CEDAR PARK, Texas – The Texas Stars scored five consecutive goals on Friday night at H-E-B Center at Cedar Park to hand the Iowa Wild a 6-2 defeat. Brendan Gaunce and Will Zmolek scored for Iowa in the loss.
Cameron Hughes scored first for Texas at 10:01 of the first period with a tap-in finish behind Samuel Hlavaj (17 saves) off a backdoor feed from Matej Blümel on the power play.
Gaunce tied the game 3:14 later with the Wild on a 5-on-3 man advantage. Travis Boyd and Devin Shore combined to set up Gaunce at the top of the crease for a one-timer past Magnus Hellberg (36 saves).
Texas took the lead for good with 1:47 remaining in the opening frame when Blümel set up Kyle Capobianco for a point one-timer through traffic.
Iowa outshot Texas 13-8 in the opening 20 minutes but trailed 2-1 at the break.
Arttu Hyry scored a pair of goals on the power play in the final five minutes of the middle frame to widen the margin to 4-1 in favor of the stars.
The Wild led Texas in shots 25-17 through two periods.
Antonio Stranges slammed a cross-ice pass from Justin Hyrckowian home 5:03 into the third to make the score 5-1.
Emilio Pettersen set up Jack Becker on a shorthanded odd man rush at 9:49 of the third.
Zmolek netted his first American Hockey League goal with a seeing eye shot through a screen with 4:16 to play. Gavin Hain and Reese Johnson earned assists on Zmolek’s goal.
Iowa outshot Texas 38-23. The Wild finished 1-for-8 with the man advantage while the Stars went 3-for-5 on the power play.
