The San Diego Gulls were one-for-six on the power play and were denied on a penalty shot in a 5-2 loss to the Texas Stars tonight in Cedar Park outside Austin.
Defenseman Simon Despres scored his first goal as a Gull on a power-play 17 minutes, 25 seconds into the first period, cutting Texas’ lead to 2-1. Despres was playing his fourth game of a long-term conditioning loan from the Gulls NHL parent team, the Anaheim Ducks.
Center Radek Faksa scored with 35 seconds left in the second period, increasing the Stars lead to 3-1 before a crowd at the Cedar Park Center announced at 5,460.
Center Greg Rallo’s power-play goal at 3:59 of the third period gave Texas (22-16-3-3) a 4-1 lead.
Right wing Kenny Ryan scored a short-handed goal for the Gulls (19-17-1- 1) at 5:32 of the third period.
Gulls left wing Harry Zolnierczyk was awarded a penalty shot 54 seconds later, but Stars goaltender Maxime Lagace made a left pad save on it.
Brendan Ranford scored an empty net goal for Texas, the Dallas Stars American Hockey League affiliate, with 44 seconds left in the game.
The Stars took a 2-0 first period lead on goals by defenseman Mattias Backman and left wing Derek Hulak.
Goaltender Anton Khudobin made 20 saves. He is 1-5-1 after winning each of his first three games after the Ducks initially assigned him to the Gulls.
Lagace made 29 saves.
The Gulls are two of 13 on the power play in their last three games. The Stars entered tonight’s game 29th in penalty killing in the 30-team AHL.
Texas was one-of-four on the power play.
The Gulls are 1-4 against the Stars, with the lone victory coming Friday.
The Gulls will next play Friday at the Valley View Casino Center against the Ontario Reign, the Los Angeles Kings AHL affiliate.
— City News Service
