Gameday Preview: Stars at Houston Aeros

Texas Stars 32-30-3-3, 70 pts #4 West Division

at

Houston Aeros 33-22-1-4, 71 pts #3 West Division

February 25th at 7:35 PM

Toyota Center, Houston, TX

Texas will take the surely dreaded trip to the Toyota Center to face Houston for the 10th time on the season. The Stars are 1-6-1-1 against Houston this year. The lone win came at the Cedar Park Center in the last game before Thanksgiving. The West Division's playoff race is certainly being affect by this one-sided rivalry.

For example, if Texas had taken just two of those lost games to overtime, they would vault past two teams to second place. If all teams continue accruing points at their current rate, there would still only be 3 points between 2nd and 6th place at the end of the season. It's cliche to say that two points are important every night, but it's very true in this year's race.

Despite their dominance over Texas, the Aeros have been flailing a bit recently. The fans in Houston are getting antsy after going 1-3-0-1 in the last 5 games. Two of those losses came against the division-leading Admirals. The Aeros are in a precarious spot. Despite their large number of points, every team in the division but Chicago has at least one game in hand over them. San Antonio should be especially scary for Houstonians, as the Rampage have 3 games in hand but are only 3 points behind the Aeros.

Jon DiSalvatore and Maxim Noreau are at a point a game or better for the Aeros in the season series. Colton Sceviour is at one point per game in the series as well for Texas. On average, Texas goaltenders are at 3 goals against per game against the Aeros, while Houston is at just over two per game.

Stars injury/call up report:
Krahn, Morin, Larsen (lower body)
Sawada, Vincour (call up)

Website: aeros.com
Blog (unofficial): The Third Intermission
Twitter: @Houston_Aeros