HOUSTON --- Cody Almond had a goal and two assists and Jon DiSalvatore scored the decisive shootout tally as the Houston Aeros took a 4-3 victory over the Rockford IceHogs in front of 7,535 fans in a  Kid's Day matinee Thursday at Toyota Center.

BOXSCORE

The win bumped Houston one point past Texas into fifth place in the West Division standings. The Aeros now sit one point out of fourth place and just four points off the Division lead held by San Antonio.

DiSalvatore, who collected a goal and one assist along with the shootout winner, gave Houston a 1-0 lead on his fifth goal of the season with 54 seconds left in the first period.

Rockford answered with a pair of goals in the second. Brian Connelly evened the score at 3:15 and then Ryan Potulny gave the IceHogs the lead with a 4-on-4 breakaway goal at 9:56, beating Aeros goalie Anton Khudobin low stick side.

The Aeros knotted the game at 2-2 on JM Daoust's fifth marker of the season 7:05 into the third, but Rockford regained the lead 1:36 later on Connelly's second of the game.

Almond forced overtime with 1:19 left in regulation after the Aeros pulled Khudobin for the extra attacker.

Khudobin (25 saves) made five overtime saves and then turned away four of five shootout attempts including a final round attempt by Connelly to secure the victory.

Rockford's Hannu Toivonen stopped 36 of 39, the second most shots by the Aeros this season, and three of five in the extra-extra.

Houston (12-9-1-2, 27 pts.) and Rockford (8-11-0-3, 19 pts.) play the tail end of a two-game set Friday at Toyota Center with a 7:35 p.m. scheduled start time.

Follow the Aeros all season long on 1070 KNTH, online at AEROS.COM or watch live games by visiting AHLLIVE.COM.

DECIDING GOAL
DiSalvatore, 5th round shootout    POWER PLAYS
HOU – 0/2……... RFD - 0/1
      
GOALIES
HOU – Khudobin (25/28, 4/5 SO, W)
RFD - Toivonen (36/39, 3/5 SO, SOL)   

AEROS STARTERS
Palmer, Kalus, Noreau, McMillan, Bagnall, Khudobin

AEROS SCRATCHES
Fraser, Zingoni, Gillies, Rau, Fredheim, Broda
     
BOMB DROPPINGS
The Aeros have won six of their last seven at home…Anton Khudobin has won five in a row at home…Houston is 7-0-0-0 when scoring four or more goals…Cody Almond’s game-tying goal was his first tally in 10 games dating back to Nov. 8 at Abbotsford...Almond has at least one assist in three of his last four games...Today was his second multiple assist game of the season (Had three assists on Oct. 9 at OKC)…Tyler Cuma made his pro debut. The Wild's first round pick (23rd overall) in 2008 missed the first 23 games of the season on the injured reserve...The Aeros improved to 10-8-1-0 vs. West Division teams…The Aeros scored first for the 14th time in 17 games...When scoring first Houston is 12-2-0-2…The Aeros earned their first win of the season when trailing after two periods; they were 0-9-0-0 when trailing after the second period.