(okcbarons.com) – Iiro Pakarinen netted the game-winning goal in overtime as the Oklahoma City Barons erased a two-goal deficit to down the Texas Stars 3-2 in their first 2014-15 preseason game Friday night at the Cedar Park Center.
At the 1:32 mark of the overtime period, Oklahoma City’s Connor Jones found Pakarinen who put a shot on net that glided through the legs of Texas goalie Maxime Lagace to give the Barons the win.
The Stars’ Taylor Peters opened the game’s scoring at the 12:42 mark of the second period. After Gemel Smith dumped the puck into the Barons zone, Oklahoma City goalieLaurent Brossoit left the net to cutoff the puck as it skidded along the boards. Before the puck reached Brossoit, it took an unorthodox bounce toward the vacated net, where Peters easily scored for a 1-0 Stars lead.
At 4:13 of the third period, Peters extended the Stars’ lead to 2-0 when he beat newly inserted Barons backup goalie Tyler Bunz for a power play goal that stemmed from a high-sticking penalty to Oklahoma City’s Jordan Oesterle at 2:43 of the frame.
Oklahoma City cut the Texas lead to 2-1 at 6:52 of the third when Tommy Mele tipped a shot off a faceoff by Gabriel Verplast that beat the then newly-inserted Lagace.
The Barons tied the game at two at 12:37 of the third period when Graeme Craig rebounded a Jason Willams shot in the Texas low slot and flipped the puck past Lagace.
Pakarinen’s game-winner was his first professional goal in the United States, having signed out of Finland this past offseason.
The Stars outshot the Barons 31-20, with Brossoit saving 21 of 22 Texas shots and Bunz stopping eight of nine.
Henrik Kiviaho started in goal for the Stars and stopped all 10 shots he faced.
