Aeros Unbeaten in 10 at Home

Published on January 21, 2003 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Houston Aeros News Release


Houston went 3-1-0 last week. The lone loss in Milwaukee stopped their unbeaten streak at a team-record tying 13 games (11-0-2). The Aeros showed no ill effects as they returned home to win a pair of games against the Manitoba Moose. Houston is unbeaten in 10 games at home (9-0-1).

THE WEEK THAT WAS:

JANUARY 15: The Aeros were the comeback kids when they rebounded from three two-goal deficits to down the Chicago Wolves 5-4 in OT. Chicago scored the only first period goal with less than two minutes remaining. In the second period, the Wolves took their first 2-0 lead when they scored just 24 seconds in. However, Houston got on the board with a power play goal by Hnat Domenichelli midway through the period. Chicago regained a two-goal lead three minutes later. Early in the third, the Aeros drew within one on Rastislav Pavlikovsky's goal. Chicago matched the goal just 45 seconds later. After that it was all Houston. Cory Larose scored at the 7:04 mark. Then Jean-Guy Trudel knotted the game at 4 late in regulation. In overtime, the Aeros killed off a penalty and then when Chicago was whistled for one, Houston converted. Lawrence Nycholat gave the Aeros the win at the 3:02 mark of overtime.

JANUARY 17: The Aeros wrapped up their three-game road trip where it started, but this time the Milwaukee Admirals came out on top with a 3-0 victory. Admirals G Brian Finley was the difference stopping all 24 shots he faced, including a penalty shot in the third period by Kyle Wanvig. Milwaukee collected one goal each period. In the first, Denny Lambert scored on the power play. Then Konstantin Panov put the Admirals up 2-0 midway through the second. In the third period, top rookie scorer Darren Haydar tallied the final goal of the game. Houston was 0 for 5 on the power play and Milwaukee was 1 for 5. Aeros G Derek Gustafson turned away 27 of 30 shots.

JANUARY 18: The Aeros defeated long-time rival Manitoba by a score of 4-1. Houston scored first when Chris Dyment scored midway through the opening period. All-Stars Travis Roche and Jean-Guy Trudel collected the assists. In the second period, Dan Cavanaugh gave the Aeros a 2-0 lead. Thirty seconds later, the Moose scored their lone goal of the night. The Aeros regained the two goal lead when Cavanaugh collected his second of the game and second of the period. Hnat Domenichelli put the game out of reach early in the third. Roche ended the game with three assists and was +4. Trudel collected two assists.

JANUARY 19: The Houston Aeros won their second game in a row over the Manitoba Moose, this time by a 6-1 score. The Aeros took the lead just 24 seconds in on a goal by Mark Cullen. However, at 1:19, Manitoba tied the game. Then Houston scored five unanswered goals. Lawrence Nycholat tallied Houston's second goal with just four seconds remaining in the first. Houston scored three times in the second period. First, it was Rastislav Pavlikovsky, then Jean-Guy Trudel collected a goal on the power play. Kyle Wanvig scored for Houston also. The lone goal scored in the third period was by Houston's Sylvain Cloutier. Aeros G Derek Gustafson stopped 24 of 25 shots for the win.

ALL-STAR HONORS: Aeros Head Coach Todd McLellan was named the Head Coach of the AHL's PlanetUSA All-Star Team on Saturday. He replaces Claude Julien, the former coach of the Hamilton Bulldogs who was hired as the Montreal Canadiens' head coach. The Aeros owned the AHL's second best record (trailing Hamilton) on Jan. 12, the pre-determined cut-off date to choose the PlanetUSA coach. This will be McLellan's first All-Star coaching job and he will face two of his players: Jean-Guy Trudel and Travis Roche, who are playing for the Canadian All-Star Team.

WHERE THEY STAND: The Aeros lead the extremely tough West Division by 13 points over Milwaukee (49 pts). San Antonio, Chicago and Utah are within three points. All five teams in the West Division have a winning percentage above .520, the only division with all winning teams. Houston is the top team in the Western Conference, leading Grand Rapids by four points. Overall, Houston trails Hamilton, (34-7-4-3, 75 points) and Providence (28-10-6-2, 64 points). Houston has the second-best winning percentage in the league (.705).

HE KEEPS GOING AND GOING: All-Star LW Jean-Guy Trudel has been truly impressive this season. He leads the team in goals (20), points (48), and power play goals (6). He is also tied for the team lead in assists (28) and game-winning goals (4). Trudel ranks third in the league in points. Dating back to Dec. 21, a stretch of 16 games, he has collected 8-14-22 and has double the multi-point games (8) than games without a point (4). For the season, he has been held off the scoresheet for three consecutive games once.

CHECK AND BALANCE: The Aeros' success so far this season has come from a balanced attack. For example, in the two wins over Manitoba by a combined 10-2 score, nine different players tallied goals and 13 players registered at least one point. For the season, LW Jean-Guy Trudel leads the way in goals (20) but D Curtis Murphy is close behind with 17. There are four other players in double digits, RW Hnat Domenichelli (14), C Mark Cullen (12) C Cory Larose (11) and RW Kyle Wanvig (11). Larose and Trudel share the team lead with 28 assists each. In all, the team has 13 players with at least 11 points. All 20 skaters on the Aeros roster boast an even or plus rating in plus/minus led by D Lawrence Nycholat at +21.

PLANES, BUSSES AND AUTOMOBILES: Wednesday's game at Hartford is the first on a season-high seven-game, 13-day road trip that has the Aeros playing non-division teams. The team visits Hartford, Bridgeport (2 games), Grand Rapids, Rochester (2 games) and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. After some time off for the AHL All-Star Game, the Aeros head to Chicago for one game before finally returning home to host the Milwaukee Admirals on Sunday, Feb. 9. After the All-Star break, Houston has only two games left against teams from the Eastern Conference and both games are against Manitoba. In all, 22 of Houston's last 29 games will be against division rivals. The upcoming games against non-division teams will be a welcome change for Houston as all five members of the West Division boast a winning percentage over .520.

SHOTS FROM THE POINT: The Aeros defensemen have contributed greatly to the offense. Curtis Murphy leads with 17 goals and 31 points. He is two short of the team record for defenseman goals in a season. He is second on the team in goals and third in points. He is the top blueline goal scorer in the AHL and ranks fourth in points. All-Star Travis Roche has contributed 7-20-27 and has six assists in his last four games, leading Houston's d-men in assists. He is tied for 7th in defenseman scoring in the league. Lawrence Nycholat has recorded points in 10 of the last 12 games (4-6-10) and set new career-highs in goals (6), assists (16) and points (22). He is tied for 17th in blueline scoring. David Cullen has 1-17-18, second in defenseman assists for Houston.

RECENT TRANSACTIONS: No recent transactions.

NEWS AND NOTES:

* LW Jean-Guy Trudel has 8-14-22 in his last 16 games; he leads Houston in goals (20), points (48), and power play goals (6). He is tied for first in assists (28) and game-winning goals (4). He is third in the league in scoring;

* C Cory Larose is second in points and assists on the Aeros with 11-28-39. He is tied for first on the team with four game-winning goals. He has 6-7-13 in the last 12 games;

* LW Hnat Domenichelli has 4-5-9 in seven games since being reassigned by Minnesota. Overall he's fourth on the Aeros in points (30) and third in goals (14);

* D Chris Dyment collected 1-3-4 in his past four games before going pointless on Sunday vs. Manitoba;

* RW Kyle Wanvig missed on a penalty shot Friday night in Milwaukee. He was the only Aero to have a penalty shot last season on Dec. 29, 2001. He missed against Simon Lajeunesse in a 3-3 tie at Grand Rapids;

* G Derek Gustafson has only one loss in his last nine starts (6-1-2). His 2.50 GAA ranks 17th in the league;

* G Frederic Cloutier won both of his starts, turning away a total of 44 of 47 shots (.936 save percentage);

* The Power Play is 10 of 39 in the last seven games (25.6%). Overall, it's 46 of 293/15.7%, ranking 15th;

* The Penalty Kill has allowed only three goals in the last nine games (34-37, 91.9%) and now is 202 of 238/84.9%, ranking 12th.

WILD WATCH: Minnesota currently has a record of 24-16-7-1 for 56 points. They are third in the Northwest Division. The Wild travel west this week for games in Anaheim on Monday (which they won in overtime), then visit the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday and finally play at San Jose on Saturday.

ICEGATORS REPORT: Louisiana remains tied for first place in the Southwest Division with Mississippi with a record of 24-10-8 for 56 points. Louisiana's Rod Sarich represented the IceGators at the ECHL All-Star Game on Monday. After the break, Louisiana plays three games this weekend: versus Mississippi on Friday, then travel to Pensacola for Saturday's game and finally head home to wrap up the home-and-home with Pensacola on Sunday.

UPCOMING GAMES

WEDNESDAY 1/22 AT HARTFORD

Houston visits Hartford for the only time this season to start the long road trip. In November, the Aeros downed the Wolf Pack 4-3 in overtime at Compaq Center.

FRIDAY 1/24 AT BRIDGEPORT

The Aeros make their first visit ever to Bridgeport looking for revenge. The Sound Tigers came to Houston in early December and won one game and tied the other.

SATURDAY 1/25 AT BRIDGEPORT

The Aeros continue their season-high seven game road trip with the second game against Bridgeport. This is the final time the two teams play each this season.

TUESDAY 1/28 AT GRAND RAPIDS

After taking a couple days off to watch some football, the Aeros are back at it. This is Houston's third visit to Grand Rapids this season, and are 2-0 so far.

WEDNESDAY 1/29 AT ROCHESTER

Houston visits Rochester for the first time. The second game is on Friday night. The Aeros defeated the Americans in two games at Compaq Center earlier this month.

ON THE AIR: Houston Aeros games can be heard on AM 700 "The Voice" KSEV this season with "The Voice of the Aeros" Ken Double providing the play-by-play. The games can also be heard at www.aeros.com. Wednesday's game from Hartford and Friday's game from Bridgeport will be joined-in-progress at7:00 PM Central.

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American Hockey League Stories from January 21, 2003


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