Turkey Day updates: Houston Scouted

The Wolves killed the Omaha Knights 6-3 last night in Omaha. Rookie Brett Sterling notched a hat trick, the other goals were by Darren Haydar and Jason Krog. The Wolves play the Grand Rapids Griffins tomorrow in the first fan club road trip. The Griffins, who will consider this a home and home, lost to the Wolves last Friday 5-3 at the Allstate.

Following that is a game with the Houston Aeros, the first this season for the Wolves. With 27 points, the Wolves have their best start of the franchise history and three of the top AHL scorers in Krog, Haydar and the rookie Sterling.

Fred Braithwaite and Michael Garnett have both been pretty solid in nets this season with just four regulation and one OT loss in the season between them. As a team, the Wolves have given up 57 goals. That is actually the worst record in the West Division, and the sixth worst in the league.

In addition, the team's 479 penalty minutes are the second worst in the league.

The Aeros are not the same team they were last season. Gone are top rookie Patrick O'Sullivan and key players Kirby Law and Erik Westrum. Back is Roman Voloshenko. They were just beaten by the San Antonio Rampage on Tuesday. That may be due to a hot goal tender being brought up to the Rampage, more than anything else, however. Only two Aero skaters are breaking into the double digits in scoring, Matt Foy with 15 and Danny Irmen with 11. Fourteen other skaters have scored at least a goal.

Josh Harding returns to the pipes and is ranked 9th in the league. Power play is running about 12 percent (25th), penalty kill 89.6 (second).