The Texas power play had not been particularly bad in a pair of road losses to Abbotsford. Nor had the penalty kill. Special-teams play simply had not gotten much work. Texas went a combined 0-for-5 on the power play in those two defeats and took care of Abbotsford’s two power-play chances across the two games as well.
But special teams were the story in Game 3, when only one of the seven goals scored on the night came at five-on-five.
The Stars generated two first-period goals on the power play, and Matěj Blümel finished off a shorthanded rush with a feed from Arttu Hyry that he slammed past Artūrs Šilovs to give Texas a 3-1 lead. Michael Karow added a shorthanded goal early in the third period that pushed the game out of reach.
Score twice on the power play and then tack on a pair of shorthanded goals, and any team should have a good chance to win.
“In full transparency, I think we left a little bit of meat on the bone there in the first two games,” Texas head coach Neil Graham said after Monday’s win. “Our power play has been good all year. We got a little bit stuck. It wasn’t something we couldn’t fix, but we needed everyone to recognize what we were looking at, and it was great execution by the guys on the ice.”
Blümel led the AHL with 39 regular-season goals, but his production had gone relatively quiet with one goal in the previous six games before Monday. Blümel had still been generating chances, recording 16 shots in that six-game stretch, but if those shots start to go in for him, that would be crucial as the Stars try to even this series tonight.
“I love to score,” Blümel said. “It’s been tough in the playoffs, but I kind of expected it, and you have to live through it and still believe that it’s going to go in at some point.”
The Canucks once again had to go without forward Aatu Räty in Game 3.
Räty missed eight games before returning to the Abbotsford lineup for Game 2 on Saturday, but he left that contest and did not return. The 22-year-old Räty tied for second on the team with 40 points (17 goals, 23 assists) despite playing just 43 games during the regular season. He also appeared in 33 NHL games for Vancouver and had 11 points (seven goals, four assists).
Ty Glover came back into the Abbotsford lineup for Game 3.
― with files from Patrick Williams
