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The Canadian Press - ONLINE EDITION

Larsson plays like a veteran in Houston Aeros' 5-1 win over Abbotsford Heat

By: The Canadian Press

Posted: 03/2/2013 11:58 PM | Comments: 0 | Last Modified: 03/3/2013 1:41 AM

VANCOUVER - Houston Aeros' rookie Johan Larsson played like a veteran Saturday night.

Larsson scored twice and assisted on two other goals in the Aeros' 5-1 win over the Abbotsford Heat on Saturday in American Hockey League action.

The 20-year-old Swedish right winger picked up his team-high 15th goal of the season and assisted on Zack Phillips' and Chad Rau's goals as Houston (29-21-7) rebounded from Friday's 4-2 loss to the Heat. Justin Fontaine also scored for the Aeros.

He remains humble despite being second in team scoring in his first North American professional season.

"It wasn't a great game," said Larsson of his first career four-point performance. "I had a flow, you know. Everybody had good passes. We had a good line and we worked hard, getting pucks to the net. Today was my turn."

However, teammate Matt Hackett definitely felt that the 2010 second-rounder has some star power.

"He's a special player," said Hackett. "He's young but you can't tell. You'd think he's a vet the way he's played all year. It's pretty special to watch a young kid come up and do really well like that."

Hackett stopped 24 shots in the win, making several key stops in the second period when the game was still close.

"He's a great goalie and we have great confidence in him to make the saves when we need them," said Larsson.

Greg Nemisz replied for Abbotsford (27-23-8) and Barry Brust made 21 saves for the hosts, who failed to score more than one goal for the seventh time in the past nine games.

The Aeros opened the scoring on the game's first power play. Larsson redirected a centring feed by Paul Mara from the corner past Brust at 2:37.

Houston doubled their lead 23 seconds into the second period. Larsson dished the puck to Dan DaSilva and went to the net where he slid a rebound around Brust for his team-leading 15th of the season.

Hackett had to make a few stops in the opening frame but his first quality save was a nifty glove save off of Tyler Ruegsegger from point-blank range about five minutes into the second period, keeping the Aeros up by two. Later on he faced Carter Bancks on a short-handed two-on-one but again he snared the shot with his quick glove.

However the Heat would get on the board at 9:18 of the second. Nemisz took a feed from Krys Kolanos at the blue-line and snapped a shot from the top of the right circle. Hackett got a piece of it but the puck trickled in just inside the post, giving Nemisz two goals on the year.

Houston regained the two-goal cushion about five minutes later. Larsson played setup man, faking a shot off a rush before finding Phillips at the back door. The Fredericton, N.B., native slid the puck into an open net for his third of the year.

The Heat came back from a third-period deficit Friday but were unable to replicate a comeback on this night.

"We made some bad reads, reads we don't usually make," said Abbotsford defenceman Joe Callahan. "Give them credit, they found a loophole in our system. We're usually a pretty disciplined team and took some penalties we don't normally take but our PK usually bails us out. It didn't today."

With Kolanos in the box for the third time the Aeros had their second power-play goal of the evening. Larsson tipped Mara's point shot on Brust and though the goalie made the save, Rau was at the side of the net to bury the rebound for his eighth of the year.

Then on a late power play for Houston, Brust tried to clear the puck himself but it was gloved down by Rau and though the Eden Prairie, Minn., native hit the post, Fontaine was there to slide home his 15th of the year, tying Larsson.

Houston ended 3 for 6 with the man advantage while Abbotsford was 0 for 2.

"Our power play played really well and so did our PK," said Hackett. "That was huge in contributing to the two points. If we can score five goals a night, we have a good chance to win games.

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