For the city of Houston, Texas, hockey history has been made.
The NAHL’s Houston Bulls wrapped up their home opening weekend in the major Texas city with a 4-3 win over the Ogden Mustangs on Oct. 17. It marks the first win at Deep South Ice and Sports Plex — Houston’s new rink located in Richmond that was privately funded at around $40 million.
The win for the Bulls also comes as the NHL is currently evaluating Houston to potentially become the League’s 33rd franchise; should a team come to fruition, it’s expected the team would be a natural fit for the Colorado Avalanche’s Central Division.
Bulls forward Romain Lellouche scored the first goal in the building’s history on Oct. 17, posted just 1:40 into the first period of the weekend.
Houston’s Marat Mikhin, Nicholas Russ, Lukas Yeck, Jake Voris and Ryder Sorensen also had goals throughout play against the Mustangs.
The win marked the first home win by a Houston hockey team in over 13 years; the AHL’s Houston Aeros last confirmed home win was on April 11, 2013 — which was a 4-3 win at the city’s Toyato Center
In an exclusive, Bulls Head Coach Nathan Oystrick said there’s something special about playing a role in Houston’s hockey history.
“It felt amazing. I was extremely proud of the guys. They stuck with it,” Oystrick said on the significance of the win. “It was pretty cool to be a part of Houston hockey history. This is our home arena. We want to lock it down. [The fans] were fantastic. We could hear them all weekend. They were crazy. They were rowdy … the guys feed off their energy.”
Friday’s game was a 4-3 overtime win for Ogden, and Saturday marked a 4-3 shootout win for the Bulls.
Goaltender Aaron Sachs was called a brick wall by those in attendance at Deep South — the netminder logged 63 saves across both games.
“We took that game over and played to our identity … In the first weekend [at home] we gave our fans a little bit of everything. We had fights. We had overtime. We had a shootout. Hopefully, the fans continue coming back,” Oystrick also said.
A Brief Synopsis of Ongoing NHL Expansion Efforts
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and the League announced in June the beginning of a six-month evaluation process to analyze the possibility of expanding to either Houston or Austin. The Friedkin family, led by Dan Friedkin, the CEO of The Friedkin Group has been identified as the prospective owner.
“We have been in discussions for the better part of two years with the Friedkin family, principally for the last two years about Houston as an expansion opportunity. But as we continued to focus with them, particularly on the need for a new arena in Houston, the discussions morphed into also a discussion about Austin,” Commissioner Bettman had said per NHL.com.
The end of the six-month evaluation process is scheduled for December; the NHL’s Board of Governors is reportedly next set to meet on Dec. 10-11 in Florida.
Though, the league has made recent statements indicating the expansion process is lengthy and could take longer than initially expected.
“We’re not under any time constraint,” Commissioner Bettman has said.
The Current NHL Central Division
The NHL’s Central Division currently consists of the Avalanche in addition to the Dallas Stars (the pre-existing Texas NHL team which relocated from Minnesota for the 1993-94 season), Minnesota Wild, Utah Mammoth, St. Louis Blues, Nashville Predators, Winnipeg Jets and Chicago Blackhawks.
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