It's been over a decade since the Texas Stars organization competed inside the Abbotsford Centre.
The Stars and the Abbotsford Heat battled in front of 2,071 fans on March 5, 2014.
Texas earned the 4-3 overtime win and since then the Abbotsford Centre has transformed into a palace of mystery intrigue for almost every AHL team outside of the Pacific Division.
Here's the @AbbyNews story the last time the @TexasStars were in Abbotsford (look at those Stars jerseys 🤢). Pretty sure this was a @DanKinvig epic story – https://t.co/mwsXrtCmNv #Canucks
— Ben Lypka (@BenLypka) May 29, 2025
Just over a month after that game, citing the financial challenges of the contract they signed with the team, the City of Abbotsford agreed to pay the Calgary Flames $5.5 million to terminate the remaining five years of a 10-year deal signed in 2009. The final bill that taxpayers paid at that time was close to $13 million.
The AC sat without an anchor tenant for the years following until the Abbotsford Canucks arrived in 2021. The 2024-25 season marked the most successful regular season in team history and that success has continued in the playoffs, which has led the Canucks all the way to the Western Conference Final.
The team waiting for them on the other side – the same franchise that earned that overtime win so many years ago in the AC – the Texas Stars.
The series opens in Abbotsford on Thursday (May 29) and game two goes down on Saturday (May 31). The teams then shift to Texas for games three and four.
It's time for some stargazing ⭐️
— X - Abbotsford Canucks (@abbycanucks) May 26, 2025
The Canucks will host games one, two, six and seven against the Texas Stars in the Western Conference Finals!
GET TICKETS | https://t.co/AIz4Og3Pyi pic.x.com/DDW3bV1h9W
One of the few people watching back that game back in 2014 and still involved in 2025 is Stephen Meserve – the writer and editor of 100 Degree Hockey. His website has covered the Stars since they arrived in Cedar Park, Tex. (suburb of Austin) in 2009. His work has been featured on the AHL's, NHL's and Dallas Stars websites and he has served as the team's colour commentator.
Meserve also co-wrote a book in 2023 with Sean Shapiro called We Win Here: The Definitive Essays You Need About The Texas Stars.
I’m incredibly excited to announce the release of “We Win Here”, a Texas Stars book co-written with @seanshapiro, available now at https://t.co/UX2CObK91w. pic.x.com/2HtEDSybur
— 100 Degree Hockey (@100degreehockey) April 10, 2023
Texas made it all the way to the Calder Cup Final in year one back in 2010 and then eventually won the league's top prize in 2014. They reached the finals again in 2018, but the past few seasons saw the Stars unable to get past the Milwaukee Admirals. The Stars' Central Division foe eliminated them 3-2 in 2023 and 2024, which set up a third encounter for 2025.
Meserve said that finally taking down Milwaukee was likely a motivating factor for the team.
"The past two years they lost in game five to them in, both I'd argue, really heartbreaking fashion," he said. "So as much as the team would have said we're not thinking about the last two years – come on, really they are thinking about the past two years."
He pointed out that many of the players were the same on both teams and finally getting over that hump and eliminating the Admirals was big for the Stars.
"Getting to play Abbotsford is a huge accomplishment in itself," he said. "They've got a lot of momentum coming in from that series and just the way they came back to win in game five – just the grittiness to come back and then win it in the last five minutes is big."
The Stars split the first two games against Milwaukee on home ice and were then forced to win two of three in the Admirals home. They clinched the series win with two goals in the third period, including one at 14:55 of the third to post the come back and series-clinching win.
We'll see y'all in the Western Conference Finals, @abbycanucks!
— x - Texas Stars (@TexasStars) May 27, 2025
The best-of-seven series begins Thursday, May 29 at Abbotsford Centre & continues at the @HEBCenter for Games 3, 4, and if necessary, Game 5.
Tickets are on sale NOW! 🎟 : https://t.co/g4IphGpGS3 pic.x.com/RgmIDyzKle
Texas also swept the Grand Rapids Griffins 3-0 in the Central Division semifinal.
Meserve said the Stars are an offensively gifted team and have a deep group of forwards.
"Texas is a team that can score a lot," he said, noting that they are averaging almost four goals (3.87) per game in the playoffs. "They have a top six up front that is just really solid."
The top three scorers in the AHL playoffs are all Stars forwards in Justin Hyrckowian, Cameron Hughes and former Vancouver Canucks player Kole Lind. Hyrckowian has 15 points, Hughes has 14 and Lind has 11 – even more impressive is that the Stars have played four fewer games than the Canucks. Meserve said Hyrckowian and Matej Blumel have both further developed into excellent players this season. Hyrckowian was the 2024-25 AHL rookie of the year and scored 60 points in 67 games, while Blumel was second in AHL scoring with 72 points in 67 games.
22 goals. 38 assists. 60 points.
— x - Texas Stars (@TexasStars) April 24, 2025
Justin Hryckowian is the AHL Rookie of the Year 🏆 pic.x.com/uQMRoqY7nW
"He came out of Northeastern last year as an ATO," Meserve explained. "He's an un-drafted guy who has really made a name for himself. I thought he was going to be a great defensive player – and he has been – but he has also found a knack for offence."
Hughes may be familiar to Canucks fans, as he was a member of the Coachella Valley Firebirds the two seasons prior. Meserve said Hughes can provide some physicality and could be a big factor in the series. Former Penticton Vees forward Curtis McKenzie is the team's captain and he has crafted an outstanding AHL career. He contributed with 30 points in the regular season and has eight points in eight playoff games.
McKenzie logs a two-point game ✅
— x - Texas Stars (@TexasStars) May 26, 2025
Poirier stops 22 of 24 ✅
Hryckowian scores the game-winner with five minutes left in regulation ✅
Stars defeat the Admirals to move onto the Western Conference Finals ✅
Check out the highlights presented by @texasorthopedic 🎥 pic.x.com/3WcnIBAmrJ
The power play of Texas also looms large in this series, as the club was ranked second in the AHL during the regular season at 21.5 per cent and are operating at 23.1 per cent in the playoffs.
"They've been deadly on the power play," Meserve said. "The power play is run by AHL MVP and playoff MVP [now assistant coach] Travis Morin so they cook on the power play for sure."
Meserve said Trey Taylor can be a good quarterback with the man advantage and recently returned from injury Antonio Stranges also helps make the power play a success. Texas is likely to start the series in goal with Remi Poirier, who has a save percentage of .926, a goals against average of 1.87 and 4-1 record in six starts. His back-up is reliable veteran Magnus Hellberg, who played in 41 games this season for Texas.
Meserve said fans in Texas aren't too familiar with the Abbotsford Canucks, but noted that buzz around the play of goalie Arturs Silovs has reached the Lone Star State. He added that some of the Canucks talent up front, like Aatu Raty is also known to Stars followers.
It's also been a long time since the Vancouver and Dallas farm teams faced off, as the Utica Comets hosted the Stars back on Feb. 18, 2015. Utica picked up the 5-2 win and Jacob Markstrom earned the win.
Another interesting wrinkle is the link between the Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini and Stars owner Tom Gaglardi. A lawsuit was filed in 2005 by Gaglardi and his business partner Ryan Beedie that Aquilini initially partnered with them, then backed out of the deal and brokered a new deal former owner John McCaw without them.
The case went through B.C.'s Supreme and Appeal courts before making its way to the Supreme Court of Canada in July of 2009, which ruled in favour of Aquilini. Gaglardi eventually became the owner of the Dallas Stars and then bought the Texas Stars in the 2014-15 season. Aquilini and his family have owned the Canucks entirely since 2006. They both serve on the AHL and NHL Board of Governors.
"They're definitely not friends, right," Meserve said, laughing. "But the Gaglardi group are mostly hands-off. The same organization runs both teams, which has a lot of nice elements to it. The person who runs HR for Dallas also runs HR for Texas. Dallas always likes to brag about the fact that the Texas Stars are used for developing more than just players. Coaches, front office staff, even the person who runs the video board now in Dallas started in Texas."
We're headed to the Western Conference Finals and Ringo wanted to work on his hockey skills with a Learn to Play Hockey course at the Ice & Field at the Crossover!
— x - Texas Stars (@TexasStars) May 28, 2025
Visit their website, https://t.co/aVw8RXhSFY to sign up for their next Learn to Play Hockey session! pic.x.com/cTOX32QORL
Meserve added that he's seen firsthand the growth of hockey in his area of Texas.
"It's incredible because the rink, when it first started in 2009, was really out in the boonies," he said. "But the suburbs have really grown up around it, but now across the street there are two NHL-sized rinks. Youth hockey is just exploding in the area too, with teams playing in the Dallas Elite Hockey League, all the travel teams and also the Texas Junior Stars."
He also pointed out attendance historically has been solid and the team averaged averaged 6,041 in 2024-25. They have never had a season under 5,000. Meserve added that Texas won the Western Conference award for best in-game experience and the league’s honours for best marketing department in 2024.
Abbotsford enters the series after eliminating the Colorado Eagles 3-2 in the Pacific Division final, the Firebirds 3-1 in the semifinal and the Tucson Roadrunners 2-1 in round one.
The Canucks may also have an answer for the "deadly" power play, as the team has allowed only one shorthanded goal in the playoffs and the penalty kill is operating at 97.1 per cent. Abbotsford forward Linus Karlsson is tied for the playoff lead in goals with seven, while goalie Arturs Silovs leads the playoffs with four shutouts and has been unbeatable at times.
Abbotsford will need more disciplined play from points leader Sammy Blais, who also leads the AHL in penalty minutes with 65. Blais recorded four game misconducts against the Eagles. Veteran winger Phi Di Giuseppe has also had a productive playoffs with eight points.
“We’re refocused now and the task at hand is Game 1.”
— X - Abbotsford Canucks (@abbycanucks) May 29, 2025
Olivia McDonald chats with Phil Di Giuseppe ahead of the Western Conference Finals! pic.x.com/iCnqtHBwvf
The Canucks young forwards likely have to produce more if the team wants to advance, as Jonathan Lekkerimaki, Arshdeep Bains, Ty Mueller and Max Sasson have combined for just five goals. Defensively, this has been a breakout postseason for Victor Mancini and the return from injury of former AHL defenceman of the year Christian Wolanin was a boost last series.
Forward Aatu Raty was also skating in practice with the team on Wednesday (May 28). Raty has not appeared since game two of the semifinal series on May 3. It's unclear if he will be cleared to return against the Stars.
Aatu Räty skating with #Canucks extras. Looks pretty close to being game ready@CanucksArmy pic.x.com/aetzi00ZW4
— Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) May 28, 2025
Continue visiting abbynews.com for ongoing coverage of the Canucks' journey in the Calder Cup playoffs.
For more on the Texas Stars, visit 100degreehockey.com.
