Gameday Preview: Stars at Houston Aeros

Texas Stars
3-6-0-1, 7 pts
#14 Western Conference
atHouston Aeros
5-4-1-2, 13 pts
#9 Western Conference
November 11th at 5:05 PM
Toyota Center, Houston, TX

With just a little more air in their tires, the Stars will travel to Houston today to take on the Aeros at the Toyota Center.

The Aeros most recent game was Friday, also against the Monsters and also a 5-4 shootout loss. The Aeros are currently without two of their top talents: Mikael Granlund (4-8-12 in 8 GP) and Jonas Brodin (2-2-4 in 8 GP). The team has fallen into some nasty habits without them, according to The Third Intermission: getting behind early in games and struggling to come back only to give up more goals just as they do claw back.

"This is our team," Aeros coach John Tochetti told T3I after the 5-4 SO loss on Friday. "Until we understand that we have to come out and play consistently our roles, and do what we're asked to do and play our system, we're going to be playing like this for a long time, until we get to work and understand that commitment as a hockey team."

Meanwhile, Texas spent some time Saturday night developing scoring depth as Matt Fraser tripled his goal total with two and Tomas Vincour collected one of his own. Cody Eakin padded his numbers as well, but the Stars still don't have any players above eight points and are only averaging two goals per game.

Points to build on include improved special teams play and the ability to play as a team after tough stretches in the game. While the Stars never led on Saturday, they were never truly out of it either. If the Stars can catch the Aeros in a down swing, they may be able to surprise the team and get some momentum going at the end of this week's three-in-three.

Stars injury/call up report:
Benn (likely concussion)

Website: aeros.com
Blog (official): Pilot to Gunner
Blog (unofficial): The Third Intermission
Twitter: @Houston_Aeros
Twitter: @aero_joe (play-by-play)
Twitter: @TheJoshFisher (PR)

Comments