stagnant for most of the rest of the game.
“He made a lot of huge saves. Obviously, in the shootout he came up very big,” head coach Toby Petersen said. “I had been told he’s active, I’ve watched him. Until you see it firsthand, you don’t realize how much he likes to get back there and get a feel for the puck.”
The rest of the Stars’ players tried to give the game away. Rising tensions, compounding penalties and a general lack of puck control allowed Iowa to claw back into a game Texas had control of early.
The second of Iowa’s three goals came with two Texas men off the ice, resulting in a five-versus-three for the Wild. The disadvantaged defense could not hold forever and gave Iowa the equalizer it needed.
Texas found its early goals through defensemen Jack Anderson and Kyle Looft. Long-range slapshots defined Texas’ attack for most of the game while it struggled to cash in on looks close to the net. Texas’ forwards couldn’t generate pressure on the opposing goaltender or stretch the defense until the end of regulation.
The Texas Stars return to the H-E-B Center on Saturday, Oct. 3, for their second match against Iowa at 7 p.m.
