Maltais' hat trick helps Wolves double up Aeros 6-3
February 21, 2004 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Houston Aeros News Release
Rosemont, IL - Steve Maltais notched a hat trick and Michael Garnett posted 34 saves, as the Chicago Wolves beat the Houston Aeros 6-3 at Allstate Arena in the final meeting between the teams this season. Tommi Santala, Brian Maloney and Stephen Baby each had a goal for Chicago, which improved to 2-3-0-0 in its last five and moved back within a point of second-place Milwaukee in the West Division. Travis Roche, Jeff Hoggan and Christoph Brandner scored and Kyle Kettles, making his first appearance in three weeks, turned aside 22-of-28 shots for Houston, which is winless in seven straight road games (0-6-1-0) to tie a franchise record. The Aeros finished the season series against Chicago 1-5-4-0, and they are winless in their last eight trips to Allstate Arena (0-5-1-2). Houston played the final 56-plus minutes without captain Jason Marshall and enforcer Derek Boogaard, both ejected from the game early on. The Aeros finished with a season-high 77 penalty minutes and yielded nine power plays, while Chicago finished with just 35 PIM's.
Houston (51 points) fell into fifth place, a point behind Cincinnati, which rallied from two goals down for a 3-2 overtime victory tonight at North-leading Hamilton. The Aeros hold a three-point edge on sixth-place San Antonio, which lost 3-2 at Manitoba tonight. Houston has little time for rest, as it plays game two of its four-game road trip at 4 p.m. (ct) Sunday in Utah. The Grizzlies enjoyed a rare Saturday night off while the Aeros will be ending a stretch of seven games in 10 days.
It took just 3:12 for the bitter rivals teams to clash, and the Aeros lost two players for the duration of the game â including Marshall. The defenseman took exception to a hit from Chicago's Karl Stewart, and the pair duked it out. Also, Houston's Boogaard tangled with the Wolves' Brendan Yarema, with each of those players tossed. Stewart, who in his last game against Houston picked up 31 penalty minutes, was the lone player that survived the altercation.
Chicago got on the board at 7:19 of the first, with the Aeros down a man again, as Kyle Wanvig was in the box for tripping. Santala took a feed from Eric Healey and beat Kettles â who has missed the last three weeks with an injury â for his ninth of the season. The Wolves had failed to score on their previous 21 power-play attempts.
Wanvig broke in alone on the power play with six minutes left in the first, but he got impeded behind by Stewart and didn't get a shot off. Wanvig then went to the box for unsportsmanlike conduct for arguing the play â one of his four minor penalties tonight â wiping out the final 1:06 of the man advantage.
Maltais made it 2-0 on the ensuing 4-on-4, as he poked a rebound of his own shot past Kettles at the 15:09 mark.
Maltais put Chicago up by three goals with 13 seconds left in the first. Camped out all alone in front, Maltias took a feed from Healey and deposited it by Kettles.
The Wolves have outscored Houston 12-5 in the first period of their 10 meetings this season.
Houston outshot Chicago 17-6 in the second period, but it was Chicago that struck first. Maloney shed a check and floated one just under the crossbar 4:28 into the stanza for his sixth of the season.
Roche put the Aeros on the board with the teams 4-on-4 at the 10:43 mark of the middle period. Stephane Veilleux sent a saucer pass to Roche, who swatted it out of the air up and over Garnett for his sixth of the season.
The Aeros then went on their third and final power play with a great chance to pull within two goals, but Chicago was able to hold them at bay before going on a power play of its own when Hoggan went for roughing.
In the third, Houston continued to rally, getting within 4-2 with 7:36 gone. Hoggan, who entered the game with one goal in his last 18 games, put a rebound of a Mark Cullen shot past Garnett for his 12th of the season.
But the Wolves continued the scoring with 8:15 left, as they capped off a 3-on-1 with a goal by Baby.
Veilleux went after Stewart, whose hit on Marshall led to the scrum early in the game, with 6:26 remaining, leading to a 10-player pileup. On the ensuing power play, Maltais poked his own rebound off Kettles' pads and into the back of the net with 5:19 remaining. Maltais, the team leader with 23 tallies, has 26 goals in 58 career games against Houston.
Brandner then beat Garnett with a wrister with 4:18 left for his fourth of the season to end the scoring and get Houston within 6-3.
More extra curriculars followed with 33 seconds left, when Wanvig and Jason Beckett went to the box for Houston for unsportsmanlike conduct and cross checking, respectively.
Chicago finished 2-for-9 on the power play, while Houston had just three opportunities on the man advantage without scoring.
Notes:
Houston scored more than two goals for the first time in the last six meetings with Chicago.
The Aeros are winless in seven straight against the Wolves overall (0-4-3-0), tying their longest ever winless streak against an opponent. Houston is currently winless in seven straight against Milwaukee, and also went seven straight without a win against Denver/Utah from March 19, 1995 to January 24, 1997.
Houston has scored only 15 goals in Kettles' 11 starts, a big reason he's winless in his last seven decisions (0-3-4).
The Aeros are 1-10-4-0 in their last 15 road games since December 23, with the lone win coming in Manitoba on January 30.
Regulars Zbynek Michalek, Chris Bala and Dan Cavanaugh were all scratches for the Aeros.
Garnett is 2-0-1 against the Aeros in this, his rookie season.
The Aeros fell to 2-28-7-2 when allowing two or more goals.
Houston is 13-21-7-2 against the West, including a 6-13-4-1 road mark.
Veilleux's 36 points (12+24=36) are a new career-high.
Boogaard's 15 penalty minutes moved him past the 400-penalty minute mark for his pro career, counting ECHL totals.
Houston fell to 0-14-3-0 when allowing the game's first goal on the road.
When playing either their second or third straight games this season, the Aeros have five wins in 22 games (5-11-5-1). Houston is 4-9-3-1 when playing the second of two straight games, while it is 1-2-2-0 when finishing off the third game in three nights.
Houston's Darby Hendrickson assisted on Hoggan's goal and now has 99 pro assists and 197 pro points.
Veilleux's 19 penalty minutes are a season-high.
Houston's 69 penalty minutes January 31 at Manitoba had been the team's season-high.
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