From: Ryan Stanzel
Director of Communications
Sunday, January 14, 2007
713.361.7930 (Direct Line)

Rampage 6, Aeros 0
Official Box Score

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Joel Perrault two of San Antonio’s four power play goals and David LeNeveu made 35 saves for his first shutout of the season, as the San Antonio Rampage knocked off the Houston Aeros 6-0 at AT&T Center in a game delayed an hour due to Houston’s travel delays. Bill Thomas added a goal and two assists, and Yanick Lehoux, Keith Yandle and Ryan Flinn also scored for San Antonio (16-22-1-1).

Dieter Kochan made 29 saves in his first start of the season for Houston (17-19-0-5), which is 1-5-0-1 in its last seven trips to San Antonio. The Aeros were delayed 2 ½ hours in Chicago today, after playing last night in Omaha.

The Aeros return home to face the Manchester Monarchs, led by former Aero and 2005-06 AHL Rookie of the Year Patrick O’Sullivan, Friday at 7:35 p.m. Call 1.866.GO.AEROS for tickets, or 713.974.PUCK on Monday to book your group outing. The first 3,000 fans will receive Mullet Wigs.

The teams battled through a scoreless first period, with Kochan helping the Aeros kill back-to-back minor penalties midway through the first.

With 16:02 left in the second, LeNeveu was outstanding to keep the game scoreless. Roman Voloshenko stole the puck off of Logan Stephenson’s stick behind the net. Voloshenko hit Mattias Weinhandl in the left circle, and Weinhandl waited for a cutting Erik Reitz at the right point. Reitz ripped a one-timer but LeNeveu made the save.

That save was big, as San Antonio scored less than a minute later to take the lead, and three times total in the second period. At the 4:29 mark with Voloshenko in the penalty box for tripping, Perrault knocked home a Bryan Helmer rebound from the right circle for his first goal of the night.

Thomas made it 2-0 San Antonio at the 12:49 mark. He picked Benoit Pouliot’s pocket at the San Antonio blueline and raced in alone on Kochan. Thomas faked forehand, then went backhand over Kochan for his 11th goal of the season.

Perrault extended the lead to 3-0 with 3:09 left, with his second power play goal of the period. Tyler Redenbach, at the top of the right circle, saw an unmarked Perrault right in front of Kochan. Perrault backhanded the puck through his legs and by Kochan.

Lehoux put a power play rebound shot at the 6:25 mark of the third period for a 4-0 lead, and Yandle’s point blast made it 5-0 with the man advantage with 8:08 remaining. Flinn tacked on his second of the season with 6:19 left.

Houston went 0-for-3 on the power play, while San Antonio finished 4-for-8.

Notes:

Not dressing for the Aeros were Josh Olson, Matt Foy and Joey Tetarenko.

LeNeveu improved to 5-8-0 all-time against Houston.

Each team has 11 points through the first 10 games of the season series. They don’t meet again until a home-and-home April 14 and April 15.