Aeros finish road trip in San Antonio

February 27, 2005 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Houston Aeros News Release


Five things you need to know
• The Aeros' penalty killers took a hit over the weekend against Cincinnati's red-hot power play unit, allowing four goals on 16 chances (75.0 percent kill rate). Houston, which killed off seven of 10 chances last night, has fallen to second place in the AHL on the PK at 88.6 percent. The Aeros were at 89.5 percent prior to Friday's game. Houston is plus-22 in PPG ratio, second best in the league.
• Aeros second-year winger Matt Foy is riding the best stretch of his young career. Foy has three goals over his last two games, the second time this season and the third time in his career he's scored goals in back-to-back games. His three-game point streak (3-1=4) is a new career-high. Foy scored the Aeros' second goal last night.
• Tonight's game is the first of three straight meetings between the teams. This marks the eighth time in the Aeros' four seasons in the AHL that they've played the same team three straight times in the regular season, and the second time in two weeks (Chicago). Since joining the league in 2001-02, the Aeros are 4-2-1 in game one, 4-2-1 in game two and 2-5-0 in game three when playing a team three straight times. Since joining the AHL, Houston has never swept a three-game regular-season set from the same opponent. Three times, the Aeros won the first two games but lost the third.
• Aeros winger Kyle Wanvig posted a goal and an assist last night to become the Aeros' AHL leader in goals with 51. He had been tied with Cory Larose, and has moved into 10th place on the team's all-time goal list. Stephane Veilleux has 49 goals, and last night broke out of a third-place tie for the most points in the Aeros' AHL play with 121.
• Houston's overtime woes continued last night, when Cincinnati's Chris Kunitz scored a power-play goal with less than one second left in the extra session. The Aeros dropped to 2-5 in overtime this season after going winless in 18 attempts in 2003-04, when they tied 14 games and lost four more in the extra five minutes. After winning two of their first three OT games this season, the Aeros have lost four straight. Houston is 4-3, meanwhile, in the shootout.

Aeros at Rampage (Aeros are 17-5-4-2 all-time, Aeros are 6-3-3-2 at San Antonio)
• Tonight is the 29th all-time meeting between the teams - 15th in San Antonio.
• Houston is 2-1-1-0 this season against the Rampage, winning the last two meetings. Mikko Koivu scored two goals in a 4-2 Houston win in San Antonio 1/21.
• The Aeros lost in regulation only once to San Antonio last season (7-1-2-2).
• The teams have gone to overtime in seven of 28 meetings, and the Aeros are 1-3-3 against San Antonio in the extra session.
• Houston has points in eight of its last nine games (4-1-2-2) at SBC Center.
• A win tonight would give the Aeros their first back-to-back wins in San Antonio since their first two trips there, 11/3/02 and 12/26/02.
• The Aeros and Rampage played four times in the pre-season, then on Opening Night 10/15 for five meetings in 15 days. Over the next 134 days, the teams met only three times. Now, they play three times in five days, and starting tonight, Houston plays eight of its final 25 games in a 50-day stretch versus San Antonio.

Scouting the Aeros
Houston has points in 13 of its last 18 games (8-5-3-2) but has only one win in its last five (1-2-1-1)...The Aeros are 1-1-1-1 on a five-game road trip that ends today...Stephane Veilleux (15-21=36) and Pierre-Marc Bouchard (10-26=36) are tied for the team lead in scoring, just ahead of Kirby Law (17-16=33)...Bouchard has 17 points (5-12=17) in his last 16 games, while Law has 18 points (10-8=18) in 21 games but has zero points on the road trip...Veteran Ray Giroux (7-16=23) anchors a well-balanced blueline that includes five players in double digits in points...Mike Smith is 14-13-2 with a 2.48 gaa, while Josh Harding is 11-12-1 with a 2.07 gaa.

Scouting the Rampage
San Antonio, the AHL affiliate of the Florida Panthers, is returning home today following a 12-game, 28-day "rodeo" road trip...The Rampage last played at SBC Center 1/28, a 3-1 loss to Chicago...A 2-1 OT loss in Grand Rapids last night dropped the Rampage to 4-7-1-0 on the annual excursion, but the team dropped seven of its last eight games...San Antonio dropped the final three games by an 8-3 count and has scored one goal or less in seven of its last eight games...San Antonio, which has played an AHL-high 61 games, plays 13 of its last 19 games at home...Only five road games remain - a quartet of games three hours away in Houston, and one in Grand Rapids...Stephen Weiss leads the Rampage with 38 points (15-23=38), ahead of defenseman Joel Kwiatkowski (10-18=28)...Travis Scott is 16-21-3 with a 2.49 gaa, while Patrick DesRochers is 7-13-1 with a 2.70 gaa.

2004-05 meetings (Fifth of 12 meetings, Aeros are 2-1-1-0 overall, Aeros are 1-1-0-0 at San Antonio)
October 15: Houston 1 at San Antonio 2
December 3: San Antonio 2 at Houston 1 (OT)
December 23: San Antonio 2 at Houston 5
January 21: Houston 4 at San Antonio 2
Tonight: Houston at San Antonio
March 2: San Antonio at Houston
March 3: Houston at San Antonio
March 12: San Antonio at Houston
April 2: San Antonio at Houston
April 3: Houston at San Antonio
April 9: Houston at San Antonio
April 10: San Antonio at Houston

Last Game
Chris Kunitz scored a power play goal with less than a second left in overtime, as the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks outlasted the Houston Aeros 4-3 in a wild game at Cincinnati Gardens. Kurtis Foster scored twice and added an assist and Shane O'Brien chipped in a goal for Cincinnati, which went 3-for-10 on the power play and won its fifth straight. Pierre-Marc Bouchard tied the game with a power play goal midway through the third period for Houston, which rallied from three goals down to force overtime.

Quick Hits
• Both Houston and San Antonio lost on power-play goals in overtime last night.
• In the last two seasons, the Aeros have only three wins in 17 February road games (3-8-5-1).
• Aeros defenseman Ray Giroux has six points (1-5=6) in his last seven games and nine points (2-7=9) in his last 10 games.
• The Aeros have allowed the game's first goal in eight of their last 10 games. The Aeros, who have trailed at some point in 12 of their last 14 games, are 9-17-3-3 when allowing the first goal, but 16-4-2-0 when scoring it. Houston has scored first just 22 times in 54 games. Houston has scored a first-period goal in just four of its last 14 games.
• Houston's end result is usually dependent on its third-period play . The Aeros have allowed 37 third-period goals, just one off the league lead, but Friday night they allowed two in the final 2:44 to fall to 2-6-0-0 when yielding two or more in the last 20 minutes. In its 25 wins, Houston has allowed just 10 third-period goals, but in the remainder of its 29 games, it has yielded 27. The Aeros are 1-10-2-1 in their last 14 games when allowing a third-period goal.
• The Aeros have been outshot in three straight games for the first time this season, including a 79-54 margin in the two-game series with Cincinnati. Counting a 13-1 differential in favor of Utah on Wednesday, the Aeros have been outshot 92-59 in their last seven periods. Houston owns the advantage in shots in just one of those stanzas.
• San Antonio has allowed a league-high 62 first-period goals, and its minus-20 first-period margin is third worst in the AHL. The Rampage is minus-17 in the third period (56-39).
• Sixteen of the Rampage's 23 wins have come by one goal. The Rampage is 16-7-3-4 in one-goal games, but just 7-24-0-0 in games decided by two or more.
• San Antonio has led after one period at home only six times, including 10/15 versus Houston.

Harding back in a big way
• Aeros 20-year-old rookie goalie Josh Harding missed 17 games due to a concussion, but he has returned strong, going 6-5-0 with a 2.16 gaa.
• Harding, the second youngest goalie in the AHL behind WBS' Marc-Andre Fleury, has three shutouts, as Wednesday's game didn't go down as an individual shutout. No other Aeros rookie goalie had more than one shutout.
• Harding is 11-9-1 with a 1.95 gaa since an 0-3-0 start to his pro campaign.
• Harding is tied for eighth in the league in gaa (2.07), and trails only Lowell's Cam Ward among rookies (2.01).
• The rookie has a quartet of two-game winning streaks, but he's still looking for his first three-game run.
• Harding has allowed 21 goals in the first period, but only 13 in the second and 14 in the third.
• Harding fought opposing goalie Jamie Storr on Wednesday, making him just the third goalie in team history to pick up a fighting major. The last was Ryan Bach on March 21, 1998, against San Antonio's Sergei Zvyogin. Jamie McLennan was involved in two skirmishes in the 2002 Calder Cup playoffs against Hershey, but he got a minor penalty for leaving the crease for his role, which ironically also came in a 3-0 shutout win.

Smith establishes franchise mark
• Aeros goalie Mike Smith appeared in 19 straight games - 17 of the appearances starts - from 11/26-1/25. Smith's 19-game run was a new franchise record, eclipsing Frederic Chabot's old mark of 15, set 12/8/99-1/21/00.
• Smith is 0-3-2 in his last five starts, a new career-mark for a winless streak. His gaa in that span is 2.90. Smith was previously winless in three straight games on two occasions, once this season.
• Smith is one of five Aeros goalies ever with four shutouts in a season.
• The 6-foot-3, 210-pounder is 6-2-1 with a 2.37 gaa on the road but 8-11-1 with a 2.55 gaa at Toyota Center.

PP unit tied for fifth
• The Aeros are tied for fifth in the league on the power play at 18.0 percent.
• Houston snapped out of a three-game, 0-for-8 funk last night by going 2-for-5 with the man advantage.
• In their last 37 games, the Aeros have outscored their opponents 38-18 on the power play.
• Overall, the Aeros have outscored their opponents 49-27 on the power play.
• Houston is 18-12-4-1 when scoring a PPG and 7-9-1-2 when not scoring a PPG.
• The Aeros have allowed seven shorthanded goals, but none since Norfolk's Quintin Laing 12/18.
• San Antonio ranks 26th in the league on the penalty kill at 80.6 percent, and both the goals it gave up to Grand Rapids last night came with the man advantage.

Houston second on PK
• Houston is second the league on the penalty kill at 88.6 percent.
• Houston allowed Cincinnati three goals on 10 chances last night after killing off 51-of-54 shorthanded chances in the prior 14 games (94.4 percent) and 104-of-114 shorthanded chances in the prior 25 games (91.2 percent).
• The Aeros have killed off 177-of-196 (90.3 percent) of their shorthanded chances over the last 44 games.
• Houston is 16-13-2-2 when not allowing a PPG and 8-9-3-1 when allowing a PPG.
• San Antonio is 25th in the league on the power play at 13.5 percent.



American Hockey League Stories from February 27, 2005


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