Jan 30, 2023
CEDAR PARK, Texas – The Iowa Wild extended their point streak to 11 games Monday evening, forcing overtime before falling 5-4 to the Texas Stars. Sammy Walker had two goals for Iowa while Joe Hicketts tallied three assists for the Wild.
The Wild opened the scoring at 8:12 of the first period. After Nic Petan dropped a pass to Ryan O’Rourke at the blue line, O’Rourke fired a wrist shot that was deflected in front of the net. Mike O’Leary cleaned up the rebound with a diving shot past Anton Khudobin (20 saves) to give Iowa a 1-0 lead.
Walker added another tally for Iowa 2:05 later on the power play. Hicketts and Marco Rossi combined to set Walker up at the top of the right circle, where he wired a wrister past Khudobin.
Texas pulled within one goal at 18:04 of the first period when Marian Studenic skated in and beat Zane McIntyre (26 saves) through the legs.
The Wild quickly responded with a power-play goal from Petan. O’Leary won a face off to Petan, who passed to Hicketts and looked for a return feed. Hicketts set up Petan for a one-time shot over Khudobin with 32 seconds remaining in the period.
Iowa carried the 3-1 lead and an 11-10 shot advantage into the first intermission.
The Stars made it a 3-2 game 21 seconds into the second period when Tanner Kero scored on the rebound of a Fredrik Karlstrom shot.
The Stars tied the contest at 3-3 at 11:18 of the second period on the power play. Texas used a series of passes to set up Matej Blumel, who scored over the left pad of McIntyre from just outside the crease.
Blumel picked up another power-play goal at 16:38 of the middle frame when he finished the rebound of a Kero shot.
After 40 minutes of play, Texas held a 4-3 lead over Iowa. The Stars led the shot count 22-19.
Walker equalized the game 55 seconds into the third period. After Walker saw his breakaway attempt denied by Khudobin, he waited at the back side of the net for an eventual tap-in goal off a feed from Hicketts.
Texas sealed the 5-4 victory 30 seconds into overtime when Kero received a pass from Blumel at the top of the crease and slid the puck under McIntyre on his backhand.
The Wild went 2-for-4 on the power play while the Stars were 2-for-5 with the man advantage. Texas outshot Iowa 31-24.
Iowa and Texas meet again at H-E-B Center at Cedar Park on Wednesday, Feb. 1 at 7:00 p.m.
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