Round 2, Game #5: Aeros vs. Milwaukee -- Mr. Blue Sky Edition

The numbers said that the team to score first in this playoff series wins the game. The numbers said that the team to score a power play goal in this series wins the game. The numbers lied.

The Aeros scored first, in the first period, on the power play, when Corey Locke, off a pass from Maxim Noreau, fired a shot past Milwaukee's Drew MacIntyre at 9:13 to put the Aeros up 1-0. The lead was short-lived as, less than a minute later, Milwaukee's Bryan Smolinski got the turnover and beat Anton Khudobin at 10:09. And eight minutes later, after a Justin Falk turnover deep in the Aeros zone, Smolinski again beat Khudobin to put Milwaukee up 2-1.

Smolinksi's assault continued in the second period when he assisted Andreas Thuresson at 5:53 to put Milwaukee up 3-1. Milwaukee then took advantage of another Houston turnover at 10:24 of the second as Kelsey Wilson snapped a shot past Khudobin to make the score 4-1. At that point, Khudobin, the star of Game Four for Houston, was pulled from the game and replaced by Matt Climie, who blocked all 16 shots that he faced. But it was too late. The damage was done.

The game, officiated by Jeff Smith, was just as any game officiated Jeff Smith is: few whistles; lots of action; lots of hits. "We knew going in, that the way the ref called the game, that there wasn’t going to be much special teams," Aeros coach Kevin Constantine said. "So there wasn’t, until late. You’ve got to find a way to battle through the more physical playoff game. That’s a throwback to 15 years ago. That style of play. But we knew that going in. That’s the way he calls a game."

And the physical play didn't really seem to bother either team. Houston's problems were much the same as the problems they've faced in the first five games, no matter the official. The team was sloppy. They made mental errors. They let Milwaukee dictate the flow of the action -- which meant the puck was in Houston's zone much of the night. They committed stupid turnovers and neglected the easy shot attempt while taking the hard.

Still, with all of that, and with Milwaukee playing the way a 107-point should play, the Aeros got back in the game and had a good chance to send the game to overtime. And amazingly, the reason for this was Jeff Smith, who called two penalties on Milwaukee that led to two Houston power plays and two Houston goals. Corey Locke got his second power play goal of the night at 8:52 of the third when he knocked in the rebound of a John Lammers shot to make the score 4-2. Then at 18:10, with Houston again on the power play, Ronnie Earl stuffed in the rebound of a Marco Rosa shot to make the score 4-3.

"Yeah," Robbie Earl said when he was asked if he thought the team was going to catch Milwaukee. "We had a good feeling. But we came up short."

But despite playing without a goalie and going with the extra attacker for most of the final minute of the game, the Aeros were not able to get off a good shot and lost the game 4-3 to send the series back to Milwaukee with the Aeros up three games to two.

"We’ll go back to work on Monday," Corey Locke said. And back to work they will go as the series resumes with Game Six in Milwaukee on Monday night.

SOME MISCELLANEOUS GAME NOTES:

"We didn’t expect to win three straight," Robbie Earl said after the game. "This was the Milwaukee team we were ready for. That’s the same team we’ve been playing this whole series. They’ve could just have as easily lost this as we did. It was a definitely a good effort on their part, and we’ve just got to cut some errors."

The magical Aeros mantra: cut the errors. The errors didn't hurt the Aeros in their three wins, but they've sure hurt the team in the two losses. And the errors are the same ones the team's made all year. Giving up quick goals after getting a score. Bad turnovers. At least the team doesn't have the stupid penalty excuse to use in this one.

But once again, the team's worst error was letting Milwaukee dictate the flow of the game, and that flow included playing large chunks of the game in the Houston zone. Anton Khudobin wasn't perfect tonight, but there's only so much one person can do when confronted with unexpected turnover after unexpected turnover.

"I didn’t mind our first period," Kevin Constantine said. "We made two big mistakes. We probably made more little mistakes the previous night, but they were littler. The mistakes we made tonight were bigger. Less mistakes, but bigger mistakes. Which gave them two goals. Those were momentum changes in the first there when we had the lead and gave it up."

Corey Locke feels the team's problem was that most of the play was in Houston's zone.

"There are a few things we need to clear up," Locke said. "Not major things, but we’ve got to start playing down in their end more and not in ours. That puts a lot of pressure on our defensemen and goalies….we’ve got to start generating something, and it’s got to be down in the offensive end."

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One of the few bright spots for the team was the continued excellent play of the team's power play. The Aeros were perfect on the power play, and if not for that, the team might easily have been shut out. The downside is that the power play demonstrated just how bad Houston's five-on-five play has become.

The Aeros actually generated 30 shots for the game, and were finally able to break the seven shots a period lull they've been stuck in. But it appeared from the press box that a majority of the good shots were generated on the power play, plus one great short-handed chance at 12:58 of the first when Drew MacIntyre made a great stop of a Benoit Pouliot shot that would have put the Aeros back in front, and could have possibly turned the game around.

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Another bright spot was that Corey Locke's first period goal was during the Bayou City Wings minute. So keep your ticket stub and go pick up your free wings when you get the chance.

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Remember, I predicted the Aeros to win this thing in six games. So it should have been expected they would lose a Game Five. They don't want to disappoint me, I imagine. But to help everybody else get over their disappointment with the loss, here's Electric Light Orchestra with "Mr. Blue Sky."