Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
The Texas Stars are accustomed to succeeding.
Western Conference finalists a year ago, the Stars have made the postseason in 11 of their 14 tries. They won the Calder Cup in 2014, and reached the Finals two other times. Being near or at the top of the Central Division standings has been a pretty reliable standard.
But the team came out of the gate with six straight losses this season, and had just eight victories (8-13-2-1) by the time the first third of their schedule had passed on Dec. 12.
To be sure, the Stars had suffered some significant offseason personnel losses. Forward Matěj Blümel took his league-leading 39 goals to the Boston Bruins organization as a free agent. Another forward, Justin Hryckowian, graduated to the Dallas Stars after winning the Dudley (Red) Garrett Memorial Award as the AHL’s most outstanding rookie last season. Standout defensemen Alex Petrovic and Kyle Capobianco found a roles in Dallas as well. And head coach Neil Graham joined the parent club as an assistant coach.
Coaching in general has been a remarkably consistent factor in Cedar Park. Going back to 2014, they had seen just Graham (2019-25) and Derek Laxdal (2014-19) running the Texas bench. With Graham’s promotion, the organization turned to Toby Petersen, a member of that 2014 championship team, to lead its AHL affiliate.
And maybe – just maybe – the Stars are back. They have earned points in eight of their last 11 games (7-3-1-0), including an impressive 2-0 road win over the dominating Grand Rapids Griffins on Friday night. Rémi Poirier led the way with 29 saves, Cameron Hughes and former Griffin Cross Hanas scored 51 seconds apart late in the middle period, and Texas handed the Griffins their first regulation loss in seven weeks.
Poirier came back with 30 saves to backstop the Stars to a 3-1 win at Chicago on Saturday, securing the Howies Hockey Tape/AHL Player of the Week nod from the AHL. The 24-year-old netminder has emerged as one of the Stars’ success stories despite the trying beginning to the season. In his fourth season with Texas, the net finally and indisputably belongs to him. And he has taken on the workload to match his status: his 24 appearances lead the AHL, while his 1,355 minutes place him second overall. He holds a 10-10-4 record to go with a 2.57 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage.
So Texas, for all of its troubles, has improved to 15-16-3-1 and climbed up to fourth place in the Central Division. They are just three points behind the third-place Manitoba Moose and trail second-place Chicago by only six points. And the Stars’ power play, a major source of difficulty this season, has started to awaken; after going 6-for-72 in the team’s first 25 games, the power play has gone 7-for-26 since.
Eight of their next 10 games will be at home to take them into the AHL All-Star break. Other than a quick hop to visit Rockford and Iowa next week, the Stars can settle in at home beginning with a visit from Coachella Valley tonight and Wednesday. Ontario, Henderson and Manitoba also make visits to H-E-B Center in the next month.
That said, establishing a much stronger home-ice presence will be job-one. The Stars have won four straight home games after starting the season 2-8-2-0 in Cedar Park, with all four of those wins coming against their rivals from Milwaukee.
The second-half schedule is encouraging, too. Texas has just two match-ups left with the league-leading Griffins, a trip to West Michigan in mid-February. But seven contests remain with the Wolves and four are left with the Moose. Finishing in the top three in the Central Division means avoiding a best-of-three first-round series.
Considerable work remains to be done after such a rough start. But Poirier’s goaltending is holding up, the power play is finding some life, and the Stars are settling in with their new head coach.
The next month could tell just how dangerous this team might become down the stretch and – perhaps – into the postseason.
