Stars slip past Wild, 5-2

CEDAR PARK, TX  – The Iowa Wild (18-33-3-4, 43 points) were defeated by the Texas Stars (33-20-4-3, 73 points) 5-2 in front of 4,084 fans at Cedar Park Center on Wednesday night. Trailing 2-1 less than 30 seconds into the second period, the Stars rallied with four unanswered goals in the middle period to pull away from Iowa. Forward Curtis McKenzie scored twice to lead Texas and goalie Maxime Lagace (15-7-1) made 30 saves for the win. Iowa’s Tyler Graovac and Jordan Schroeder each scored in the team’s third straight defeat. Iowa goalie Leland Irving (9-17-4) took the loss with 24 saves. Iowa remains in Texas to face the Stars at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.

Iowa struck for the game’s first goal just 1:19 into the opening frame. Christoph Bertschy snapped a pass at center ice for Jordan Schroeder, who turned on the jets and skated around a Texas defender. Schroeder moved in on goalie Maxime Legace and tucked the puck under the cross bar for his 12th goal of the season and a 1-0 Iowa lead. Texas used a five-on-three power play to even the score at 19:15. Defenseman Esa Lindell and center Justin Dowling helped set up a blast from the blueline by Johns.  His fourth goal of the season sent the teams to the locker room tied 1-1.

For the second straight period, Iowa jumped out for an early tally. Center Tyler Graovac snapped a shot from the bottom of the left-wing circle. Legace made the initial save, but the rebound trickled in behind him for the 2-1 Iowa lead. Forward Zack Mitchell and defenseman Zack Palmquist each had an assist on Graovac’s fifth goal of the year. Texas countered with two goals over 38 seconds, starting at 6:04 of the second period with a tally by Curtis McKenzie. His 15th goal of the year came off a deflection of a Brett Ritchie shot, with an additional assist to Johns. The Stars moved in front at 6:42 of the second period, as Brendan Ranford stuffed in a pass from Derek Hulak. Defenseman Julius Honka played the puck to the Iowa net and Hulak slipped the rebound to Ranford for the 3-2 lead. After a Wild power play expired, Texas charged out of the zone with an odd-man rush. Carrying the puck into the Iowa zone, forward Matej Stransky rifled a slap shot over the shoulder of Irving for his 13th goal of the year and a 4-2 lead.  Just before the period expired, Dowling sprung McKenzie for a shorthanded breakaway. McKenzie scored his second goal of the period at 19:58 to make it 5-2 Texas.