Yann Danis made 30 saves in game three to record his first shutout of the post season and four different players scored as the Oklahoma City Barons defeated the Texas Stars 4-0 Monday night in Oklahoma City.
After a scoreless and fairly evenly matched first period, the Barons intensified their tempo in the second, forcing the Stars to chase the puck and, eventually, into the penalty box. Early in the second period, Stars’ forward Jordie Benn was sent to the box for holding. Toni Rajala ripped a wrist shot through Christopher Nilstrop’s five hole to put the Barons up 1-0 just as the two-minute minor was concluding.
The Barons continued to play with the same intensity and on another Barons’ power play, Teemu Hartikainen found Anton Lander speeding into the offensive zone and Lander wristed a perfect shot top corner passed Nilstrop’s blocker. The Barons outshot the Stars 25-16 through the first 40 minutes and carried a 2-0 lead into the third period.
Mark Arcobello added to the Barons’ lead less than five minutes into the final period after he received a backhand pass in the slot from Andrew Hotham and blasted his team-leading sixth goal past Nilstrop.
But the Stars didn’t give up. With the help of a couple opportunistic Barons’ penalties in the third period, including a four-minute high sticking major, the Stars peppered Danis with shots and caught up to the Barons on the shot clock. However, the Stars couldn’t find a way to beat the Barons’ net minder and C.J. Stretch sealed the game with an empty-net goal of his own with less than a minute remaining in the third.
(Steven Christy/Oklahoma City Barons)
“It was a huge win for us,” Danis said during a post-game interview. “We obviously wanted to make a statement here at home, (it was) probably our best game of the series. We’ll enjoy this one and then focus on the next one.”
The Barons now lead the current best-of-seven series 2-1 over the number one team in the west. Game four of what has turned out to be an entertaining series will go May 15 in Oklahoma City at 7:00 CT.
Evan Davits
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