AEROS DEFEAT SAN ANTONIO IN SHOOTOUT, 6-5

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The Houston Aeros earn the team’s first win of the season in a 6-5 shootout victory over the San Antonio Rampage in front of 3,972 fans in AT&T Center. After going up three goals to none, the Aeros let the lead slip away and went into overtime after giving up the tying goal with .4 seconds left on the clock. LW Ryan Hamilton scored the only goal in the shootout to lift the Aeros to the win.

San Antonio had only two skaters record goals as C Joel Perrault led the team with a hat-trick and C Joey Tenute followed with two of his own markers. D Travis Roche contributed two assists for the Rampage. Houston split all five regulation goals amongst five separate players: D Shawn Belle, D Erik Retiz, RW Cal Clutterbuck, Hamilton and C Serge Payer. Payer also contributed an assist to lead the team with two points. Nolan Schaefer earned the win stopping 35 of 40 shots, including a career-high 19 saves in the first period, plus all five Rampage shootout attempts. Josh Trodjman started in net for San Antonio but was pulled after giving up three goals in 10:08 of game time. David LeNeveu took over in the goal and stopped 11 of 13 shots on net and blocked four of five in his shootout loss. Houston finished 1-for-9 on the power-play and the Rampage tallied on 2 of 6 attempts.

Official Box Score

The first period marked a flurry of activity with five total goals scored; Houston with three, Rampage netted two. Houston got on the board first for the second straight game when Payer tipped in a hard slap shot from D Brandon Rogers above the right hand circle. A few minutes later, at 8:31 in the period, D Shawn Belle netted a hard shot directly from the faceoff after C Morten Madsen marked the assist when he won the draw. Hamilton wouldn’t be left out and marked a goal of his own when Danny Irmen added the helper after he stole the puck in the Aeros offensive zone. The three goals prompted San Antonio to change from starting-goalie Josh Tordjman to David LeNeveu to mind the net for the Rampage.

The Rampage took over the scoring for the period when Perrault netted the team’s first goal at 16:21 in the first and followed with another tally at 17:44 to bring the game to 3-2 in favor of the Aeros. D Keith Randel earned the assist on the first goal and LW Matt Murley marked the helper on the second tally as the teams headed into the first intermission.

The second period scoring didn’t begin until 7:59 in when Tenute tallied his first marker of the night as D Dylan Reese assisted on the game-tying goal at 3-3. The Aeros answered back as Clutterbuck stuffed in a rebound for his second goal of the season as Foster and Aaron Voros earned the helpers to take a 4-3 lead into the second intermission.

The third period included 16 penalties and three goals including the San Antonio game-tying goal with .4 seconds left on the clock. The Rampage tied things back up at 4 on Tenute’s second goal of the night at 2:05 in the third. RW Bill Thomas and Roche marked the assists. Houston’s Reitz took the Aeros’ lead back at 6:19 in the third with the team’s first power-play marker in 29 chances. Payer and Stoner earned the helpers. Houston kept the puck out of the team’s net until four seconds remained when the puck was pushed out of the Aeros corner and onto the stick of Perrault who completed his hat-trick and tied the game with .4 seconds remaining taking the 5-5 game into overtime.

This marked the second time in this young season that the Aeros went into overtime but this time the game continued into the shootout. With five shooters lining up to take their shot in the extra session Belle, Foster, Benoit Pouliot and Madsen all went for the Aeros to no avail but San Anotonio followed suit and did not mark a goal either. Houston’s Hamilton netted the only shootout goal for the game-winner and the Aeros headed off the ice with the first win of the season.

The Houston Aeros will take the week off and return back to AT&T Center next Saturday, October 27 for a 7:00 p.m. rematch of tonight’s wild action. The Aeros will return home the following night in part two, a 4:05 p.m. faceoff, of the Aeros-Rampage home-and-home in Houston’s first Sunday Family Day of the season.

NOTES
• Houston’s last win came on April 14, 2007 in San Antonio
• Houston went 7-6 in the shootout last year, last SOW March 10, 2007
• Aeros tallied a power-play marker after going missing on their previous 28 attempts
• With a goal tonight, Clutterbuck has marked three points (2-1=3) in first five games as a rookie
• Brandon Rogers now has a two-game assist streak (2)
• Adrian Foster has a two-game point streak (1-1)