CEDAR PARK, Texas – Brandon DeFazio led the way with three points and the Texas Stars offense scored three goals in the final three minutes of the first period to open up a 6-2 win over the Charlotte Checkers on Opening Night of the American Hockey League’s 2016-17 regular season at H-E-B Center.
DeFazio tallied a goal and two assists in the win. Justin Dowling scored the first goal of the season, and Maxime Lagace turned in a 34-save performance to earn his first win of the season.
Texas (1-0-0-0) and Charlotte (0-1-0-0) face off again Saturday at 7 p.m. CST to close out the weekend.
Dowling opened up the scoring at 6:52 of the first on an odd-man rush with DeFazio to tally the 250th point of his pro career. Things stayed quiet until late in the period when the Stars offense erupted for three goals in the final minutes. Nick Ebert tapped home a rebound goal with 2:11 to play. Cole Ully added his first of the year 51 seconds later, and with less than a second remaining on the clock, Mattias Backman snapped home a wrist shot from the slot to make it 4-0, Texas.
Michael Leighton came on in relief to start the second for Charlotte after starter Alex Nedelijkovic gave up the first period tallies. Derek Ryan tipped home a power play goal to put the Checkers on the board at 9:09 of the second, but the offensive show continued for the Stars. Stransky found his way on the scoresheet with a power play goal at 16:16 from touch-passing by Travis Morin and Brendan Ranford down low.
DeFazio then put an exclamation point on his Texas debut with a breakaway goal by swatting a deflected puck out of the air and off the back of Leighton with just over a minute to play in the second.
Charlotte’s Andrew Poturalski scored late in the third to make it a 6-2 final.
Backman (goal, assist) and Ludwig Bystrom (two assists) also finished with a multi-point game for Texas.
Texas went 1-for-3 on the power play. Charlotte finished 1-for-4. Leighton ended the game 14 of 16 in net for the Checkers.
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