Houston Aeros Blank Manitoba Moose 3-0 - AHL

MLN Newswire – mlntherawfeed.com - HOUSTON, Texas – The Houston Aeros’ Nolan Schaefer once again recorded back-to-back shutouts including today’s 3-0 win over the Manitoba Moose in front of 5,932 fans at Toyota Center Thursday afternoon. The win puts the Aeros in a tie for fourth place in the West Division.


Schaefer stopped all 21 shots faced in his 15th win of the season. Moose net-minder Drew MacIntyre blocked 26 of 29 shots on net. Peter Olvecky led the Aeros with two points (1-1=2) including an assist on the game-winning goal. Houston converted on two of five power-plays and killed off all six short-handed situations. The Aeros outshot Manitoba 29-21.

The Aeros pressured the Moose early and often in the first period, and center Steve Kelly scored his team-leading ninth goal of the season to put the home team up 1-0 at the 4:20 mark on a power-play goal which turned out to be the game-winner. Kelly took a feed from Peter Olvecky and buried a wrist shot past Moose goaltender MacIntyre. Left wing Ryan Hamilton also assisted on the play for Houston.

Olvecky made it a 2-0 game at the 10:40 mark of the first period on an assist from defenseman Paul Albers. Albers took a feed from Olvecky, snapped a wrist shot from the left point through traffic and Olvecky was there to clean up the rebound to give the Aeros the two-goal lead. At the time of the goal, the Aeros had more goals (2) than Manitoba had shots (1), and Houston was outshooting Manitoba 7-1. Three minutes later, Houston killed a full five-on-three power play for the Moose to conserve the lead going into the intermission and they had a 12-6 advantage in shots.

Manitoba gave it their best effort in the second period to cut the Aeros lead outshooting Houston 12-7 in the period, but it was defenseman Maxim Noreau that gave the Aeros a 3-0 lead with six seconds remaining in the period. Manitoba killed a five-on-three for 33 seconds but couldn’t kill the ensuing five-on-four. Noreau picked up the puck at the top of the left circle and snapped a shot through traffic and into the back of the net for his fourth goal of the season. Serge Payer and Adrian Foster assisted on the play.

The third period was held scoreless as the Aeros put ten shots on net to the Moose’s three. Each team had one power-play opportunity in the final session as the Aeros held on for the 3-0 win.

Notes:
- With the second straight shutout Schaefer’s shutout streak was extended to 122:14 minutes of time on ice.

- Kelly’s sixth game-winning goal of the season leads the league by two.

- Schaefer's leads all active goalies in the league with his five shutouts, two more than any other goalie.

- The two power-play goals marks the first multi-PPG game since December 14 when the Aeros converted on two of six chances.

For Box Score, see:  Box Score
 

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