HAMILTON, ONTARIO – The Texas Stars used four unanswered goals to defeat the Hamilton Bulldogs 4-2 in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, winning the Robert W. Clarke Trophy as the AHL’s Western Confrerence champions. Mathieu Beaudoin had a goal and an assist and Perttu Lindgren had a goal and two assists for the Stars. Established in 1990, the AHL’s Western Conference championship trophy honors the late Robert W. Clarke. Mr. Clarke served as the Chairman of the AHL’s Board of Governors from 1967-94, and in 1956, he played an instrumental role in the formation of the Rochester Americans, one of the most successful franchises in AHL history and themselves a seven-time recipient of the Clarke Trophy.
The Stars become the first team since the Chicago Wolves and Bridgeport Sound Tigers in 2002 to reach the Calder Cup Finals in their first AHL season. In doing so, Texas won a pair of Game 7’s on the road – just the fifth time in AHL history that feat has been accomplished. The Stars, who initially fell into a 2-0 series hole, also became the 21st AHL team to win a best-of-7 series after dropping the first two games.
Texas goalie Matt Climie made 41 saves giving the Stars their second Game 7 win this postseason. Jamie Benn and defenseman Ethan Graham also scored. 
“We never really gave up,” clime said. “We came back and scored a couple of really big goals and ended up with the win. I just try to give my team a chance to win and keep us in it as long as I can.” Clime stopped a combined 92 our of 96 shots in games six and seven. “The score could have been out of control if Matt Clime hadn’t been huge,” Texas Head Coach Glen Gulutzan said. “We had a bad 40 minutes and our goalie held us in. He won the game for us.”
Hamilton goalie Curtis Sanford stopped 16 shots in the loss.
With the win, Texas moves on to face the Hershey Bears, the Eastern Conference champs, in the Calder Cup Finals.
As the first period wound down in time, Aaron Palushaj’s centering pass was redirected to David Desharnais, who snapped a shot to the Stars net. Climie lunged for the save, but the puck deflected off his stick and into the net for the 1-0 Hamilton lead. Desharnais’ tenth goal of the playoffs marked the seventh straight playoff game Hamilton opened the scoring against Texas.
In the second period, the Bulldogs extended their lead at 5:32. Max Pacioretty picked up a rebound off his second attempt for his first goal of the playoffs.
Texas countered with Ethan Graham when he sent a shot to the net and it bounced over the glove of goalie Curtis Sanford trimming the Hamilton lead to 2-1 after two periods of play. “We definitely got a good bounce,” Gulutzan said. “But you need bounces to win games like this.”
Texas tied the game at 9:15 of the third period when Beaudoin picked up his third goal of the playoffs.
The Stars took the lead, 3-2, with 6:00 left in the game. Beaudoin centered a pass for Perttu Lindgren for his sixth goal of the playoffs. The Stars rounded out the scoring with 1:27 left in regulation, as Jamie Benn finished off a two-on-one from Colton Sceviour for his 14th of the playoffs and a 4-2 final.
The Stars now head to the Calder Cup Finals as an expansion franchise in the American Hockey League against one of the storied clubs in the league and defending Calder Cup champs.
Contact lou.lafrado@prohockeynews.com or mitch.cooper@prohockeynews.com
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