Stars on the long, hard road

CEDAR PARK, Texas – With two thirds of the season completed, the Texas Stars packed their pads, sticks and gloves and headed out on an eight-game road trip that could virtually make or break their season.
After back-to-back home wins against the Rockford IceHogs, the Stars elevated themselves into fifth place in the West Division with 64 points. The good news is that the four teams in front of the Stars (Houston, Milwaukee, Peoria and San Antonio) have just 68, 67, 67 and 66 points respectively. And the Stars have games-in-hand on all except Milwaukee.
“It’s nice to win your games-in-hand,” Head Coach Glen Gulutzan said. “It inches you up there and that certainly helps with your confidence because you don’t see yourself in sixth place all the time.”
Texas will face five divisional foes during the lengthy road trip, presenting a great opportunity to move further up in the standings.   The trip opens with two games in Lake Erie against the Monsters. While not in the same division, the Monsters are currently in fourth place in the North Division, but have fewer points than Texas.
“It’s an important road trip for us,” goaltender Richard Bachman said. “We’ve got to be ready to play almost every other night for the whole time. It will be a good challenge for us.” The Lake Erie games are especially significant because of the playoff crossover rule. Since the West Division has more teams, if the fifth place team finishes with more points that the fourth place team in the North, the West Division team would replace them in the playoffs. So the Stars have to look at these two games as being four-point games within the division.
The road trip comes at a time when Texas is suffering from some key injuries and call-ups to the Dallas Stars’ NHL team.   Forwards Travis Morin, Aaron Gagne, Ray Sawada, Colton Scevior and All-Star Francis Wathier were all called up at the same time. This forced Texas to quickly sign unfamiliar names like Mark Derlago, Dave Bonk, and Kael Mouillierat to replace them. Mouillierat scored 44 points in 44 games with the Stars’ ECHL affiliate in Idaho.   Bonk played 33 games in the CHL with the Allen Americans, scoring 44 points in 33 games. Derlago scored 53 points in 48 games in Idaho and has AHL experience in Manitoba and Providence. All have performed credibly while trying to learn the system and integrate themselves into unfamiliar lines.
Morin returned to the team only to sustain an injury and won’t be available for most, if any of the road trip. Same goes for Defenseman Phillip Larsen.
“Bad timing,” Gulutzan said. “They both have similar lower body injuries and will be out about ten days.”
Gagne and Sawada remain with the parent team, but Wathier and Scevior are back and that should make a big difference.
“It’s nice to have (them) back,” Bachman said. “It’s great for (them) to have an opportunity up there, but we sure like having (them) around here. It gives the guys a little boost to see a familiar face in the locker room.”
Bachman has been like a brick wall in goal, giving up barely two goals per game and stopping about 93% of the shots he faces. The return of goaltender Brent Krahn from injury should help as well.
So the Stars head off into the sunrise to play eight road games in 13 days, including a grueling three-day, three-game stretch in Grand Rapids, Chicago and Milwaukee. By the time they return home, we should have a pretty good idea where they stand coming down the home stretch.
Contact the writer at: mitch.cooper@prohockeynews.com  
Contact the photographer at: deidre.hughes@prohockeynews.com