By Martin Iheke
The Stars did make a little bit of news off the ice last Friday when they signed forward Colton Scevior to a two-year contract. He is 24 years old and has spent five seasons in the organization. Scevior has played most of his career with the Texas Stars and has scored 98 goals with 140 assists adding up to 238 points according to dallasnews.com. The Stars drafted Scevior in the fourth round of the 2007 NHL draft.
“Colton has been a very reliable and effective player for our organization during his professional hockey career,” Stars General Manager Jim Nill said according to dallasnews.com. “He has become an elite player at the American Hockey League level and we look forward to his continued growth with the Dallas Stars,” as he continued.
When given the chance to play for the Dallas Stars, Scevior has proven to be strong especially this season with two-game winning goals. I think there is a very good chance that he ends up with the big club perhaps after this Wednesday’s trade deadline, because I would not be surprised if Nill moves a couple of veterans who will be free agents after the season just so Scevior can play. He certainly has proven he is more than ready and the Stars could use some second-line scoring.
Unfortunately, the Stars could not repeat their success from Thursday night to their Saturday afternoon home game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. They got off to a slow start giving up two goals in the first period. Lightning forward Martin St. Louis was huge scoring two goals in the game while their goalie Ben Bishop was superb with 39 saves in a 4-2 win against the Stars. The effort was there for the Stars as they cut the lead to 3-2 after being down 3-0 in the second period, but in the end they did not have enough to come all the way back for the victory. “We put a lot of work into the game,” head coach Lindy Ruff said. “They got a break on the first two goals, but the thing l liked is we hunkered down, went to work and fought our way back. Even at 3-2, we had two or three unbelievable opportunities to tie it up but missed them,” as he continued.
The Stars will try to bounce back when Ruff’s old team the Buffalo Sabres come to town on Monday night in a nationally-televised game. The next night, the Stars will travel to play at the Columbus Blue Jackets before coming back home to face the Canucks on Thursday night and the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night. Before the game against the Wild, former Stars great Mike Modano will have his number 9 retired in a special pre-game ceremony. It starts at 6 p.m. and will be shown on Fox Sports Southwest if you cannot make it to the game.
Upcoming Schedule
3/3 vs Sabres 7:00 PM
3/4 @Blue Jackets 6:00 PM
3/6 vs Canucks 7:30 PM
3/8 vs Wild 7:30 PM