ROSEMONT, Ill. – In the regular season, the home team prevailed only twice in the eight games played between the Chicago Wolves and the Texas Stars. The trend continued in Game One of the West Division finals, as the Stars defeated the Wolves, 4-3, in overtime.
The Wolves never led in the game. Stars defenseman Garrett Stafford fired a wicked shot form the point at 2:22 into overtime for the victory.
Texas struck first on a turnover in the trapezoid behind the Wolves net. As Chicago tried to clear the puck, it deflected off the leg of a Stars player in front of the net. Colton Sceviour was able to collect the puck and get it up and in on the unsuspecting netminder Peter Mannino at 6:34 in the first. Mannino has started in all eight games that the Wolves had played in postseason.
Chicago struck back a minute later, as defenseman Arturs Kulda passed the puck to the front of the net with traffic to captain Jason Krog, who poked a wrist shot through Brent Krahn’s pads. This goal was the first goal that the Stars have let in during the first 40 minutes in each of their playoff games this year.
After a fairly even played first period, the Stars struck again as Andrew Hutchinson passed the puck north to south just within the blue line and Maxime Fortunus fired a one timer, just as Francis Wathier came across to screen Mannino at 1:43. The goal was given to Wathier after officials determined it deflected off the left wing.
The Wolves struck next on the power play. Defenseman Nathan Oystick at the near circle made a tape-to-tape pass to Anthony Stewart, who was cutting in front of the net and deflected the puck in.
The Stars got another quick goal 16 seconds into the third. As the puck was bouncing around the Chicago end, Jaime Benn was able to collect the disk on a turnover and slam it into a wide open net that was left open by Mannino.
With a faceoff in the near circle in the Texas zone, Texas won the drop but Joey Crabb bulldozed himself towards the net and slapped at the puck to even the score again late in the period. That would be the last Chicago would score.
Krahn stopped 32 of the 35 shots he faced, while Mannino stopped 24 of 28.
Three Stars were: Jaime Benn (Texas), Third Star with a goal; Joey Crabb (Chicago) with a goal; and Garrett Stafford (Texas) with the game winner.
The Wolves backchecking was nonexistent for most of the game. But Chicago’s power play and penalty kill were both exceptional. The Wolves converted one of the three while the Stars went one for four on the man advantage. The series will now go on to Sunday for another home game for Chicago.
West Division Finals CHICAGO vs. TEXAS Texas leads series 1 – 0 Game 1 – Fri Apr 30, 7:30 PM Texas 4, CHICAGO 3 OT Game 2 – Sun May 2, 3:00 PM Texas at Chicago Game 3 – Tue May 4, 7:30 PM Chicago at Texas Game 4 – Wed May 5, 7:30 PM Chicago at Texas *Game 5 – Fri May 7, 7:30 PM Chicago at Texas *Game 6 – Sun May 9, 3:00 PM Texas at Chicago *Game 7 – Tue May 11, 7:00 PM Texas at Chicago
* if necessary, All Games Central Time
Contact matt.chin@prohockeynews.com
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