STARS LOSE IN OT, 4-3 AT SAN DIEGO
OCEANSIDE, CA – The Tacoma Stars (2-7-3) and San Diego Sockers (10-1-0) needed extra time to determine a winner at Frontwave Arena Sunday night. The Sockers’ captain Kraig Chiles scored the deciding goal to give San Diego a 4-3 win in front of nearly 3,000 fans as the Stars reached the midway point of their 2024-25 schedule.
With time running out on a Tacoma Stars power play opportunity, San Diego opened the scoring with a short-handed goal off the foot of Tavoy Morgan to give the Sockers a 1-0 lead with 9:03 to go in the opening quarter. San Diego keeper Boris Pardo hit Morgan with an outlet pass, which he converted for his 12th goal of the season.
A long, inlet pass by the Stars set up the equalizer when Tyler John played a high bounce out of the corner and tapped it past Pardo to make it a 1-1 game with 5:25 to go in the first.
Matt Braem was whistled for handling less than a minute later and after Tacoma keeper Chris Toth stopped Kraig Chiles’ shootout attempt, Morgan struck again for the Sockers, this time on the power play to give San Diego a 2-1 lead after one quarter of play.
Tacoma netted the only two goals of the second quarter, one by Matt Braem and the other was John’s second of the game to put the Stars up 3-2 at the break. Both of Tacoma’s second quarter goals were assisted by Willie Spurr.
After a scoreless third quarter, Luiz Morales converted a Chiles assist into his 10th goal of the season and leveled the game at 3-3 with exactly 12:00 to play in the fourth quarter.
Neither team could score another goal in regulation time and the game went to overtime even at 3-3. San Diego outshot the Stars 26-16 through 60 minutes, including by a 12-4 margin in the second half.
Chiles proved to be the man of the match for San Diego when Morales sent him a pass standing alone in front of Toth just over three minutes into the overtime period. Chiles collected his third point of the game with the game-winning goal to extend the Sockers win streak to 10 consecutive games.
The Stars return home to host the Milwaukee Wave for their first visit to the accesso ShoWare Center since 2017 on Saturday, February 8 at 6:05 pm. Tickets are available at www.tacomastars.showare.com today!
SCORING SUMMARY
1st – SD Morgan-12 (Pardo) 9:02 sh; TAC John-4 9:35; SD Morgan-13 (Chiles) 11:33 pp. Penalties – SD C. Gonzalez (bc- tripping) 4:02; TAC Braem (bc- handling) 10:12.
2nd – TAC Braem-3 (Spurr) 1:32; TAC John-5 (Spurr) 6:23. Penalties – None.
3rd – None. Penalties – SD Chiles (yc- dissent) 8:56.
4th – SD Morales-10 (Chiles) 3:00. Penalties – None.
OT – SD Chiles-10 (Morales) 3:25. Penalties – None.
Power Play – Stars 0/1, San Diego 1/1
Shots – Stars 16, San Diego 27
Fouls – Stars 19, San Diego 14
Penalty Minutes – Stars 2, San Diego 7
Attendance – 2,796
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--- WHAT A FEELIN’