Healthy scratches: Cameron Abney, Bryan Helmer (they often give the old boy a rest for one game on 3 games in 3 night stretches).
Injured scratches: Dan Ringwald, Andrew Lord, Alex Plante, Curtis Hamilton, Anton Lander.
Plante and Lander are both day to day and both could be back for next weekends games at some point.
Kirill Tulupov draws back into the line up (maybe last night too, I did not listen).
David LeNeveu with the start in net tonight. Andrew Raycroft at the other end of the ice.
Seconds into the game Tulupov in a race with two Texas Stars for a potential icing and according to the announcer Tulupov started to just give up on the race. Taylor Chorney apparently seen this and turned on the jets blowing by all three guys to touch up the puck. Just mentioned that as it seemed weird he said Tulupov gave up on the puck race.
Vandevelde with a solid hit early.
Philippe Cornet rushes in to the slot for a blast on net.
The next shift Ryan Martindale busts into the slot for a good shot on net and Tanner House picks up his rebound and scores.
The score is 1-0 Barons.
Goal scored by Tanner House with assists to Ryan Martindale & Dylan Yeo.
The Stars rush right back on the next shift and put one past LeNeveu
to tie the game up 1-1.
Good offensive pressure shift from the Barons with Tyrvainen, Cornet and defenseman Bryan Rodney working the puck around. Tyrvainen with a solid hit on the play.
Tristan Grant with a slapper from the slot and Tanner House picks up the rebound and nearly converts his second of the period.
OKC scores to make the score 2-1. Good play by Cornet as he had two Texas Stars players all over him and he still got a good backhand away that went in top shelf.
Goal scored by Philippe Cornet with assists to Kirill Tulupov & Taylor Chorney.
Antti Tyrvainen takes a goalie interference penalty.
OKC scores a shorthanded goal
to make the score 3-1 for the Barons. It was a 2 on 1 shorthanded rush.
Goal scored by Hunter Tremblay (his 5th shorty of the season) with the lone assist to Chris Vandevelde who fed him the pass.
The Barons finish off the first period by killing off most of a minor slashing penalty to Ryan Keller.
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Mostly back and forth play early in the second with not a lot of note. Texas had one good scoring chance that LeNeveu looked back in the net and was not certain he had it.
The Stars take a penalty and the OKC power play goes to work for the first time in the game. A couple decent chances, but nothing too dangerous and the Barons fail to convert on the man advantage.
Forgot to mention a good rush last period by Bryan Rodney that forced the goalie to make a good save. Sounded like Rodney had a solid period.
Chorney with a high sticking penalty. The Barons PK goes to work for the 4th time tonight. Colten Teubert with a big shot block. Barons kill it off.
Gazdic of the Stars takes two close big runs at Tulupov. The next shift Tristan Grant comes out and runs Gazdic a couple times in a row back and then Grant scraps him. Sounded like Grant was chucking them pretty hard. Tristan Grant gets an extra 2 minutes for clipping. Barons headed for their fifth time shorthanded. OKC kills this one off as well and the PK has been strong tonight.
Texas is putting on good pressure now and coming hard at the Barons but they are not panicking and are holding them off confidently. They also got help from the goalie LeNeveu had back to back big saves with one being of you got robbed variety.
Antti Tyrvainen streaks down the wing and lets go of a hard slapper, forcing the goalie to make a solid save.
The Barons get their second power play of the game and put on some decent pressure but fail to score.
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Texas coming hard again on the Barons and they handling it pretty well.
The Stars now swarming the net, LeNeveu makes a save and then is out down and out. Ryan Martindale swoops in and steals a puck away that was just about to go over the line in the half open net. Martindale then skates it out and feeds the puck over to defenseman Dylan Yeo.
OKC scores to make it 4-1 now!
Goal scored by Dylan Yeo with the lone assist to Ryan Martindale.
That is a 2 point night (both were primary assists) for Martindale and easily his best AHL game so far this season.
Antti Tyrvainen takes a boarding penalty. The OKC PK goes work again and the penalty kill for the Barons has been busy tonight.
Texas scores to make it 4-2 now.
I am sure some are wondering and yes Paajarvi has had a very quiet night tonight, hardly touching the puck at all. He is -1 and has 2 shots on net but neither shot were anything worth mentioning.
The Stars are desperate and continue to come at the Barons hard this period.
Colten Teubert roughing Stars players up down low hardcore by the sounds of it and making life for them miserable. I must say he is good at this and seems to be able to do it without taking many penalties.
Hunter Tremblay sets up Tyler Pitlick for shot from the slot area.
Magnus Paajarvi shows some life skating around the O zone a bit and getting a pretty good shot on net.
Tanner House with a big shot block and another nice defensive play after that.
With just a little over 2 minutes left in the game Tristan Grant takes a penalty (interference) and the Stars also pull their goalie for a 6 on 4 power play.
Texas scores to make it 4-3 with 53 seconds left in the game.
Vandevelde steals the puck and was about to fire it at the open net when he was hooked, so the Stars take a penalty with 4 seconds left.
OKC holds on to win 4-3!
Looks like the Barons are getting things back on track the last few games and hopefully it continues down the stretch and into the playoffs. Nice win.
Three Stars:
1. OKC - H. Tremblay
2. OKC - R. Martindale
3. TEX - F. Wathier
