Aeros bombard Thunder again

Tim Graham

Wednesday, Oct. 14, 1998 | 10:15 a.m.

If only the net behind Scott Langkow was as empty as the Thomas & Mack Center.

The Las Vegas Thunder goaltender allowed three goals in the first seven minutes as the Houston Aeros beat the Thunder 6-4 at the T&M Tuesday night.

"I thought Scotty played OK," Thunder coach Bob Bourne said. "When guys are standing with the puck 10 feet from the net and nobody's bothering them, it's going to be hard to stop them.

"Scotty is getting frustrated, but I don't think he has a right to. I don't want to see that happen."

Langkow's outing didn't do much to erase the memory of Saturday's season-opening loss to the Aeros, when he gave up six goals in less than two periods.

Langkow at least can find solace in that not many witnessed his latest performance. The Thunder listed attendance at 3,024, but the crowd was sparse enough to actually tally each fan. A head count midway through the first period totalled 1,223.

Houston's Cam Stewart scored the first of his three goals just 1:18 into the game and followed up with his second less than a minute later. Former Thunder Jeff Christian and Brian Wiseman assisted on both scores. Mark Freer gave the Aeros a 3-0 lead at 7:00.

"I think a lot of it right now is confidence," said Langkow, who was sent to the Thunder by the Phoenix Coyotes last week. "A lot of guys don't have confidence in each other.

"It's going to take a couple games for guys to get to know each other. Once that happens we'll click really well."

The Thunder battled back with a pair of goals before the first horn. Defenseman Jason McBain beat Manny Fernandez at 12:01 for his first goal of the season and Russ Romaniuk scored his first of two power-play goals on the night at 14:03.

But Sean Pronger and Brian Sullivan increased Houston's lead to 5-3 by 8:21 of the second period.

The Thunder's Brad Mehalko, making his pro debut, netted his first goal at 4:23.

Las Vegas pulled to within 5-4 when Romaniuk converted another power play at 3:11 of the third period. Romaniuk already has four scores this season.

"I don't think we got a full effort from any one player tonight," Bourne said.