Houston jumped on the board first with a Danny Irmen goal, his first of the season, at the 14:10 mark in the first period. Irmen tapped in the puck on a rebound off of a Petr Kalus shot from the slot that went wide and bounced off the board and landed behind Rampage netminder Al Montoya’s right skate. Montoya searched for the puck but was too late as Irmen was there to scoop the puck in and give the Aeros a 1-0 advantage heading into the second frame. Clayon Stoner was credited with the second assist, his first of the season.

The Rampage rallied back in the second session and outshot the Aeros 14-9. Brett MacLean started the scoring when he flipped the puck up over Aeros goaltender Anton Khudobin’s right leg at the 6:32 mark in the middle frame. MacLean’s first goal of the season was unassisted. Just nine seconds later MacLean helped Joel Perrault give the Rampage a one-goal lead with a shot that found the back of the net while Khudobin was down defending.  The nine second difference is a franchise record beating the previous mark set by Alexander Nikulin and Wyatt Smith for their tallies 12 seconds apart on March 27, 2009 at Syracuse.

Three minutes later, at the 9:46 mark, Montoya was assessed a tripping minor that allowed Houston to attack with the man-advantage. Former Rampage forward Jon DiSalvatore, coming from behind the net on the left, gently pushed the puck five-hole on Montoya and crossed the crease where Peter Zingoni was waiting undefended in front of the right post. Zingoni’s shot on the open net evened the score 2-2 at the 11:19 mark of the second period and gave the Aeros their third power-play goal of the season.

Fifty-three seconds into the final period, Houston regained the lead when Chad Rau won the faceoff for the Aeros and punched the puck out to Ryan Gunderson for a one-timer from the slot that beat Montoya giving the Aeros a 3-2 lead.

Almost half way through the third frame, Maxim Noreau took a shot that deflected off of Montoya’s right leg pad where DiSalvatore was waiting to catch the rebound from the bottom left circle and quickly passed the puck to Milroy who tapped it in from the crease behind Montoya. Milroy’s first goal of the season came at the 9:17 mark and also counted as the Aeros second power-play goal of the night.

With just over a minute remaining in regulation, Milroy struck again with an empty net. He was tripped at center ice and was able to get a shot off sending the puck down the ice while falling to secure a 5-2 win for the Aeros. Houston’s third win of the season marks the Rampage’s first regulation loss of the season.

The Rampage continue their three-in-three series tomorrow when they host the Grand Rapids Griffins at the AT&T Center on Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. The Rampage host “Faith Night” tomorrow and Spurs Legend Bruce Bowen will give a post game testimonial.