From: Ryan Stanzel
Director of Communications
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
713.361.7930 (Direct Line)

Admirals 3, Aeros 2
Official Box Score

HOUSTON, Texas – Jerred Smithson snapped a tie 2:50 into the third period on Milwaukee's lone shot of the final 20 minutes, and Brian Finley made 34 saves, as the Admirals rallied from two goals down to earn a 3-2 victory over the Houston Aeros at Toyota Center. Kevin Klein and Timofei Shishkanov also scored for first-place Milwaukee, which avenged a 7-0 loss at Toyota Center earlier this month and snapped a two-game winless streak (0-1-0-1).

Rickard Wallin and Stephane Veilleux each scored power play goals and Mike Smith made 17 saves in his team-record 19th straight appearance for Houston, which was unbeaten in regulation in its last three (2-0-0-1). The last time the Aeros led a game by two goals and lost in regulation was January 3, 2004, against Chicago.

The Aeros play host to Chicago on Saturday at 7:35 p.m. on Trading Card/Boy Scout Night.

Houston controlled play for the first half of the first period, not allowing the Ads a shot until the 7:45 mark and finishing with a 13-8 advantage in shots and a one-goal lead.

At the period’s midway point, Smith made his best save of the opening 20 minutes, holding his ground on Andrew Hutchinson’s attempt from the low right circle.

Heavyweights John Erskine and Jeremy Yablonski duked it out with 7:53 left in the first.

With two seconds left on a high-sticking call to Darren Haydar and 3:12 remaining in the period, the Aeros broke on top. Ray Giroux carried the puck into the zone and fed Pierre-Marc Bouchard on the left wing. Bouchard sent a soft shot in on Finley, who tried to corral the puck but let it get loose. Wallin, crashing the net, got the puck under Finley in a scrum for his seventh goal of the season.

An eventful second period saw Houston extend its lead to 2-0, before Milwaukee evened things up heading to the third.

Things started to get fun at 5:16, when Marius Holtet propelled Milwaukee’s 5-foot-9 sparkplug Jordin Tootoo up and over the boards and into the Aeros bench. Tootoo came up swinging, and a brief altercation occurred on the bench between Tootoo and Houston bigman Derek Boogaard. Milwaukee ended up on the power play, but Smith came up large, twice stuffing Haydar, including a mini breakaway off the faceoff.

Aeros captain Kirby Law then inspired his team when he took exception to a Brandon Segal charge. He was lost for 17 minutes when he fought Cam Severson, but less than a minute after the bout, Veilleux’s team-best 14th of the season, on the power play, made it 2-0 Aeros. Mikko Koivu set up the tally, which came at 9:00, to stretch his point streak to seven games (6-4=10).

Milwaukee answered back 2:12 later on Shishkanov’s 10th goal of 2004-05, and with 5:43 left in the second Klein wristed a quick shot top shelf by Smith for his fourth goal, tying the game at 2-2.

It took the Admirals only 2:50 into the third period to take their first lead. Bryan Lundbohm won a battle along the right wing boards, and the puck came to Smithson, who wound up and fired from the top of the right circle. The puck eluded Smith’s blocker and hit just inside the post for his third goal in 43 games.

That was Milwaukee's lone shot of the third period, and Houston came on to get 12, but Finley was up to the task.

Off a faceoff to begin a power play three minutes later, Finley just got a piece of a Brent Burns blast from the right point. The Aeros actually had two power plays over a five-minute span, but couldn’t beat Finley.

With Smith pulled, Finley made a final save on Mark Cullen from the low right circle as time expired.

Houston finished 2-for-6 on the power play, while Milwaukee went 0-for-4.

Notes:

Houston scratched Kyle Kettles, Junior Lessard, Christoph Brandner and Matt Foy. Head coach Todd McLellan went with seven defensemen for the second straight game.

In that January 3, 2004, game, Houston had a 2-0 lead in Chicago but lost 4-2.

Houston fell to 15-4-1-0 when leading after one period and 14-3-1-0 when scoring first.

The Aeros came into the game allowing only 25 third-period goals, second in the AHL.

Houston fell to 9-15-2-2 when outshooting an opponent. The Aeros are an amazing 10-2-0-0 when they don’t outshoot the other team.

Finley improved to 11-5-1 all-time against the Aeros, tying Allan Bester for the most wins versus Houston.