Houston Aeros Grounded by Manchester Monarchs

By Larry Nauss: SPM Assistant Editor
Posted Saturday, January 20, 2007

Photo by Donnie Moreland - SPM TX Photographer

HOUSTON, Texas - The Aeros drew their largest home crowd of the season (10,656) to see them play the American Hockey League's Atlantic Division-leading Manchester Monarchs on Friday evening at the Toyota Center. Manchester lived up to their division-leading stature, scoring two goals during the first period and one in the second to defeat the Aeros, 3-2.

Houston played short-handed due to significant injury problems suffered by their parent National Hockey League team, the Minnesota Wild. Minnesota has been forced to call up several key players from the Aeros, which has hurt the Houston team's effectiveness. Eric Reitz, Shawn Belle and Joel Ward of the Aeros were all in uniform for Minnesota when they played the Blackhawks in Chicago on Friday.

Manchester capitalized on a couple of power play opportunities. Matt Ryan and Noah Clarke put the puck in the net for the Monarchs in the first period. Ryan was able to follow up a missed shot by teammate Eric Werner. Clarke hit on a power play opportunity when he deflected a shot by teammate Matt Moulson, which went through the legs of the Aero's goalie, Josh Harding.

The Aeros didn't fare quite as well on their power plays, converting on only one, but they did manage to score a short-handed goal in the second period, when Josh Olson put the puck past Monarch goalie Jason LaBarbara, with 11:35 left. He took a pass from Bryan Lundbohm after a steal and put it in the net.

The Aeros were down 3-1 heading into the third period, but fought back with a power play goal by Roman Voloshenko, off an assist by Mattias Weinhandl. The goal came with only 5:53 remaining in the contest.

Despite their best efforts, fueled by the large and enthusiastic home crowd, the Aeros were unable to come up with the tying goal, even though they enjoyed a brief two-man advantage very late, when they pulled Harding out of the goal with about a minute left, and Manchester committed a penalty a few moments later. The brief two-man advantage failed to result in the puck bouncing the right way for Houston.

Marty Murray scored the eventual game-winning goal for Manchester, again on the power play. The Houston penalty-killers have now surrendered six goals in the last two games.

Harding recorded 30 saves for Houston in the contest.

Houston remains in sixth place in the Western Division of the AHL.

The Aeros will face the Milwaukee Admirals in a matinee 5:05 p.m. start on Sunday at the Toyota Center.