HOUSTON - Jed Ortmeyer scored twice early in the third and Matt Hackett made 22 saves Friday as the Houston Aeros beat the Binghamton Senators 3-1 to take Game 1 of the American Hockey League's Calder Cup.
Warren Peters added an empty-net goal for Houston, which leads the series 1-0 and hosts Game 2 on Saturday. Colton Gillies and Marco Scandella each had two assists.
Bobby Butler had the only goal for the Senators, who got 38 saves from Robin Lehner.
With Houston trailing 1-0 after two periods, Ortmeyer tied it at 1:47 of the third. The Aeros winger took a feed from Gillies and wired a slapshot past Lehner.
Ortmeyer made it 2-1 at 6:09 on a slapshot from the left circle that trickled through Lehner's pads to give the Minnesota Wild's AHL affiliate the lead.
Houston put it away with 35.9 seconds left in the game on an empty-netter by Peters.
Butler gave the Senators, the Ottawa Senators' minor-league affiliate, a 1-0 lead at 16:17 in the second period. Colin Greening stole the puck from Hackett behind the Houston net and fed Butler, who pounded home a one-timer before Hackett could get back into position.
After a scoreless first, Houston had chances to get on the board early in the second after Binghamton's Mark Borowiecki took an interference penalty at 9:37. Lehner stopped shots by Scandella, two by Patrick O'Sullivan and another from Robbie Earl in the two-minute span.
Binghamton, which entered the series with a 20 per cent success rate on the power play in the playoffs, went 0-for-2 with the man-advantage. Houston was also scoreless on two opportunities.
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