Defense, Damiani, and Dominant Goaltending Highlight Opening Weekend in Texas

CEDAR PARK, TX- The 2021-22 AHL season is officially underway in central Texas!  If the first two games are indicative of things to come, fans of the Texas Stars have good reason to feel confident about their squad’s prospects of reaching the postseason for the first time since 2018.   The Stars leave opening weekend with a split against their divisional foes, the Iowa Wild, but the team excelled defensively throughout the weekend and looked like a team that has decided to carry a playoff-like mentality right from the jump.

Led by the defense and a two stellar efforts from Jake Oettinger, Texas allowed just three goals over the opening two contests, one of those tallies finding an empty net with Oettinger off for an extra attacker late on Saturday.  Iowa was forced to fire the majority of its 78 shots from the perimeter, allowing Oettinger ease of vision to turn aside 75 of the shots and the defense time to clear away rebounds.   Texas was only denied a four-point weekend by a splendid 27-save shutout from Iowa’s talented Saturday starter, Andrew Hammond.

Texas was able to make the needed adjustments offensively between games one and two, though, especially on the power play.  The Stars had been frustrated with the extra man on Saturday, missing their passes consistently, coming up short on a pair of 5-on-3 advantages, and finishing with a goose egg on seven total opportunities.  The passes that were missing the mark on Saturday became pinpoint on Sunday, however, as the Texas power play converted twice on just three chances.  This included a beautiful tic-tac-goal passing play from Jordan Kawaguchi down low to Curtis McKenzie and through the slot to a wide-open Riley Damiani.  Damiani painted the far corner with a perfectly-placed snapshot for the eventual game winner.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Saturday’s math that matters: Iowa – 0+1+1=2, Texas – 0+0+0=0.  The Stars and Wild competed in a defensive gem to open the season, paced by a perfect Hammond and near-perfect Oettinger.  The contest remained a stalemate for almost 25 minutes before Iowa’s Kyle Rau scooped up a rebound and shot the only puck that eluded either goaltender on the evening.  Rau’s tally would be defended by Hammond’s 27 saves and victory for the visitors was ensured when Connor Dewar found himself on a shorthanded breakaway with a clear cage to aim at and 37 seconds on the clock.  Oettinger excelled in the Stars net as well, stopping 32-of-33 in the hard-luck loss.

Sunday’s math that matters: Texas – 1+1+1=3, Iowa – 0+1+0=1.  Texas played a complete game on Sunday, cashing in on two key power-play chances and clogging up the middle of the defensive zone all night.  Iowa was forced into mostly low-quality opportunities.  When they did create a good look Oettinger, was there to make the save look easy, stopping all but one of the Wild’s 44 Sunday offerings.  Texas struck for the first time on the season 7:09 in, when Ryan Shea took a pass from Kawaguchi and fired a shot that ricocheted in off of Nick Caamano to make it 1-0.  The Stars doubled the advantage on the slick-passing power-play tally from Damiani 7:39 into the second stanza before the Wild answered back 37 seconds later to make it a one-goal game again.  This score held until the 6:50 mark of period three, when Damiani capped the offense as his centering pass off the rush hit an Iowa skate and deflected in for his second power-play goal of the night.

THREE TXSTARS OF THE WEEK

3rd Star: Jordan Kawaguchi

The rookie forward from the University of North Dakota got in the boxscore with his first two professional points over the weekend.  Kawaguchi provided the secondary assist on each of the first two Stars goals on Sunday and was a key component of the quick-fire passing on the power play.

2nd Star: Riley Damiani

Texas’ leading point scorer from a season ago is off to a fast start once again for the club.  Damiani struck for two goals on the man advantage on Sunday, with the first standing up as the game-winner.  He led the way as the power play went from a major factor in Saturday’s Stars setback to being a cornerstone of Sunday’s Texas triumph.

1st Star: Jake Oettinger

What can I say?  This one was easy.  Oettinger sparkled for the Stars in his return to AHL action after a year with Dallas.  The logjam in the crease at the NHL level left Oettinger needing to be sent to Cedar Park if he is to receive the amount of consistent ice time he needs and deserves to develop properly.  To his immense credit, Oettinger seized the chance to compete and put up a remarkable 75 saves in 24 hours.  He will see the majority of the minutes while with Texas, so make sure to come out and see him play before he gets recalled to Dallas.

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TEXAS TALKS

We asked Head Coach Neil Graham about the cohesive defense-first mentality his team displayed over the weekend:

“It showed a lot of buy-in, a lot of commitment.  I thought our d-zone, for the most part, was pretty good. They made some pretty good plays at the top of the d-zone , they were running a lot of interchanges and a lot of slip-and-slides at the top of the zone.  We pre-scouted it and we did have to make some tweaks during the intermissions, reminders more than anything, and I thought our guys did a great job trying to absorb the message and then really excecuted.  so, right to the 5v6 you could see guys blocking shots, selling out and trying to help out and I thought they did a pretty good job.”

We also spoke with Damiani about what it does for a forward to play with a lead in front of a strong defense:

“Oh it’s great!  You look at what Oetts did for us tonight and that gives us a lot of confidence to push for more and get more opportunities offensively, so when you get the one early, the game starts flowing for you, the pucks start bouncing your way, and then everything is just kinda cruising from there.”

Oettinger also joined the media after the game on Sunday and we asked him if playing behind a cohesive defense allows him to focus of playing his game:

“Yeah, exactly.  We’re so good defensively and I know if I am in a bad spot, you know the guys are gonna bail me out 99% of the time.  You just can’t say enough good things about the guys in front of me and especially the way we played in the third.  I think our defense is the reason we are going to be a good team this season.”

We followed that up by asking him about the defense’s ability to keep his vision clear:

“I think the biggest thing I have communication with them about is just if I can see it, I think I’ll be able to stop pretty much anyone, and they do a good job of clearing guys out in front of me and that makes my life way easier.  They just stuck to the gameplan and we’re working as a unit out there and it worked really well tonight.”

COMING UP NEXT

The Stars now head to the desert for their first two contests away from home.  Texas will battle the Tucson Roadrunners at 9:00p Central on Saturday and 6:00p Central on Sunday.  Texas returns home on Thursday, October 28, for a 7:00p faceoff against the Rockford IceHogs.

You can keep up with us all season by following @FPC_AHL on Twitter and follow Cameron (@osucam) for all things Texas.