Texas Stars versus Chicago Wolves

CEDAR PARK, Texas — The Texas Stars and Chicago Wolves begin their best of seven West Division finals this weekend in Chicago. The teams will play a 2-3-2 format in this second round matchup.
The Wolves won the Calder Cup in 2008 and currently have eight players on their roster that were with that team, including 48-year old defenseman Chris Chelios, who is the oldest professional hockey player in North America.
The Stars quickly flicked aside the Rockford IceHogs in four straight, then had to sit back and wait to see who their next opponent would be. That meant not playing for a full week, while whoever their opponent would be would be coming off a tough seven-game series.
It was difficult to nail anyone down as to whether the week off was too long or if the team would have rather moved right into the next round.

“Probably somewhere in between,” Assistant Coach Paul Jerrard said. “It’s great to get some rest. I think the rest benefits you. I didn’t expect to get through the first series so quickly and you have to tip your hat to our guys.”
The team is trying to find a balance between rest versus rust.
“We’re trying to steal a page from something I heard in 1997 from Joe Sakic,” Head Coach Glen gulutzan said. “He said when Ray Bourque came over from Colorado, he fully expected to get hit in practice and fully expected to hit people. So we’re out here practicing hard and trying to keep the guys sharp and that’s the only thing you can manage as a coach.”
The rest has also given several guys time to heal from various injuries sustanined near the end of the season.
“We had some banged up guys and a few extra days helped us,” Gulutzan said. “We had some broken feet and bad knees and a sprained ankle we’re coming back from and now we’re as healthy as you can get come playoff time.”
While Rockford tried to intimidate Texas into submission which obviously didn’t work, Chicago plays a different style of hockey.
“Chicago’s a little diffrerent animal than Rockford,” Gulutzan added. “They’ve got a heavy skill-laden team, especially up front. We’re going to have to be aggressive and be hard on their defense. We also have to play our stingy defensive style. We can’t have hope plays and turnovers in the neutal zone. We’ve got to play a solid two-way hockey game and a direct attack game.”
Texas scored first in every game in the first round and never gave up a goal in the first two periods of any game.
“That’s very important for our team,” Gulutzan said. “We like to play with the lead. We’re a little better with the lead than coming from behind, but I don’t read too much into the first goal. I just like the way we play with the lead and the pace we play.”
The Stars will continue to focus on what got them to the playoffs in the first place; defense.
“The deeper you go, the more difficult it gets,” Jerrard said. “We have a difficult task with Chicago. They finished first in the division and they have home ice. One of the foundations of our team this year has been our defense. Our belief is if you take care of your own end, everything else will take care of itself. Our solid defense triggers our offense and gives us opportunities. It’s a five-man committment.”
The series may very well come down to which team is the most disciplined, i.e. specialty teams.
“We have to be disciplined, especially with their power play and penalty kill,” Gulutzan said. “We can take penalties, but they have to be the ones that we need to take; no unnecessary stuff.”
While defense seems to carry the day for the Stars, the offense steadily increased throughout the year and into the first round of the playoffs. One of the reasons for the offensive improvement is the play of rookie forwards Travis Morin and Jamie Benn. Morin assisted on seven of the 15 first round goals and is tied for third in rookie playoff scoring, despite playing two less games than the leaders. Benn has scored three goals and added three assists and is tied for fifth among rookie scorers.
“We expect a lot of tight checking and a hard fought series,” Morin said. “We’ve had success (in Chicago) and won a few games. We have to win a game on the road to win the series. So we have to go up there with the mentality that it’s going to take everybody’s best effort to get the job done.”
Jamie Benn played a full rookie season with the NHL Dallas Stars where he scored 22 goals and added 19 assists. Dallas assigned him to Texas to help Texas in the playoffs and give Benn some playoff experience. But how would he fit in with the AHL Stars?
“Obviously as coaches, we worry about what will happen when we bring a new guy into the group,” Gulutzan said. “Obviously we know how good a player he is, but how vested is that player going to be? The playoffs are about grit and determination and you could see from the first game that he was a vested guy. He’s a leader and he’s a character (player). Once game one was over, everyone knew (he) was here to play.”
The final ingrediant to a successful playoff run has to be goaltending. Right now, Stars’ goaltender Brent Krahn is as hot as they come, giving up only five goals in four games, all in the third period.
“Our goaltending was huge in the first series,” Morin said. “Krahn played great all four games and when it gets down to playoff time, that’s what you need.”
Krahn fully expects the team to carry its success and momentum into the second round.
“Every game we played, we got better and guys got more comfortable,” Krahn said. “Momentum is big in the playoffs and we’re anxious to get going. Each save is important and each shot is important. Our game is built around defense and the guys are really good at letting me see the puck and blocking shots. It’s a full team effort.”
Everyone, fans, players, coaches, etc. were frankly surprised the team cut right through a good Rockford team. Don’t get too comfortable with that notion. The Chicago series will probably look a lot like the regular season series where each team went four and three with Texas also losing an overtime game and Chicago losing a shootout. Expect this series to go at least six games with maybe even a couple of overtime games.
Contact mitch.cooper@prohockeynews.com