Aeros Weekly

Published on March 24, 2008 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Houston Aeros News Release


HOUSTON, Texas - The Houston Aeros finished last week with a 3-2-0-0 record during a stretch of five games in seven nights. After losing a pair to Quad City to start the week the Aeros (38-25-2-3) bounced back and beat the West Division-leading Chicago Wolves twice and defeated the Rampage in San Antonio. After Houston's fifth straight road win, tying a season-high, the club moved into the fourth spot in the division, only one point behind the Rampage.

The Aeros return home for a two-game set against Peoria before heading to Chicago and Milwaukee this weekend. Call 713.974.PUCK to get your tickets for the games against the Rivermen this Tuesday and Friday as Houston tries to hold the fourth spot in the West!

LAST WEEK

3/17 - HOU 2 vs. QCY 4 - L

3/19- HOU 2 vs. QCY 3 - L

3/20 - HOU 1 vs. CHI 0 -W

3/21 - HOU 5 vs. CHI 4 - W

3/23 - HOU 3 at SAN 2 - W

Monday, March 17:

The Quad City Flames took a 3-0 lead before the Houston Aeros scored their first goal over halfway through the third period in a 4-2 loss in front of 3,199 fans at Toyota Center Monday night. The Aeros are 1-5 in the last six West Division games after Monday's contest. Three of the losses, the Aeros have been shutout. Houston's next eight games are against divisional opponents. The game marked the Aeros second and last Monday game of the season as the club fell to 0-2 on Monday evenings.

Wednesday, March 19:

After going down 3-0 the Houston Aeros mounted a comeback, scoring two unanswered goals but fell in a 3-2 loss to the Quad City Flames in front of 3,596 fans at Toyota Center Wednesday night. The Aeros' Clayton Stoner marked his first multiple-point game of the season with two assists recorded. Danny Irmen's goal and assist earned him his first multi-point game in 33 games. His first and only other multiple-point game of the season was December 28 when he recorded two assists during a 4-3 shootout loss at Quad City.

Thursday, March 20:

Anton Khudobin stopped all 26 shots faced and earned his first professional shutout in the Houston Aeros 1-0 win over the Chicago Wolves Thursday night at Toyota Center. Peter Olvecky scored the Aeros lone goal and the ninth shutout of the season tied a franchise record set in 2004-05 when Josh Harding and Mike Smith split nine shutouts.

Friday, March 21:

The Houston Aeros allowed three goals in the first frame but defeated the Chicago Wolves 5-4 in front of 10,211 fans at Toyota Center Friday night. Aeros' Joel Ward led the way with a pair of goals as Houston remained within two points of the fourth spot in the West Division.

Sunday, March 23:

The Houston Aeros won their fifth straight road-game, tying a season-high, and moved within one point of the third-place San Antonio Rampage with 3-2 win in San Antonio Sunday night in front of 2,983 fans at AT&T Center. The Aeros (38-25-2-3) victory improved the club record to 6-4 against the Rampage (36-24-3-7) to finish the teams' season-series. Ryan Hamilton also recorded a career-high two goals in the contest.

THIS WEEK

TUE. vs. PEO, 7:05 p.m. CST

FRI. vs. PEO, 7:05 p.m. CST

SAT. at CHI, 7 p.m. CST

SUN. at MIL, 4 p.m. CST

Tuesday, March 25 and Friday, March 28

The Aeros face the Peoria Rivermen in back-to-back home games prior to hitting the road for two weeks. The match-ups are the sixth and seventh meetings this season with one remaining in Peoria on April 6. Houston is 4-1 against the Rivermen this season including two overtime wins. Peoria is currently in sixth place in the division but are only three points behind the Aeros and Milwaukee who are tied at 81 points. Don't miss the playoff-style action as each team races down the stretch to earn a spot in post-season play! Call 713.974.PUCK to get your tickets today! Friday is also Mullet Night with the Aeros and the first 3,000 fans inside Toyota Center will receive an Aeros Mullet Hat.

Saturday, March 29

The Aeros take on the Chicago Wolves after beating the club in consecutive nights last week. Chicago won the first three games to start the season-series and the Aeros can tie the series with a third straight win over the club. Chicago won the first three games by a combined score of 14-3 but lost the last two 6-4 in favor of Houston. The Aeros have played the Wolves more than any other team in their history (95 games) and they have accumulated a 43-34-14-4 record all-time. As of Monday the Wolves are still looking to clinch a playoff berth but can do so with a win or a Peoria loss.

Sunday, March 30

Sunday's game against the Milwaukee Admirals will be the fourth meeting of the season. The Aeros have a record of 1-1-0-1 in the first three contests. The game also marks the first of five meetings over 15 days, including a three-in-three to round out the season April 11-13. The Admirals and Houston are tied for the fourth spot in the division at 81 points. With five of the last nine games of the season against each other, the teams will truly be dueling for playoff positioning.

Aeros Player of the Week: C Marco Rosa

Marco Rosa had an outstanding week centering the Aeros' top line. In his second season in the AHL, Rosa is having a career year and he had a career week last week tallying seven points (2-5=7) in five games as the Aeros went 3-2-0-0. Rosa had three two-point outings during the week and his second goal of the week could arguably be the Aeros most important goal this season. Rosa scored a power play goal at the 10:21 mark of the third period to tie the game at four against the Chicago Wolves capping a three-goal comeback. The Aeros went on to win the game 5-4. In his last six games, the Scarborough, Ontario native has four multi-point games scoring two goals and nine assists. He has played in 53 games for the Aeros this season and is sixth on the team in scoring with 26 points (9-17=26), 14 of those points have come in the last 14 games (3-11=26).

TEAM NOTES

- Houston moved into a fourth place tie with the Milwaukee Admirals with their 3-2 win over San Antonio. The Aeros and Admirals are tied with 81 points however Houston has a game in-hand. The West Division is the tightest race in the American Hockey League this season with four teams within three points of each other. Rockford is second in the division with 84 points in 70 games played, San Antonio is just one point ahead of Houston and Milwaukee for third with 82 points.

- Houston tied a season-high with their fifth straight win on the road Sunday against San Antonio. The Aeros have not lost on the road since February 13th at Chicago.

- Aeros left winger Ryan Hamilton had the team's 11th two-goal performance on Sunday against San Antonio. It marked a career high for Hamilton for goals in a game, but the Aeros have not yet had a hat trick this season. RW Joel Ward nearly had a hat-trick on Friday vs. Chicago and if he did, an anonymous donor would have donated $20,000 to Bo's Place (www.bosplace.org) in Houston. Ward's two goals and assist that night made $2,200 for Bo's Place.

- 10 of the Aeros last 11 wins have been decided by one goal. Three have been decided in overtime and one in shootout. The Aeros are 12-5 this season when games are decided after regulation time, they are 6-2 in overtime and 6-3 in shootouts.

- Houston has recorded nine shutouts this season tying the team record. Nolan Schaefer has five, Barry Brust has three, and Anton Khudobin had his first one against Chicago on Thursday night. The team has tied the record set in 2004-05 when Mike Smith recorded five and Josh Harding recorded four.

- Houston is 17-5-1-1 against teams outside of their division and 21-20-1-2 against teams within their division this season. Only two games left on the schedule are against non-divisional opponents.

Affiliation News

The Minnesota Wild (40-27-9) leads the Northwest Division with 89 points and holds the third spot in the Western Conference. Only eight points separate fifth place Edmonton from the Wild in the tightest division in the NHL. The Wild face the Oilers tonight at 8:30 p.m. with only six games left on their schedule. Minnesota has four games this week and cap off the regular-season on April 6 at home against the Colorado Avalanche.

Marian Gaborik leads the club with 75 points and 38 goals with Pierre-Marc Bouchard recording a team-high 49 assists. Goaltender Niklas Backstrom leads the team with 29 wins, a 2.37 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage.

The ECHL's Texas Wildcatters (50-7-4-7) have clinched a playoff birth and the South Division. The 111 points for the team leads the league by six points and tops the South Division by 24. John McNabb leads the team with 76 points (29-47=76) and has recorded 85 PIM in 67 games. The Wildcatters head to Charlotte for a pair of games against the Checkers this weekend. The club will have only two games remaining in the regular season after this weekend's contests.

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American Hockey League Stories from March 24, 2008


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