Aeros welcome Rampage for Happy Hour Game

December 23, 2004 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Houston Aeros News Release


For tonight's Aeros Happy Hour, get a corner ticket plus free parking for just $15, and enjoy pre- and post-game drink specials ($1 well drinks and drafts) at The Bus II across from Toyota Center. Or, get a center ice seat, free parking, $10 in Toyota Bucks and pre- and post-game drink specials at The Bus II for $30. Call 713.974.PUCK to order, or order online at www.aeros.com/themenights. Username is Happy, password is Hour.

Five things you need to know
· Aeros winger Stephane Veilleux has four goals over his last four games, although his career-high-tying three-game goal streak was snapped Saturday. Veilleux had five PPG in his first three seasons in Houston, and he has five already this season. His 10 AHL goals are three off his career-high set last season. Seven of his 10 goals have been Houston's first goal of the game. Veilleux had four goals after 27 games last season.
· Houston, which is third in the AHL on the power play at 20.1 percent, is 9-for-32 (28.1 percent) in the first six games of its homestand, with at least one goal in each contest. The Aeros, who had a franchise-record-trying four PPG 11/20 in Syracuse, are 13-for-46 (28.3 percent) over their last nine games and 17-for-65 (26.2 percent) in their last 13 games, a span that has seen them outscore their opponents 17-7 on their respective man advantages.
· Houston goalie Mike Smith heats up when the weather cools down. Smith is 7-5-0 with a career-best 2.24 gaa, a .928 save pct. and two of his four career shutouts in December.
· The Aeros (14-10-2-1) are four games over the .500 mark for the second time this season, the last coming at 11-7-1-1 on 11/23. Houston hasn't been five games over .500 since finishing its Calder Cup championship season 47-23-7-3.
· San Antonio, which allows 32.4 shots per game (22nd in AHL) and is last at 26.2 shots per game, has been outshot 237-127 over the last 5 games for an average of a 40-25 shot differential.

Rampage at Aeros (Aeros lead all-time series 15-5-4-2, Aeros are 10-2-1-0 at Houston)
· Tonight is the 27th all-time meeting between the teams - 14th in Houston.
· The Aeros have just two regulation losses in 13 home meetings (10-2-1-0) with the Rampage.
· The Aeros lost in regulation only once to San Antonio last season (7-1-2-2), but have dropped a pair of 2-1 decisions this season, including an OT game 12/3 when Nathan Horton's second goal of the game gave the Rampage the victory. Houston's only three-game winless streak against San Antonio was a 0-1-2-0 over a three-game span 12/27/03-1/17/04.
· The teams have gone to overtime in seven of 26 meetings, and the Aeros are 1-3-3 against San Antonio. Houston's lone OT victory came 5-4 on 11/23/03, at SBC Center.
· Houston and San Antonio meet just once more over the next two months, before the Aeros play eight of their final 25 games against the Rampage, beginning 2/27.

Scouting the Aeros
Houston is 3-2-1-0 to start an eight-game homestand but is unbeaten in regulation in its last three (2-0-1-0)...Stephane Veilleux (10-8=18) and Mark Cullen (6-12=18) are the team's leading scorers...Veilleux has a team-best 10 goals, including four in the last four games...Houston has 18 players with at least one goal...Nineteen-year-old Brent Burns (4-8=12), Erik Reitz (0-11=11) and Zbynek Michalek (2-7=9) anchor the blueline...Mike Smith is 9-5-0 with a 2.65 gaa, while Josh Harding (5-7-1, 2.01 gaa) has missed the last four games with a concussion.

Scouting the Rampage
San Antonio has lost two straight, four of five and has won only three of 12 games (3-7-0-2) since beating Houston 2-1 in overtime 12/3...The Rampage is finishing off a grueling stretch of six games in seven nights, including a 4-2 loss in Utah last night...Stephen Weiss is San Antonio's leading scorer with 20 points (7-13=20), while Lukas Krajicek paces the blueline with 13 (1-12=13)...Travis Scott is 7-9-3 with a 2.30 gaa, while Patrick DesRochers is 4-7-1 with a 2.21 gaa.

2004-05 meetings (Third of 12 meetings, Aeros are 0-1-1-0 overall, Aeros are 0-0-1-0 at Houston)
October 15: Houston 1 at San Antonio 2
December 3: San Antonio 2 at Houston 1 (OT)
TONIGHT: San Antonio at Houston
January 21: Houston at San Antonio
February 27: 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
Marius Holtet forced overtime with 6:38 left in regulation, and Mikko Koivu scored the deciding shootout goal, as the Houston Aeros rallied to beat the Norfolk Admirals 4-3 in the first ever shootout at Toyota Center. Junior Lessard and Matt Foy also scored and Mike Smith made 38 saves plus four in the shootout.

Quick Hits
· Houston has played two games since the teams' last meeting 12/3, while San Antonio has played a whopping 11 times.
· Aeros defenseman John Erskine enters tonight's game with 991 career penalty minutes, including an 122 this season, one off the AHL defensemen lead.
· Houston has scored more goals in the first period at home (18) than it has in the other three periods plus overtime combined (15).
· Houston ranks first in the AHL in shots (33.89) while San Antonio is last (26.23).
· The Rampage is 7-4-2-4 in one-goal games, but just 4-10-0-0 in games decided by two or more goals.
· The Aeros have scored a first-period goal in each of their last six games, and in nine of 10. Houston has outscored its opponents 32-28 in the first this season.
· San Antonio, meanwhile, has led after one period just seven times in 31 games (4-2-0-1), and only twice in 16 road games (0-2-0-0), including last night.

Smith has two straight wins
· Aeros goalie Mike Smith is 2-0-0 with a 1.44 gaa since losing three straight games to tie a career-high.
· Smith is 9-2-0 when allowing zero or one goal in the first period, but he's 0-3-0 with a no decision when yielding two or more.
· Smith's four straight wins 10/24-11/13 tied his career high, set 11/28-12/7/03.
· Smith's OT loss to San Antonio 12/3 was his first ever in the AHL post-regulation. He is now 3-1 in OT and 3-0 in shootouts, and he went 3-1 in shootouts with ECHL Lexington in 2002-03.
· His three shootout wins tie him for the league lead.
· The 6-foot-3, 210-pounder is 4-0-0 with a 2.77 gaa on the road but 4-5-0 with a better 2.60 gaa at home.

An unusual occurrence
The Aeros were outshot 41-32 by Norfolk on Saturday, the first time they've been outshot at Toyota Center since Opening Night versus Cincinnati. Houston has now outshot 10 of 12 opponents at home this season. The Admirals were just the second team to record 40 shots in Houston since 12/9/01 (Manitoba, 42), the other being Utah (47) last 3/23 at Toyota Center.

PP unit keeps rolling
· Houston, which is third in the AHL on the power play at 20.1 percent, is 9-for-32 (28.1 percent) in the first six games of its homestand, with at least one goal in each contest. The Aeros, who had a franchise-record-trying four PPG 11/20 in Syracuse, are 13-for-46 (28.3 percent) over their last nine games and 17-for-65 (26.2 percent) in their last 13 games, a span that has seen them outscore their opponents 17-7 on their respective man advantages.
· The Aeros are 11-6-2-0 when scoring a PPG and 3-4-0-1 when not scoring a PPG.
· Houston has 14 players with at least one PPG, tied with Philadelphia for tops in the AHL.
· Overall, the Aeros have outscored their opponents 28-14 on the power play.
· The Aeros have allowed seven shorthanded goals, the last by Norfolk's Quintin Laing 12/18. That total has them three behind Manchester's league-high 10 SHG allowed.
· San Antonio is 12th in the AHL on the penalty kill at 84.2 percent, but is fifth on the road at 87.0 percent.
· The Rampage has killed off 31-of-36 (86.1 percent) shorthanded chances over the last five games.

Houston eighth on the PK
· Other than a 2-for-4 power play performance by Milwaukee 11/13, Houston has been rock solid to move into eighth place in the AHL at 87.6 percent.
· The Aeros have killed off 74-of-81 (91.4 percent) shorthanded chances over the last 17 games, and are 20-for-22 (90.9 percent) on the homestand.
· Houston is 8-5-1-1 when not allowing a PPG and 6-5-1-0 when allowing a PPG.
· The Aeros are tied for seventh in the AHL with four SHG.
· San Antonio is ranked 27th in the AHL on the power play at 9.8 percent, including 9.1 percent on the road.
· The Rampage is 0-for-21 with the man advantage over the last four games.

First and last two minutes are crucial
Houston has scored just six goals in the first or last two minutes of a period this season. The Aeros' opponents, meanwhile, have 18 goals in this crucial time. Houston is 1-5-0 this season when allowing a goal in the opening two minutes of a period.

Aeros/Rampage connections
· San Antonio's Joel Kwiatkowski and Houston's Patrick Traverse were traded for each other in 2001 (Kwiatkowski went from Anaheim to Ottawa for Traverse).
· Houston's John Erskine and San Antonio's Serge Payer, Ryan Jardine and Eric Beaudoin were teammates in Utah in 2001-02.
· Houston's Brent Burns was a teammate of San Antonio's Kamil Kreps in 2002-03 with OHL Brampton.
· San Antonio's Victor Uchevatov was a teammate of Houston's Ray Giroux in Albany in 2002-03. Giroux was also Juraj Kolnik's teammate in 2001-02 with Bridgeport.
· Houston's Matt Foy and San Antonio's Lou Dickenson were teammates in 2002-03 in OHL Ottawa.



American Hockey League Stories from December 23, 2004


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