Round 1, Game 5: Some Pregame Notes

I've been poring over the notes, trying to get some idea of what is going to happen tonight. And my conclusion: I don't know. What? Do you think I'm Andrew or something? However, I'm not backing off of my prediction of the Aeros winning in six, so I guess that means they have to win tonight.

The Aeros will hopefully be returning Krys Kolanos to the lineup tonight. He was pretty sick Monday, and the team played kind of sick without him. Let's hope all of the guys are on their game tonight.

The cliche is that the team that scores first in the playoffs wins the game. And in this series, that has been true with the team that scores first winning each game. For the season, Houston is 23-9-1-3 when scoring first, and Peoria is 34-7-2-1. But luckily, the Aeros were better in the season in coming from behind, going 15-22-1-6 when they let the other team score first while Peoria is only 9-24-0-3. What's that mean? The Aeros have a decent ability to come from behind and win games. But if Peoria falls behind early, they lose.

So here's to the Aeros getting the first goal tonight.

The key has been the first period, of course. Peoria has been killing Houston in the first period, outshooting the Aeros 45/24 in the opening period. And while Khudobin's play hasn't been spectacular, he's only let in three first goals while handling that barrage of shots. The Aeros have, like they have for most of the season, dominated play in the third period. They've outshot Peoria 60/32 in third, and they've outscored Peoria in the third frame. Of course, the Aeros have been behind in the third often and they've been playing desperate hockey.

And aside from the key of the first period and the key of the first goal, another key is the number of goals scored. Peoria loses when it scores two or less goals in a game -- 0-2 in the playoffs and 9-24-1-2 in the regular season. So if the Aeros score first, and if they keep Peoria to two or fewer goals, they should win this game.

It would also help if Krys Kolanos is healthy and able to skate.