Aeros vs San Antonio 4/12: Welcome to The Krys Kolanos Show

“For our psyche, it was definitely important to get a win,” Brandon Rogers said after the game. “It’s kind of nice to have a positive.”

The Aeros have been in a downward spiral this past month, and they were only 2-6-1-1 for their past 10 games. So while maybe their were some of you out there who were hoping the Aeros would lose this game so they would end up facing the Milwaukee Admirals in the first round of the playoffs instead of the Peoria Rivermen. The Aeros felt differently. They wanted this win.

And while it wasn’t easy, needing a Krys Kolanos empty-netter to guarantee the 6-4 win over the San Antonio Rampage, the Aeros still got the much needed win that their psyche so sorely needed.

The Aeros offense, especially in the first period, was turning over the puck left and right while not converting on scoring opportunities. And while they ended up not really having many opportunities for the rest of the game, they did get much better at converting. Especially one Krys Kolanos.

The scoring started fourteen seconds into the second period when Bryan Lundbohm virtually stole the puck from San Antonio goalie Josh Tordjman and buried it in the net. Now this being the Aeros, the Rampage were able to tie the game about a minute later as they got a power play goal on Anton Khudobin at 1:16.

Then the Krys Kolanos show got started.

At 7:49 of the second, just seconds into a power play, Kolanos fired a laser of a shot from up high to make the score 2-1. The goal came so fast that the Toyota Center video screen was still showing the Aeros logo as the game was coming back from a break. Then at 14:11, Jesse Schultz broke toward the Rampage goal with Kolanos coming up the other side. Schultz kept the puck as long as possible, and just as Tordjman committed, slipped the puck over to Kolanos who made the shot and got the score to 3-1.

Within seconds of the second Kolanos goal, Wyatt Smith made the score 3-2 on a play where it looked like Khudobin just lost track of the puck which was hanging in the air in front of him. At 18:34, Brandon Rogers fired a pass to Matt Beaudoin who tipped in the puck, and as the second period ended, the score was 4-2.

Jesse Schultz made the score 5-2 Houston on a breakaway at 9:22 of the third, but the Rampage, with some help from the Houston defense, got back into the game, and with a minute left in the game, the score was 5-4. But with the San Antonio net empty, Benoit Pouliot got the puck and started skating toward it with just a defender coming with him. Pouliot probably could have buried the puck at any point, but he waited for Kolanos to get in on the play then passed it across, allowing Kolanos to get the goal, and the hat trick, with only 15 seconds remaining in the game.

The next stop for Houston is Peoria, a team they’ve seen a lot in the past month. But now they’ve got some momentum and a much-need lift of the psyche. “We’ve been in a bit of a losing skid,” Clayton Stoner said. “Going into the playoffs on winning note was a huge lift for the team.”

As to how large a lift is something we’ll have to wait until Wednesday to find out.

SOME MISCELLANEOUS GAME NOTES:

The win moved the Aeros past Rockford and into the third seed for the playoffs. As such, they get to face the Peoria Rivermen, one of the hottest teams in the league for the past month or so. These teams played each other eight times, with each team winning four games, and with three of the games going into the shootout. The teams have played each four times in the past month, and Peoria holds the edge in those games with a 2-1-0-1 record.

“We’ve got a pretty good read on this team,” Clayton Stoner said. ‘We’ve played them a lot the past month, so we know their tendencies. They’re a hard working team, and they play very physical. So we better show up physically.”

“Ever since they got Legace they’ve been a great team,” Kevin Constantine noted. ‘They were a good team before that, but he’s made them a better team. They’re probably the hottest team in our division down the stretch. So it should be hopefully a good series.”

Game one of the series is Wednesday night at 7:00 in Peoria. Game two is Friday night at 7:00, also in Peoria. Games three through five are supposed to be in Houston, but until the Houston Rockets get their playoff status settled, the dates and times for those games will be up in the air. Games six and seven are scheduled for Peoria on Saturday April 25 and game seven is scheduled for Monday April 27.

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The goalie situation is still up in the air. Constantine says that Barry Brust is definitely out for the first round, and Nolan Schaefer has not yet been cleared to play. As for Wednesday night’s game one, it’s possible that Schaefer could play. “We hope that,” Constantine said. “We just don’t know. It’s still a day-by-day thing….we really, really don’t know.”

Brandon Rogers isn’t concerned about who plays in goal. And he feels that the problems the goalies, especially Anton Khudobin have been having lately, are more the part of poor defensive play in front of them than it is the fault of the goalies.

“In fairness to those guys,” Rogers said. “I think they’ve done a pretty good job all year. Anton’s come in and played great for us, he’s had some defensive breakdowns in front of him that have cost him some goals and even wins.”

As to whether Schaefer or Khudobin plays, Rogers says it doesn’t matter: “We have complete faith in him or Schaefer, whoever’s going to be in there.”

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The one thing the Aeros have this time around for the playoffs that they didn’t have the last time is Krys Kolanos. And the team appears to play markedly better hockey when he is with the team. He finished the season with 51 points (31-20=51) in just 45 games. It’s fascinating to think what his numbers, and the team’s record, would like if he had been here for all 80 games.

“It’s definitely nice to have a scoring punch you count on,” Rogers said of Kolanos. “Obviously last year we didn’t have that. We struggled to score in the playoffs. This year we don’t have that problem so it’s all going to come down playing team defense and everybody committing to keeping the puck out of our net because we know if we have the chance we’ll score.”

Kolanos finished the regular season by getting five goals in his final two games, including getting a hat trick tonight, the team’s only hat trick at Toyota Center this year, and the team’s second hat trick of the season (Matt Beaudoin accomplished the feat in Iowa on February 14).

Corey Locke finished the season as the team’s leading scorer, getting two more assists tonight to finish 79 points (25-54=79). Locke finished the season in a tie for seventh place in scoring in the AHL.

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Zooperstars? Seriously? Zooperstars? That’s really the best you could for between period entertainment? Well, I guess it could’ve been worse in that the Aeros could have gone with the 20 choirs singing “God Bless America.” But still.

Here’s an idea. You’ve got the Lady Dynamics, so use them. Let them do dance routines on the ice between periods. You do on the occasional weeknight game when nobody’s there to watch, so why not let them strut their stuff when there’s a big crowd? I know that I would definitely get more enjoyment out of that.