The L.A. Stars showed that they can contend with the best that Austria has to offer on Saturday, as they travelled to Klagenfurt to take on the Eishockeyclub KAC.  After opening up a 6-2 lead by the 6  minute mark of the second period, KAC fought off a determined Stars club to maintain the lead and escape with a 7-6 win.

In the first, the Stars opened the scoring with Fellinger picking up his first of the night from Houben and Kreutzer. Not long after, Klagenfurt responded with two quick goals, before the Stars responded with one of their own, as Weber tallied from Oliver Kraus and Fabio Kläy. Not long after, KAC countered to end the period up one.

The second period started off all KAC, as they tallied two short-handed goals, along with one other goal to open up a quick 6-2 lead. Immediately following, Kreuzer and Fellinger went to work.  Playing the best hockey of their season so far, both players showed signs of dominance. Fellinger pulled the Stars to within three (Niki Kraus, Philipp Kreuzer), Kreuzer scored a beauty to close the gap to two, and Fellinger (Jordan Smith, Stefan Hrdina) cut the lead to one. Sam Antonitsch (Fabio Kläy, Kreuzer) completed the comeback.  At the end of two, both teams were dead-locked at six.

The third was torrid: the pace was fast, there were some hard hits, and some great saves. Johann Bauer, making just his second start in over a month, was key in preserving the tie, but midway through the third, KAC buried on the powerplay to take a lead they would not give up.

"It was a tough one today," admitted O'Leary, who had to deal with the loss of Dylan Weber (out indefinitely with a lower body injury). "We played hard, despite the mental lapse in the 4 minutes in the second. It would have been nice to get that tie, but our guys showed a tremendous amount of courage. That was nice to see."  This battle was one that the Stars had on the calendar for a while, as this team is the reigning Champion, and O'Leary had a pretty simple game plan: to go earn respect.

"These guys earned some respect today, and to me that is very important. We battled, competed, and showed up for most of the game. Now, we need to prove that we can be consistent."
This Sunday, the Stars will host the league leading Salzburg RedBull. Game time is 18:15 at the ice hall in St. Pölten.