From: Robert Desimone, Communications Manager
(713) 361-7920
Palmer Hestley, Asst. Communications Manager
(713) 361-7930
January 1, 2010
ALMOND SCORES FIRST CAREER GOAL
MILWAUKEE, WI – The Houston Aeros (18-15-3-1) scored three first period goals and 12 players recorded at least one point as the team began the new year with a 6-2 victory Friday night over the Milwaukee Admirals (18-11-1-4) in front of 5,821 at the Bradley Center. C Cody Almond scored his first professional goal and added an assist, C Nathan Smith and RW Jon DiSalvatore also scored a goal and an assist and G Barry Brust (2-1-0) made 28 saves for his second win in as many starts this season. LW Mark Santorelli and LW Triston Grant scored for Milwaukee and G Mark Dekanich (10-6-2) allowed three goals on seven shots in the loss.
BOXSCORE
The Aeros had allowed the first goal in six consecutive games and had just 13 first period goals on the season, but they jumped out early on the Admirals on Friday. C Chad Rau scored his ninth goal of the season just 1:02 into the game to give Houston an early 1-0 lead; RW J-M Daoust and C Andy Hilbert assisted on the goal. The Aeros then extended their lead to 2-0 at 7:22 when LW Robbie Earl set up D Jaime Sifers at the point. Sifers’ shot from the blue line beat Dekanich, giving him his first goal this season.
Milwaukee cut the deficit in half at 10:48 with a power-play goal from Santorelli, who deflected a centering pass from C Ben Guite for his sixth goal of the season.
Special teams played a key role in the game for Houston and RW Danny Irmen sparked the Aeros with a shorthanded goal with just 26 seconds left in the opening frame. After deflecting a pass at the blue line, Irmen broke free through the neutral zone and Almond connected on the pass to spring the breakaway. Irmen deked Dekanich and slid the puck five-hole to give Houston a 3-1 lead on the team’s fourth shorthanded goal of the season.
G Chet Pickard replaced Dekanich at the beginning of the second period, but the change did not phase the Aeros who put up three more goals in the middle frame. Smith scored first for Houston with a powerplay goal at 1:01. It was his second goal in as many nights and fifth of the season. Just over two minutes later, at 3:30, Almond capitalized on a loose puck at the bottom of the left faceoff circle and beat Pickard to extend the lead to 5-1. At 12:17 of the second the Aeros again took advantage of a Milwaukee penalty as DiSalvatore scored his team leading 13th goal of the season. It was also his seventh powerplay goal on the year, tied for seventh best in the AHL.
Houston took a 6-1 lead into the final frame and managed just four shots on goal in the third period. The Admirals capitalized on one of their 15 shots as Grant scored his sixth of the year at 15:22 and Guite earned his second assist of the night.
The Aeros were out-shot 30-19 for the game. Houston finished 2-for-5 on the powerplay and scored a shorthanded goal while the Admirals finished 1-for-3 on the power-play. D Maxim Noreau added two assists on the night to give him 24 points on the season (9-15-24), he is tied for third among AHL defenseman in points this season.
The Aeros finish the road trip 1-1-1-0 and return home Sunday to host the Abbotsford Head, 4:05 PM at Toyota Center. Watch the game on ahllive.com or listen to the game on 1070 AM-KNTH. Follow the live, interactive in-game blog at Aeros.com.
Joe O'Donnell Calls of the Game:
Rau Goal
Sifers Goal
Irmen SHG
Almond First Pro Goal
DiSalvatore Goal
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