Houston Aeros Win Fifth Straight On Big Night From Zucker
The Houston Aeros reeled off their fifth straight win Friday night with a 4-3 victory over the Oklahoma City Barons. The win not only extends the Aeros winning streak but caps off a sweep of the Barons in what was a two-game, back-to-back mini series against OKC that started Thursday night.
Furthermore, the Aeros stop the Barons eight-game unbeaten streak that saw them collect at least a point in the previous eight games.
It became clear early on in the game that these two teams don`t like each other and a rivalry is brewing when a fight broke out half way through the first period between Colten Teubert of the Barons and Drew Bagnall of the Aeros. This was the tip of the iceberg in what was a penalty filled game as the two teams combined for 90 minutes in penalties.
The penalties naturally lead to powerplays and for these two explosive offensive teams, that usually leads to a few powerplay goals. Each team would score twice with the man advantage while Houston would add a short-handed marker, totaling five special team tallies on the night. This game was far from ordinary.
Houston opened the scoring when Justin Fontaine got his eighth of the season. Jordan Eberle would tie the game at one, on the powerplay from Justin Schultz and Taylor Hall.
Justin Zucker would pop his first of two on the night, giving the Aeros the lead on his tenth of the year which was the short handed goal we mentioned earlier.
The seesaw battle would continue in the opening frame thanks to Mark Arcobello getting his sixth of the season for the Barons.
The second period would see the Houston dominate the period, outshooting the Barons 10-3 but only managing to beat OKC netminder Olivier Roy one time on a Jonas Larsson tally that was again on the power-play.
The Aeros would get the eventual game winner when Zucker scored his second of the game and eleventh on the year before Hall brought the Barons to within one just 22 seconds later. But that is as close as the Barons would come on this night as they couldn`t beat Matt Hackett who turned away 12 of the 13 shots he faced in the final frame.
The win now moves the Aeros into a tie with OKC in the division and more importantly only one behind Charlotte for the division lead. Houston now sits in fifth place in the Western Conference after being on the outside looking in prior to their winning streak.
They`ll look to make it six in a row next Friday when they travel to take on the Texas Stars.
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