AEROS POSTGAME REPORT
FEB. 27, 2011: RFD 3, HOU 2

HOUSTON --- Casey Wellman extended his goal streak to three games while Patrick O’Sullivan registered a point in his sixth consecutive contest but the Houston Aeros fell 3-2 to the Rockford IceHogs in front of 10,643 on Sunday at Toyota Center.

Houston remains one point behind the Milwaukee Admirals, who were idle Sunday, in the race for the top spot in the West Division playoff race.

Rockford’s Jeff Taffe broke a scoreless tie just 11 seconds into the second period with his 22nd goal of the season and Rob Klinkhammer made it a 2-0 game with his 11th goal at 9:01. Wellman cut the lead in half for the Aeros with a power play goal at 14:15 to extend his goal streak to a personal season-high three games. Rockford regained a two-goal lead in the third period on Igor Makarov’s seventh goal of the season 2:23 into the stanza.

The Aeros pressured with 14 shots in the third period and pulled within a goal on a rare 3-on-5 short-handed tally by Colton Gillies at 14:30 but couldn’t secure the equalizing goal.

Matt Hackett suffered the loss for Houston while Hannu Toivonen turned aside 36 in the victory for Rockford.

The Aeros return to action this Wednesday night at home in the second of back-to-back games against the IceHogs. Call 713-974-7825 (PUCK) for more information on Aeros tickets and other promotions.

BOMB DROPPINGS
---Several Aeros are approaching career games-played milestones; Jon DiSalvatore played in his 590th pro game; Colton Gillies played in game 183; Jed Ortmeyer appeared in his 489th pro game; Warren Peters saw action in career game 584... The scoreless first period was the ninth opening stanza without a goal by either team this season... The third period goal by Gillies was his ninth of the season and first short-handed. It was also the first 3-on-5 goal by the Aeros since at least the 2008-09 season… Casey Wellman’s scoring streak stands at four games (3-3-6), as does Brandon Buck’s (1-3-4). Maxim Noreau has points in five consecutive contests (1-4-5) while Patrick O’Sullivan has points in six straight (4-7-11).

DECIDING GOAL
Makarov (2:23, 3rd)

POWER PLAYS
HOU: 1/4
RFD: 0/4

GOALIES
HOU: Hackett (18/21, L)
RFD: Toivonen (36/38, W)

TEAM RECORDS
HOU: 35-22-1-4
RFD: 24-28-3-4

AEROS STARTERS
LW – Earl, C – Rau, RW - McMillan
D – Prosser, Falk
G - Hackett

AEROS SCRATCHES
Fraser, Kalus, Peters, Cuma

NEXT GAME
March 2 vs. RFD, 7:05 p.m.