Houston Aeros Continue Dominance Over OKC Barons With 4-2 Win

The Houston Aeros continued their domination over the Oklahoma City Barons on New Year’s Day with a 4-2 win at home. The victory improves the Aeros record against the Barons to 6-1 on the season and with it puts Houston one point ahead of their divisional rivals.  With the win the Aeros also now sit just one point back of the Charlotte Checkers for first place in the South division.

The Barons struck first in the contest when Taylor Hall scored his 13th of the season.  Jordan Eberle set up the goal, who leads the AHL in scoring with 49 points in just 32 games.

Houston would wait until the second period before they got on the score sheet and it was Jason Zucker getting his first of two on the night, on the powerplay from Mikael Granlund and Brian Connelly.

Charlie Coyle would give the Aeros their first lead of the night just three minutes later with assists going to Nick Petersen and Granlund.

Eberle would pull the Barons even on his 24th goal of the season, also on the powerplay.  The two clubs would head to the second intermission tied at two, setting the stage for yet another exciting and final period between these two teams.

Zucker would get the eventual game winner, his fifth game winning goal of the season just under five minutes into the third.  Matt Hackett would shut the door on all six of the Baron’s period shots and Johan Larsson would get an empty net goal to seal the victory for Houston.

Zucker had three points on the night, giving him 29 points in 28 games on the year.  He’s proving to be NHL ready and we’ll do an in-depth look at the California native later this week, right here at Gone Puck Wild.

Matt Hackett picked up the win in goal, giving him 13 victories on the season, good enough for a second place tie throughout the AHL.

Next action for the Aeros is this Friday when they host the Texas Stars, in what will be the first of three games in a row over the weekend.