From: Ryan Stanzel
Director of Communications
Saturday, September 30, 2006
713.361.7930 (Direct Line)

Aeros 5, Rampage 4 (SO)

SUGAR LAND, Texas – Matt Foy tallied a goal and two assists and scored in the shootout, as the Houston Aeros outlasted the San Antonio Rampage 5-4 in a pre-season game in front of a capacity crowd at Sugar Land Ice & Sports Center. The Aeros sprinted to a four-goal lead – all on power play tallies – and got goals from Foy and rookie Ben Thomson in the shootout.

Curtis Murphy and Roman Voloshenko added a goal and an assist, and Alex Leavitt also scored for Houston, which travels to the Ice Center at Northwoods to take on San Antonio at 5 p.m. Sunday. Miroslav Kopriva allowed one goal on 14 shots, while Tom Lawson followed with a 17-save performance. Lawson was perfect on four attempts in the shootout.

Daniel Winnick, Randall Gelech and Jakub Koreis each had a goal and two assists for San Antonio. Kyle Wilson also scored, while Phil Sauve (14-of-18) and Josh Tordjman (18-of-18) tended the nets for the Rampage.

The Aeros scored four power play goals – on their first four attempts – in the game’s opening 10:37.

Leavitt got Houston on the board at the 5:13 mark, rebounding a Murphy shot under Sauve. Just 2:43 later, Voloshenko took a left-to-right pass from Foy and slid it under the goalie for a 2-0 lead.

Foy made it 3-0 at 9:41, crashing the net on a 5-on-3 to deposit a big Chris Ovington rebound into the cage. And 56 seconds later, Murphy extended the lead to four goals, ripping a shot from the point through heavy traffic.

The Rampage got within 4-1 at 12:37. Kopriva kicked Gelech’s attempt back into the left circle, but Winnick hopped on the rebound and pushed it by the netminder.

San Antonio scored twice in the second to start its comeback.

Wilson made it 4-2 with 7:17 left in the second period against Lawson, and with 4:30 left Koreis tallied a 5-on-3 rebound goal for a one-goal Houston advantage.

Aeros’ heavyweight rookie John Scott duked it out with Kyle Musselman early in the third, landing several blows with his right.

The Aeros killed off more than a minute of 5-on-3 time after the midway point of the third before San Antonio struck late on the second part of the power play. Koreis shot from the right circle, and Gelech popped the rebound over a prone Lawson.

Voloshenko nearly won it on the power play with 2:05 left, but Tordjman made a great save on a point blank shot from the low slot.

In overtime, San Antonio’s Olivier Latendresse almost scored 1:14 in on a feed from former Aero Jason Beckett, but Lawson made the save.

Houston’s Benoit Pouliot, the No. 1 overall pick in 2005, broke in alone a minute later and went high, but Tordjman snagged the shot with his glove.

Thomson deked left and went right in round three for the first goal in the shootout, and Foy clinched it by going five-hole on Tordjman.

Notes:

Not dressing for the Aeros were Tony Quesada, Matt Yeats, Erik Reitz, A.J. Thelen, Peter Ratchuk, Danny Irmen, Alexei Smirnov, Riley Emerson, Marco Rosa, Mark Rooneem, Jean-Francois David and Mike Bayrack.

Foy, Murphy and Bryan Lundbohm wore the “A” for alternate captain for the Aeros.

The Aeros’ starting defensive unit of Scott (6-foot-7) and Murphy (5-fooot-8) may have set a hockey record by largest height disparity among defensive mates.