Houston Aeros (4) at Iowa Stars (5)

The Iowa Stars put together back-to-back wins to finish off 2007. Coming off a 3-2 win Sunday night in Peoria, the Stars needed a win on New Year's Eve to draw even at .500. Toby Petersen and Marty Sertich led the way for the Stars with a goal a piece. Baumgartner added a pair of assists as the Stars defeated the Houston Aeros 5-4.

A back-and forth first period ended as Toby Petersen found the back of the net at 19:43 on assists from Nolan Baumgartner and Konstantin Pushkarev, who returned to the roster just before game time. The Stars lone goal of the period came on the power play due to a penalty on the Aeros bench for having too many men on the ice.

Adrian Foster pulled the Aeros even just minutes into the second period. Foster banged a lose past Stars goalie Tobias Stephan, on assists from Maxim Noreau and Benoit Pouliot. Marty Sertich put the Stars back on top with his 11th of the season. Sertich took a pass from Jussi Timonen, slid down to the near side circle and fired a shot past Nolan Schaefer, the Houston goalie. Then with 1:10 to play in the second period, Houston forward, Troy Riddle scored his fourth of the season. Riddle's goal came on the back end a sloppy series that saw several turnovers by both teams in the neutral zone, before Riddle finally broke out of the pack and skated into the Stars end, were he beat Stephan blocker side to even things at two after two.

The Stars came out of the gates flying in the third period. Sertich scored his second of the night 48 seconds into the third period. Fourty seconds later BJ Crombeen found the back of the net again for the Stars. Crombeen's goal was his sixth of the season. With an assist on Sertich's second goal, the first of the period, Nolan Baumgartner picked up his second point of the game. He had earlier assisted on the Petersen goal in the first period. With 12 minutes to play in the third, Serge Payer, for Houston, once again pulled the Aeros to within 1 goal at 4-3. Petersen though would add an insurance goal midway through to 3rd. Petersen and Junior Lessard skated in on two-on-one, Petersen looked off the pass and snapped a quick shot past the glove of the Houston goaltender, Nolan Schaefer. Houston would draw close in the final minutes with a goal by Cal Clutterbuck. The Clutterbuck goal came after Houston had pulled their goalie, but would not be enough as the Stars held on to win 5-4.

The Stars finished off 2007 with a win, and pulled even at 17-17-1-1.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Iowa
• Stars
• Hockey
• Huston
• Aeros
• Toby
• Petersen
• Marty
• Sertich
• BJ
• Crombeen