AEROS POSTGAME, DEC. 10: WELLMAN SCORES FOUR IN WIN OVER RAMPAGE

HOUSTON --- Casey Wellman scored four times and Chad Rau registered three assists as the Houston Aeros ended San Antonio’s four-game winning streak in a 5-3 win over the Rampage on Friday night at Toyota Center.

BOXSCORE
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Wellman became just the third player in Aeros history to record four goals in a game and is the first to bag a natural hat trick in the opening 20 minutes. Wellman’s first goal, at 2:37, produced a shower of stuffed of animals onto the ice to celebrate the annual Teddy Bear Toss.

He followed up at 12:40 on Houston’s 11th shot of the game, and again at 15:42 on the Aeros’ 12th shot. Chad Rau, who assisted on all three markers, tied a franchise-high watermark with the feat.

The Rampage made it a two-goal game on Petr Prucha’s tally 2:20 into the second, but Wellman responded to notch his fourth goal at 11:59. Cody Almond scored on the power play at 14:19 to put the Aeros up 5-1, but the stubborn Rampage again answered with Brett Maclean’s 13th goal of the season with 2:59 left in the middle stanza.

MacLean piped up again in the third at 14:24 to make it 5-3. From there, Aeros goalie Anton Khudobin closed the door, stopping 15 Rampage shots in the final period.

Houston begins a run of five road games this Sunday against the Lake Erie Monsters. Faceoff at Quicken Loans Arena is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. CST.

DECIDING GOAL
Wellman, 11:59, 2nd

POWER PLAYS
SA: 0/2
HOU: 1/1

GOALIES
SA: Climie (19/24, L; Fallon, 4/4, ND)
HOU: Khudobin (30/33, W)

TEAM RECORDS
SA: 19-7-1-0
HOU: 15-10-1-2

AEROS STARTERS
F: Wellman, Earl, Rau
D: Prosser, Falk
G: Khudobin

AEROS SCRATCHES
Palmer, Lampman, Kalus, Peters

NEXT GAME
Dec. 12, 2010, at Lake Erie, 2:00 p.m. CST

BOMB DROPPINGS
The Aeros have won six of their last seven at home…Goalie Anton Khudobin has won six in a row at home (.933 save percentage, 2.08 GAA)…The Aeros scored five goals at home for the first time since Jan. 16, 2010 vs. Toronto in a 5-2 win…Tonight’s game broke a string of five-straight games decided by one goal…The Aeros are now 13-9-1-0 vs. West Division teams…The Aeros scored first for the 18th time in the last 21 games… They lead the AHL in first goals (20)...When scoring first Houston is now 15-3-0-2…When scoring at least four goals the Aeros are undefeated (10-0-0-0)…Houston is 10-4-0-2 when being out shot.