Royalty goes to Cedar Park to see Texas Stars play hockey!

Prince at Cedar Park Center

After getting a taste of baseball in the afternoon in San Antonio at the Alamodome, I drove the King and our pal Bryan Gilligan another 100 miles to Cedar Park, Texas which is located about 20 miles northwest of Austin, which is the state capital. By doing so, we got to see AHL hockey as the Texas Stars, the Dallas Stars' affiliate, were taking on the Grand Rapids Griffins, the farm club of the Detroit Red Wings which happens to be the King's favorite hockey team at the Cedar Park Center.

As for Steve Fekete, he left us and he drove back to Houston where he went to see the Rockets play the Clippers at the Toyota Center in downtown.

Before we got to the arena, we stopped off at a Whataburger that was seven miles away to have a pre game meal since we were starving from not eating much all day due to all the traveling we did since we left home early in the morning.

As for the game we saw, the Griffins scored the first goal of the game as Jan Mursak lit the lamp with 5:44 to go in the first period to make it 1-0. The Stars got the equalizer as Justin Dowling scored to tie the game at one a minute and 27 seconds later. The Stars got a late goal with just 8 seconds to go in the period to take a 2-1 lead thanks to Travis Morin who redirected a beautiful pass from Colton Sceviour to change the complexion of the game. In the second period, neither team scored. In the third period, Matt Fraser of the Stars added an insurance goal which made it a 3-1 game with 6:23 to go. That's how it ended thanks to goaltender Jack Campbell of the Stars who made 42 saves which enabled his team to emerge victorious as the sellout crowd of 6,462 went home happy.

After the game, thankfully I booked rooms at Motel 6 which was only three miles from the arena since we were all exhausted. With that being said, we were able to get a much needed good night sleep.

Please stay tuned for the special post that will detail how we spent our Easter Sunday in the Lone Star State.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman