Sat., March 10, 2012

Jeff Taffe scored a goal and dished out three assists and Jon DiSalvatore had two goals as the Houston Aeros beat the Grand Rapid Griffins 5-1 Saturday in front of a crowd of 8,816 at Toyota Center.

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AEROS POSTGAME REPORT
MARCH 10: HOU 5, GR 1

HOUSTON --- Jeff Taffe scored a goal and dished out three assists and Jon DiSalvatore had two goals as the Houston Aeros beat the Grand Rapid Griffins 5-1 Saturday in front of a crowd of 8,816 at Toyota Center.

Chad Rau had two assists while Kris Foucault and Mike Montgomery each scored for Houston, which returned home for the first time in 34 days after finishing a franchise record 11-game road trip Wednesday at Abbotsford. Joe Fallon made 26 saves as the Aeros improved to 28-19-3-9.

Taffe's four-point game was his first since Dec. 27, 2008, as a member of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

Foucault put Houston ahead 9:30 into the first period on a power play goal, and Jon DiSalvatore upped the lead to 2-0 less than four minutes later with another power play goal. DiSalvatore scored his team-leading 23rd goal of the season at 15:31 in the first to make it 3-0.

Houston scored three first period goals for the second time in the last three games and notched two power play goals in the first period for the first time this season.

Taffe netted a power play goal at 14:33 in the second period to make it 4-0. Houston's three power play goals tied a season high set Oct. 28 at San Antonio.

Landon Ferraro scored at 7:28 in the third period to make it 4-1 before Montgomery scored his first goal of the year a minute later to extend the lead back to 5-1.

The Aeros continue their six-game homestand Sunday against Grand Rapids at 5:05 p.m. at Toyota Center.

BOMB DROPPINGS
Kris Foucault has goals in two of the last three games and points in four of the last six (2-2=4)... Tyler Cuma had his second assist in three games... C.J. Stretch had his second assist in three games and third in five games... Jon DiSalvatore had his fourth goal in three games... DiSalvatore has points in seven of the last eight games (8-4=12) and ten of the last 12 games (9-6=15)... DiSalvatore has multi-point games in two of the last three games and 11 multi-point games this season... Jeff Taffe had his fifth assist in three games and points in four of the last five games (3-5=8)... Taffe has goals in two of the last five games... Taffe has a team-leading 12 multi-point games... Kris Fredheim had his first assist since Feb. 10 at Grand Rapids and first point since Feb. 24 at Texas... Chad Rau has points in four of his last five games (3-6=9)... Rau had his third multi-point game in his last four games and sixth multi-point game of the season... Justin Fontaine has a team-leading 30 assists and has assists in three straight games... Fontaine has points in eight of the last nine games (1-10=11)... Chay Genoway has points in two of his last three games (1-1=2).... Mike Montgomery had his first point since Feb. 2 against Texas... The Aeros netted two power play goals in the same period for the first time since scoring two in the second period against San Antonio on Jan. 8.

NEXT GAME
Sunday vs. Grand Rapids, 5:05 p.m. CDT

RECORDS
HOU: 28-19-3-9
GR: 25-23-6-4

GOAL SCORERS
HOU: Foucault, DiSalvatore (2), Taffe, Montgomery
GR: Ferraro

AEROS STARTERS
F – Almond, Foucault, McMillan
D – Bagnall, Genoway
G – Fallon

AEROS SCRATCHES
Penner, Mignardi, Lunden, McKenzie, Kuemper

DECIDING GOAL
DiSalvatore (13:05, 1st)

POWER PLAYS
HOU: 3/5
GR: 0/3

GOALIES
HOU: Fallon (26/27)
GR: Conklin (22/27)