Houston Aeros coach Kevin Constantine said after this morning's skate that he wanted his team to focus less on what Milwaukee was doing, and to focus more about getting back to their style of play and back into the Aeros system. After tonight's game, he said it was a bit of a mixed bag, and that they played Milwaukee's game in the second period.
But when it mattered most, the Aeros played their style of hockey, getting two goals in the third period to get the 3-1 win over the Milwaukee Admirals before a crowd of 3047 inside of Toyota Center. With the win, the Aeros have the 2-1 advantage in the best of seven series.
The thing I noticed most from the press box was that when the Aeros pressed the Admirals, they had control of the game. That might not show in the shot totals, or in the number of goals, but for most of the first and third periods, the Aeros pressed, and the Admirals were forced to react to the Aeros instead of the Aeros reacting to the Admirals.
And did I nail this win, or what? My keys to the game for the Aeros were to score first. To score on a power play, to have the lead after the first period, and to prevent the Admirals from scoring on a power play. And the Aeros did all of that.
Who knows what will happen come Thursday night. There's never any real way of determining, as far I can tell, which Aeros team will show up to play from period to period, much less from game to game. But just like in the series with Peoria, and so far with Milwaukee, if the Aeros are the ones on the attack, they're the ones who are going to win the game.
The three stars of the game were 3) Milwaukee's Ryan Jones, who refused to come out after the game to acknowledge his star; 2) Matt Beaudoin who got the game-winning goal when a Max Noreau shot from between the circles nicked his pads, and 1) Anton Khudobin who made several impressive stops of Milwaukee shots while stopping 27 of Milwaukee's 28 shots.
I'll be back more later, including quotes from Constantine, Beaudoin, and Khudobin.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
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5 comments:
Heard from Peoria writer that Jones didn't come out because he was with the doctor. Not sure if that's the go-to excuse when a player doesn't wnat to talk to media, or if he really was with the doc, but take it for what it's worth.
Guess who played 588 minutes and taken more shots (265 against) than any other goalie (2.3 goals per game average, save average 0.913, GAA 2.35)in the play offs...so says AHL site.
Well, all I can say....Andrew Ferarro was sooo wrong about Anton.. and all that at just 23 years old.
Of course (as AK himself said at the end of tonight's game) the defense was great.
Plus 4 Aeros as top scorers in the playoff Locke #2, Beaudoin #6. Hrkac #7 and KK #12.
What a team...always full of (in this case GOOD) surprises, and kudos to the coaches for pulling it all together.
I heard Jones was crying like a baby . Because they lost. I say thats what you get when you go to Tootoo's school of cheapshots
Er, I mean the Milwaukee writer. We played Peoria for so long, I'm having trouble remembering to say the right city.
Gee, Josh, was that the little voices in your head? 3 different posts with a lot of good information in them (more if you count the notes from the morning skate) and you decide to make a silly comment about Jones. Go back to where you came from if you want to start stuff like that.
Anyway, thanks John, Fred, Ms C, and Andrew for all the work bringing us this information. You guys (and gal) ROCK!
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