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Aeros Game Day

October 8, 2005 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Houston Aeros News Release


Five things you need to know
- The Aeros' home opener last night was a historic one for many players. Nineteen-year-old Belarus native Roman Voloshenko became the youngest Aero in the team's 12-year history to net a hat trick. Captain Kirby Law established a new career-high and became just the fourth player in team history with five points (2-3=5). He had a hand in all but one of Houston's goals. The last Aero with five points was Greg Hawgood, 10/16/98, in a 7-3 win at Kansas City. Also, linemate Erik Westrum posted a career-high four assists. The four points were also a career-best. The line of Voloshenko, Law and Westrum combined for 12 of the team's 18 scoring points.
- Both of Houston's last two hat tricks have come from rookies. In addition to Voloshenko, teammate Bill Kinkel scored three times in a 4-1 win over Cincinnati last March 30.
- Last night marked the pro head coaching debut of the Aeros' Rob Daum. He replaced Todd McLellan after spending the last 10 seasons at the University of Alberta, compiling a mighty 345-79-32 record. Daum is the sixth head coach in team history. Only one of the previous five won a season opener, and one of the five also won a home opener. Counting Daum's victory las night, new head coaches are 2-1-3 in season openers, with McLellan being the lone previous one to pick up a win, 3-2 at Milwaukee 10/6/01. In home openers, meanwhile, new head coaches are 2-3-1, with Terry Ruskowski leading the Aeros to a 3-2 shootout win over Atlanta in the Aeros' first ever home game, 10/7/94.
- Houston is 6-3-2 in road openers, but a 2-1 loss in San Antonio last season (also the season-opener) snapped a five-game winning streak dating back to 1999. The Aeros have never lost back-to-back road openers.
- The Aeros have eight players on their roster who spent time with the Aeros in 2004-05, and counting Curtis Murphy, a total of nine have seen action in a Houston sweater in their careers. Five of the eight saw limited time last season. Kirby Law, the ‘04-05 captain, played in all 80 games for the Aeros.

Aeros at Rampage (Aeros are 25-5-5-2 overall, Aeros are 9-3-4-2 at San Antonio)
- Tonight is the 38th all-time meeting between the teams - 19th in San Antonio. The Aeros sport a .770 winning percentage in the series.
- Since a three-game winless slide in the series 12/27/03-1/17/04, the Aeros have unleashed a 15-1-2-1 mark (.868 winning percentage).
- The Aeros have lost just once in regulation to the Rampage in each of the last two seasons. Houston was 9-1-2-0 in 2004-05 after a 7-1-2-2 mark in 2003-04.
- At San Antonio, Houston has won the last two meetings and is 4-0-1-0 in the last five. Since starting off 2-2-1-0 at SBC Center, the Aeros have points in 12 of the last 13 meetings (7-1-3-2).
- San Antonio scored more than two goals against Houston last night for only the second time in the last 20 meetings. The other time was in a 4-3 OTL at SBC Center 3/3/05.
- The teams have gone to overtime in nine of 37 meetings. The Aeros are 1-4-3 against San Antonio in the extra session and 1-0 in the shootout.
- Five of Kiel McLeod's 13 goals last season game versus the Aeros.

Scouting the Aeros
The Aeros went 2-0-0-0 in the pre-season, beating the Rampage twice...Houston was 40-28-6-6 in 2004-05, good for 92 points and fourth place in the AHL's West Division...The Aeros lost in five games to Chicago in the division semifinals...LW Pierre-Marc Bouchard led the way with 54 points (12-42=54) and is on the Minnesota Wild's roster...G Josh Harding impressed in his rookie season, going 21-16-3 with a 2.01 gaa and .930 save pct. despite missing two months due to a concussion...Harding returns to action in 2004-05, along with RW Kirby Law, the team's captain in 2004-05...After a two-year absence, two-time AHL Defenseman of the Year Curtis Murphy is back in Houston...D Kurtis Foster, who holds the AHL record for hardest slapshot at 101 mph, was signed by the Wild this summer...Another trade brought C Erik Westrum and D Dustin Wood from Phoenix for D Zbynek Michalek...Westrum, a Minnesota native, led the Aeros with three pre-season goals...Both he and Wood spent 2004-05 with Coyotes prospects in Utah, and they'll face many of those teammates tonight...Promising youngsters include C Patrick O'Sullivan, considered by many to be the No. 1 prospect in the Wild organization...D Clayton Stoner, 20, is already an imposing presence at 6-foot-3, 225 pounds...Stoner was the Wild's third-round pick in 2004...Up front, 19-year-old LW Peter Olvecky (ohl-VETS-kee) was named Slovakia Elite League Rookie of the Year after collecting 19 points (10-9=19) and 49 PIM's in 45 games with Dukla Trencin while skating with Minnesota Wild's Marian Gaborik...LW Roman Voloshenko won't turn 20 until May, but he's a second-round draft pick with unlimited potential...Voloshenko played for Russia's World Junior team last winter.

Scouting the Rampage
San Antonio is in its first year of an affiliation agreement with NHL Phoenix...Rampage went 27-45-3-5 last season, while Utah - Phoenix' affiliate - was 23-50-2-5...Randall Gellech is the affiliate's leading returning scorer with 27 points (15-12=17)...Veteran Steve Passmore tends the nets while David LeNeveu is in Phoenix due to an injury to Brian Boucher.

2005-06 meetings (2nd of 12 meetings)
Last Night San Antonio 5 at Houston 6
Tonight Houston at San Antonio
November 12 San Antonio at Houston
November 13 Houston at San Antonio
December 26 San Antonio at Houston
December 31 Houston at San Antonio
January 5 Houston at San Antonio
January 15 San Antonio at Houston
March 5 Houston at San Antonio
March 18 Houston at San Antonio
March 19 San Antonio at Houston
April 9 San Antonio at Houston

Looking ahead
The Aeros embark Saturday on a five-game road trip. After the short trip to San Antonio to complete the home-and-home, the Aeros visit Peoria for the first time next Friday, followed by their first of two trips to Grand Rapids October 15. The road trip finishes off with a pair of games in Omaha, another new team, October 18 and October 20. The Aeros have actually played two games in Peoria, when the teams were in the IHL. Houston won 4-1 in its last trip to Carver Arena, 2/9/96. The Rivermen relocated to San Antonio for the 1996-97 season.

Seven Aeros have seen NHL time
- Seven Aeros have played a combined 141 NHL games. More than half of those games have come from Joey Tetarenko, who has seen 73 NHL contests. Others with NHL experience are Anders Myrvold (33 games), Erik Westrum (15), Kirby Law (9), Kurtis Foster (5), Josh Olson (5) and Curtis Murphy (1). Erik Reitz was recalled to the Wild for three days in 2003-04 but didn't play, while Josh Harding backed up for one game while still an amateur.
- Six Aeros saw action in 2003-04, the "last" NHL season, with Westrum leading the way with 15 games played. Everyone on the above list except for Murphy played at least two NHL games in 2003-04.

Youngsters everywhere
- Ten of the 26 players on the Aeros' Opening Night roster are classified as rookies.

Wild roster has 11 former Aeros, including eight from 2004-05
- The Minnesota Wild opened up the season earlier this week with 25 total players on the roster, counting injured reserve. Eleven of those played for the Aeros at one point in their careers, and eight in 2004-05 alone.
- Counting Dallas' John Erskine and Phoenix' Zbynek Michalek, 10 players off last season's team began the season in the NHL.
- Other notable Aeros opening up the season in the NHL are Robert Lang (Detroit), David Oliver (Dallas) and Jeff Hoggan (St. Louis), a member of the Aeros' 2002-03 Calder Cup winning team.

Law earns the ‘C' again
- Houston Aeros head coach Rob Daum has named Kirby Law the team's captain for the 2005-06 season. This will mark Law's second straight season as the captain. In addition, Daum named Curtis Murphy, Kurtis Foster and Erik Westrum alternate captains. Murphy will wear the "A" during all games, while Foster will don it at home and Westrum on the road.

Aeros/Rampage connections
- Houston's Joey Tetarenko and San Antonio's Brad Ference were teammates in the Florida Panthers organization from 1999-2003. Tetarenko (‘02-'03) and Josh Olson (‘02-05) are both former members of the Rampage, when the team was the Panthers' AHL affiliate.
- San Antonio's Jarrod Skalde played alongside Kirby Law in AHL Philadelphia in 2001-02.
- The Rampage's Mike Bishai was on the 2002-03 Hamilton team that lost to the Aeros in the Calder Cup Finals.
- San Antonio's Matt Jones and Houston's Curtis Murphy and Bryan Lundbohm all attended the University of North Dakota. Jones came to the Fighting Sioux after Murphy and Lundbohm were gone.

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