The Houston Aeros struck first at 9:03 when Andre Lacroix nabbed a loose
puck in the Aeros end as the Stingers moved up on offense and sent away Frank Hughes with
a great pass to set up a breakaway goal. Hughes zoomed in on Wakely and with little ease
knocked the puck into the net. Shortly there after the Aeros struck again when John Gray
picked up the puck behind the goal after teammate Larry Lund missed a shot. Gray moved
around Stingers defenseman Serge Beaudoin and slipped the puck into the corner for the
goal. The Stingers finally got on the board when Aeros Cam Connor was called for holding.
On the power play the Stingers fumbled a bit but regained their composure and found the
net when Robbie Ftorek scored with a back handed shot from the near circle at 18:15.
Hughes and Lacroix put the Aeros ahead
again in the second period. The Aeros moved into the Cincinnati zone where Lacroix passed
the puck to teammate Hughes. Hughes was positioned directly in front of the Stingers net
and tapped it in. Cincinnati answered at 6:15 when Ftorek scored his second goal of the
game after taking a pass from teammate Blaine Stoughton. Stoughton obtained the puck after
a deflection from the Aeros goalkeeper Zimmerman. Cincinnati went up by one goal at 10:33
when Rich Leduc drilled one in from well out in the slot.
The Stingers Beaudoin was called for
tripping and the Stingers did a great job killing penalty minutes. But shortly after the
Stingers were back at full strength, the Aeros tied the game back up. Gray took a high
shot which Wakely knocked down, but the puck dropped right in front of Aeros Larry Lund.
Lund just tapped it in the Stingers net for the goal. At 15:33 Barry Melrose of the
Stingers and ray of the Aeros got into a little scuffle and both had drawn penalties. Less
then two minutes later, Lacroix increased the Aeros lead with a deflected shot from the
point by former Stinger John "the Tank" Hughs.
Down by two goals the Stingers made a
valient effort and managed to come back and tie the game up. Rich Leduc scored first when
he finished off a nice play which saw Ron Plumb blast the puck towards the Houston goal.
Larose nabbed the puck and fed Leduc for the score. Del Hall scored the next Stinger goal
when linemate Robbie Ftorek avoided the Houston defense. Ftorek then pasted the puck
across the mouth of the goal to Hall. Hall then slipped it into the Aeros net. But
Houston's Cam Connor would put the puck in the net for the Aeros at 11:59 which turned out
to be the winning goal. The Stingers dropped yet another game which resulted in the club
slipping to seventh place in the WHA standings. |
