Round 2, Game #7: Aeros vs. Milwaukee -- The Pretender Edition

“If you can’t get yourself ready for a game like this,” Clayton Stoner said after Wednesday’s morning skate, “then you don’t deserve to be here.”

Guess what? The Aeros were ready, and they deserved to be here.

The Milwaukee Admirals came out hard, slamming guys into the boards and hitting any guy in the dark green shirts any chance they got. But the Aeros were ready. And when it counted, it was the Aeros who did the actual damage. They didn’t slam Admirals into the board. They hurt them in a different fashion.

They scored goals.

Corey Locke, the team’s leading playoff scorer (and one of the AHL leaders) with 13 points (7-6=13) got a pass from Max Noreau and Locke got the puck past Milwaukee goalie Drew MacIntyre to make the score 1-0 at the 3:34 mark of the first. The point was Locke’s 14th of the playoffs, but the team barely had time to celebrate before Krys Kolanos got a pass from Marco Rosa, and Kolanos took the puck and buried it in the net to make the score 2-0 at 4:23.

And just like that, the Aeros had Game Seven won.

“I think it was pretty big,” Corey Locke said of his goal. “Especially after we got beat pretty bad and got shut out. The [Admirals had] confidence and MacIntyre’s got confidence. I just got a lucky bounce. It went to the net, it hit me, and it landed right in front of me. I just put it over the net. It was just kind of the bounce we needed, and we weren’t getting those in Games Five and Six.”

Coach Kevin Constantine agreed, calling those first two goals the key to the victory.

“I felt…the guys with the ability to get some things offensively done would have to get it done,” Constantine said. “And Krys Kolanos and Corey Locke got our first two goals. And not to take away from the other goals, but those are huge. When you lose seven-nothing, you need something good to happen early to remind yourself you’re okay. So those two goals by those two guys were just big, big, big. I tip my hat to those two guys to put our confidence level back to where we could compete in a Game Seven.”

The Aeros did more than compete. They dominated, playing perhaps their best all-around game of the playoffs. The defense was, for the most part, solid in front of Anton Khudobin (the defense did let Khudobin down on the Admirals second goal), Khudobin was solid, and the offense was good, keeping the puck in the Milwaukee zone for large parts of the game.

With Houston up 2-1 in the second, Clayton Stoner scored what proved to be the game-winner at 14:21 on the power play to make the score 3-1. And after Milwaukee scored in the closing minutes of the second to make it 3-2 and give a slight momentum shift, Bryan Lundbohm, getting a great pass from Tony Hrkac – who faked out Drew MacIntyre – buried the puck at 5:30 of the third to put the Aeros up 4-2.

Milwaukee would not challenge after that. And Corey Locke, who started the scoring, ended the scoring, getting the empty-net goal at 18:09 to make the final score 5-2.

“It’s awesome,” Stoner summed up at the end. “I can’t really describe the feeling. The game’s just so intense. Everyone’s up on the bench the whole game, and every guy’s just yelling and pulling for each other. And when it comes to the end of the game, when that final buzzer rang we felt great because we knew that we gave it all.”

Gave it all they did, because they were ready.

SOME MISCELLANEOUS GAME NOTES:

One of the keys of the game was Anton Khudobin. Khudobin was on top of the world last Thursday night after he shut out the Admirals on his birthday. But he got pulled early from Games Five and Six. And with Nolan Schaefer available, there was some thought that Kevin Constantine would turn to the veteran. Instead, Constantine went with Khudobin yet again.

And the move paid off.

"It felt good," Khudobin said. "It was a kind of pressure, Game Seven. For the second time in my life. But we scored right away two goals, so there wasn't any pressure on me any longer."

Khudobin said he spent the past several days working with the coaches on his play. "I talked to our coaches, and they told me what I did wrong."

One thing Khudobin did, which the rest of the team also said they did, was forget Monday night. "I forgot about everything," Khudobin said. "I just focused on this game."

Constantine didn't think Khudobin was at his best in the game, but in the end, that didn't matter. "The bottom line is he got it done," Constantine said. "I thought he battled with the puck a little. I didn’t think the saves came easy to him. I thought he was kind of fighting all night….He’s had two game sevens under pressure where he’s given up two goals in each, and I think that’s pretty good."

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The goal that probably put the game away was scored by Byran Lundbohm at 5:30 of the third to make the score 4-2. It's been a bit of a frustrating season for Lundbohm as he battled injuries for most of the season and sought to find his place on the team. But he's been a surprising playoff presence. So it was nice to see Lundbohm get one of the goals.

"It was obviously pretty sweet," Lundbohm said. "Especially doing it against a team I played for before. I wanted to just keep myself in good shape and ready, and I’ve been really given a good opportunity, and I’m making the most out of it. It’s definitely exciting. We’ve got a special team here."

The special team concept is one that runs through the locker room as everybody says the best part was winning it for the rest of the guys.

"It’s great to win with these guys," Locke said.

"That’s a group of guys in there that really care," Constantine said. "They really want to be successful. And they got it done."

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The Aeros made AHL history with this victory. They became the seventh team in AHL history to win two Game Sevens in one playoffs. And with the Game Seven victory, Kevin Constantine himself went back in the books as, once again, he took an underdog into the opposition building and won a Game Seven.

When asked how he pulls this off, Constantine kind of shrugged. "I don’t know why," he said. "I don’t know how, really."

And with the win, the Aeros are now 6-1 all-time in Game Sevens, and they are 4-0 in Calder Cup Game Sevens. And all four of the AHL wins have come on the road. And it should be noted that, once again, the team leading after the first period won the game. In this series, the team to lead after the first period was 7-0.

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Oh, I just feel the need to note that I, and I only of the T3I staff, picked the Aeros to win this series. So there.

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The Admirals came out on the ice just before the start of the game to some music from the Foo Fighters. Specifically, they came out to "The Pretender." And as they played that song, I couldn't help but wonder if they had picked the wrong song, because, in many ways, if you listen to the song, the lyrics are more descriptive of the Aeros.

So, to play us out, here's Foo Fighters with "The Pretender."

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