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Aeros Go Three-for-Three

December 30, 2002 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Houston Aeros News Release


Houston won all three games it played last week in three nights in three different cities. This week the Aeros host the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks on Monday before a pair against the Rochester Americans on Friday and Sunday with a quick visit to San Antonio on Saturday thrown in.

THE WEEK THAT WAS: December 26: The Aeros defeated the San Antonio Rampage 7-2 behind a hat trick by rookie Mark Cullen who also had an assist. After a scoreless first period, Cullen scored four minutes into the second. San Antonio tied the game on a shorthanded goal before Jeremy Stevenson collected a power play goal for Houston. The Rampage knotted the score at two and after that it was all Houston. Jean-Guy Trudel tallied for Houston, then Hnat Domenichelli scored a shorthanded goal. Stevenson scored his second of the night and then Cullen tallied the final two. Trudel had three assists along with his goal for his second four-point night as an Aero.

Derek Gustafson collected his third straight win, stopping 20 of the 22 shots he faced. Houston's power play was 2 for 7. December 27: Houston traveled to Milwaukee and came away with a 4-1 victory behind Sylvain Cloutier's first and second goals of the season. Just 1:52 into the game Cloutier scored. He followed that with his second goal nine minutes later.

Another two minutes after that, Rastislav Pavlikovsky collected his first goal as an Aero on the power play. He also had an assist on one of Cloutier's goal. The Aeros then held the fort. Konstantin Panov scored midway through the second for Milwaukee's lone goal, but Trudel scored in the third. David Cullen had two assists on the night. G Dieter Kochan turned away 30 of 31 shots and the penalty kill blanked the Admirals on four chances. December 28: The Aeros won their fifth straight game, defeating the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks by a score of 4-2 behind a two-goal night by Cory Larose. Houston scored first when Jeff Hoggan tallied 2:48 into the game. In the second period, Houston jumped out to a 3-0 lead as Larose scored two goals just over two minutes apart. The Ducks' Josh DeWolf scored a power play goal but Houston regained the three-goal lead on another power play goal, this one by Pavlikovsky. In the third, Cincinnati tallied the lone goal with under five minutes remaining. Kochan was in net for Houston and stopped 25 of 27 shots. Houston nearly doubled Cincinnati's shot total, attacking Ilja Bryzgalov with 48 shots. The Aeros power play was 1-4.

ON THE MARK: Rookie C Mark Cullen scored Houston's first hat trick of the season Thursday night against San Antonio and added an assist for four points. The hat trick is only the third by an Aeros' rookie in the history of the team and first since March 20, 1996 when Egor Bashkatov collected one. Cullen's four points set a new Aeros record for points in a game by a rookie. He now has 10-9-19 on the season and ranks 16th in rookie scoring in the AHL and is tied for third on the Aeros at 10 goals. He has a five-game point streak, 3-5-8.

WHAT A GUY!: LW Jean-Guy Trudel has lead the Aeros in points all season, but he has turned it up a notch in the team's current five-game winning streak with 3-6-9. It started with a goal on Dec. 21 against Norfolk and continued the next night with an assist versus Chicago. On Thursday in San Antonio, Trudel put up his second four-point effort for Houston scoring a goal and assisting on three others. Friday night in Milwaukee, he added another goal and assist, while on Saturday he assisted on the Aeros power play goal.

BALANCE IS THE KEY: The Aeros feature a balanced attack this season. Of the 19 skaters currently on Houston's roster, all have at least one point. LW Jean-Guy Trudel leads in goals and points with 15 and 35, respectively. C Cory Larose is tops in assists at 21. For defensemen scoring, Curtis Murphy is the top goal scorer with 11, which is second on the team. Murphy and Travis Roche are tied for the blueline lead with 21 points, and Roche has the most assists with 14. Houston has five players in double digits in goals: Trudel, Murphy, Hnat Domenichelli, Mark Cullen and Kyle Wanvig.

FIRST IS IMPORTANT: Scoring first is very important to the Aeros. The team is 12-1-1 when striking first. In the 19 games this season that the opponent has scored first, Houston is 9-9-1. After not scoring the first goal in seven straight games (1-5-1), Houston has struck first in all five games in the current winning streak. Houston is 11-0 when leading after one period.

YEAR END HIGH: Before the Aeros current five-game winning streak, the team was struggling in the month of December. At one point, Houston was 1-5-1 in the final month of the year. With Saturday's 4-2 win, the Aeros are now over .500 at 6-5-1. Traditionally, December is the Aeros best month as the team had a record of 62-36-12 (.618 win %) coming into the season. Houston's second best month is March with 58 wins.

TRANSACTIONS: 12/26: D Keith McCambridge released from PTO; 12/27: LW Jeremy Stevenson recalled by Minnesota (NHL); 12/30: RW Kyle Wanvig reassigned by Minnesota (NHL)

NEWS AND NOTES: LW Jean-Guy Trudel has 3-6-9 in a five-game point streak and leads Houston in goals and points with 15-20-35 and is first with five game-winning goals. He is 5th in the league in scoring C Mark Cullen has a five-game point streak (3-5-8) and now ranks 16th in AHL rookie scoring with 10-9-19; C Cory Larose is second in points and first in assists on the Aeros with 6-21-27 after his first multi-goal game on Saturday; D Lawrence Nycholat collected an assist Saturday night and now has 11, tying his career high set last year. He leads the team in plus/minus at +14; C Sylvain Cloutier scored two goals Saturday night in Milwaukee, his first of the season; D David Cullen had a three game assist streak (4 assists) snapped Saturday night; D Travis Roche has 2-5-7 in his last five games and is tied for third on the Aeros in points (7-14-21) and is tied for eighth in AHL defenseman scoring; LW Hnat Domenichelli is tied for third on the team in points (10-11-21) and leads with two shorthanded goals; D Curtis Murphy leads all AHL defensemen with 11 goals and is tied for 8th in scoring with 11-10-21 (with Travis Roche); G Derek Gustafson has allowed just six goals in his last three starts, all wins, to reduce his goals against average to 2.54 which ranks 17th in the league; G Dieter Kochan has allowed only three goals in the last two games, both wins, to bring his GAA down to 2.70; The Power Play has scored seven goals in 33 chances in the five game-winning streak (21.2%). For the season, it's 35 of 226/15.5%, ranking 17th; The Penalty Kill allowed one goal on five chances on Saturday and now is 162 of 194 overall, 83.5%, ranking 14th.

UPCOMING GAMES

MONDAY 12/30 VS CINCINNATI

In a holiday twist, the Aeros host the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks on a Monday evening as 2002 winds down.

FRIDAY 1/3/03 VS ROCHESTER

Houston starts the new year with a three-in-three set that features two games against the Rochester Americans, the farm team of the Buffalo Sabres.

SATURDAY 1/4 AT SAN ANTONIO

The Aeros make their third visit to the SBC Center. San Antonio has been tough at home, losing only three games out of 14 through the first part of the season.

SUNDAY 1/5 VS ROCHESTER

Houston hosts Rochester for the second time in three days. This set of games are the first time the two teams have played each other. The Aeros visit the Amerks later this month.

THURSDAY 1/9 VS CHICAGO

Division-rival Chicago makes its second visit to Houston this season. The Aeros downed the Wolves 4-1 in their previous visit.

FRIDAY 1/10 VS CLEVELAND

The Barons make the first of two trips to Houston, with the other one coming in February. Houston has already visited Cleveland twice.

ON THE AIR: Houston Aeros games can be heard on AM 700 "The Voice" KSEV this season. December 26th will be televised on Fox Sports Net Southwest and will not be on the radio.



American Hockey League Stories from December 30, 2002


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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