Fri. Dec. 16, 2011

Chay Genoway, Matt Kassian, Joel Broda and Chad Rau each scored as the Houston Aeros defeated the Texas Stars 4-1 Friday night at Toyota Center in front of a season-high sellout crowd of 10,240. Matt Hackett made 29 saves as the Aeros improved to 16-4-2-6 and regained first place in the AHL's West Division.


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AEROS POSTGAME REPORT
DEC. 16: HOU 4, TEX 1

HOUSTON --- Chay Genoway, Matt Kassian, Joel Broda and Chad Rau each scored as the Houston Aeros defeated the Texas Stars 4-1 Friday night at Toyota Center in front of a season-high sellout crowd of 10,240.

Drew Bagnall had two assists and Matt Hackett made 29 saves as the Aeros improved to 16-4-2-6 and regained first place in the AHL's West Division. Houston now has points in eight straight home games (3-0-2-3) and has points in 13 of their last 14 games overall.

Genoway put the Aeros ahead 1-0 at 14:56 in the first period with a power play goal. After the goal, the sellout crowd threw thousands of teddy bears on to the ice as part of the annual Teddy Bear Toss.

Kassian upped the lead to 2-0 on his second goal of the season at 1:29 in the second period, and Broda extended the lead to 3-0 with a goal at 4:13 in the second period.

Texas cut the lead to 3-1 with a power play goal by Matt Fraser at 11:49 in the second period, but Rau scored at 6:59 in the third period to make it 4-1.

The Aeros travel to Oklahoma City to face the Barons Saturday at 7 p.m. before hosting the Rochester Americans at 5:05 p.m. Sunday at Toyota Center.

BOMB DROPPINGS
Justin Fontaine has points in three straight games and four of the last five games (2-2=4)... Matt Hackett started for Houston after being reassigned from Minnesota Thursday. Hackett went 2-0 with a 1.01 GAA and made 78 saves in two games, with one start with the Wild... Drew Bagnall recorded two assists for his first two-point game since Nov. 13... Matt Kassian scored a goal in two straight games for the first time in his career...  Jed Ortmeyer, who missed the last six games, got his first point since Nov. 25 against Texas with the first assist on Genoway's goal... Jarod Palmer was recalled by Minnesota prior to Friday's game... Stuffed animals collected on the ice as well as toys collected on the arena concourse helped benefit the KHOU Secret Santa Toy Drive... Early estimates put the teddy bears thrown on to the ice at over 2,000 and toys collected on the concourse at close to 1,000.

NEXT GAME
Saturday at Oklahoma City (7 p.m CST)

RECORDS
HOU: 16-4-2-6
TEX: 11-13-0-1

GOAL SCORERS
HOU: Genoway, Kassian, Broda, Rau
TEX: Fraser

AEROS STARTERS
F – DiSalvatore, Rau, Broda
D – Bagnall, Penner
G – Hackett

AEROS SCRATCHES
Palmer, McIntyre, Montgomery

DECIDING GOAL
Kassian  (1:29, 2nd)

POWER PLAYS
HOU: 1/3
TEX: 1/1

GOALIES
HOU: Hackett (29/30)
TEX: Beskorowany (28/32)