HOUSTON --- The Houston Aeros withstood a pair of late goals and held on for their second-straight win in a 3-2 victory over the Chicago Wolves Wednesday night at Toyota Center.

BOXSCORE

A three-goal first period, along with a 30-save performance in goal by Matt Hackett, fueled the Aeros. Houston’s penalty kill stopped five Chicago attempts and has turned away 13-straight over four games.

Petr Kalus scored the eventual game-winner at 12:06 of the first. Warren Peters and Brock McBride also had goals for the Aeros, who have won two in a row and six of their last 10.

Hackett made 18 of his saves in the first period alone, second only to his 20-save third period at Oklahoma City on October 15. Akim Aliu spoiled Hackett's shutout bid with a shorthanded goal 6:27 into the third. Darren Haydar made it a one-goal game with 1:21 left.
The Aeros (8-6-1-2) visit Grand Rapids this Friday (6:05 p.m. CST) and Chicago Saturday (7:35 p.m. CST). The team returns home Sunday at 4:05 p.m. vs. the Texas Stars.

Bring your dog to the game this Sunday as part of Chilly's Pet Pals. A portion from the specially purchased tickets will be donated to the Houston Humane Society.  Fans can purchase upper end zone seats for $13 ($3 will be directly donated to HHS) and tickets for their dogs are just $10 per dog ($5 will be directly donated to HHS).   Call 713-974-7825 to order your tickets.

Follow the Aeros all season long on 1070 KNTH and online at AEROS.COM.

AEROS STARTERS: Colton Gillies (F), Petr Kalus (F), Maxim Noreau (D), Carson McMillan (F), Drew Bagnall (D), Matt Hackett (G)
AEROS SCRATCHES: Peter Zingoni, Chad Rau, Bryce Lampman, Tyler Cuma

BOMB DROPPINGS: After being held without a goal in 11 games from Oct. 22-Nov. 13, Petr Kalus now has goals in two straight...Matt Hackett made consecutive starts for the first time since Oct. 9-15...Chicago's 18 first period shots were the most the club has allowed in a period since Texas put the same amount on Anton Khudobin on October 31...The Aeros took a lead into the second period for the ninth time this season and into the third for the 10th time...Chicago's pair of third period tallies marked the sixth time an opponent has scored two or more goals in the final 20 minutes; this was the second time a victory has ensued...The Aeros have scored the first goal in nine of the last 10 games and have won six of those contests.


THEY SAID IT; AEROS HEAD COACH MIKE YEO
"Right from the start the energy level wasn't where it needed to be, I don't think we did a good job of making sure that our brains were turned on.  Fortunate for us that our penalty killing was great, Matt Hackett was great and we capitalized on some timely opportunities.  There are going to be times where your energy level isn't there, it isn't 100 percent and you have to upgrade in other departments and I thought our execution within our system was not very good and our puck mangement was poor.  We have to remember what kind of team we are.  Our three goals came from doing the right things, getting into the offensive zone and playing against them from down there.  We got away from that and fortunately for us, this time, it didn't cost us."