11/5 -- Aeros v. Moose -- The Me And My Monkey Edition

The Aeros were a little rested. The Manitoba Moose were a bit tired, and were missing some key players due to call-ups and injuries. But that didn’t matter to the Aeros. All that mattered was the team’s 4-1 win before 3163 fans inside Toyota Center.

“They’re a great team,” Danny Irmen said. “Well coached. They’re missing a lot of guys. But we’ll take the win. A win’s a win. We played really well tonight.”

One of those playing well tonight was, of course, Danny Irmen, the subject of a Thursday post in the Houston Press. Irmen got the game’s first two goals for the Aeros, the first coming at 13:43 of the first period off of a fantastic pass from Clayton Stoner.

“I could have scored that goal blind,” Irmen said. “I sat my stick on the ice and he put it on there and it went it. It was a great play by [Stoner].”

And his second goal came off of a nice pass from Jon DiSalvatore who snuck around the back of the net to feed Irmen up top for the goal. That goal at 1:51 of the second broke up a 1-1 tie that the Aeros were disappointed to find themselves stuck in.

“We actually thought, even in the first period,” Kevin Constantine said, “we thought it was kind of bummer to come out of it one-one because we thought we had much better scoring chances in the first. But it was just nice to see some goals go in.”

On top of Irmen’s two goals was a two-goal performance from Max Noreau who had been without a goal this season. The first goal came at 19:03 of the second period off of a Marco Rosa turnover that Noreau turned around and slammed into the net.

“I looked at Clayton Stoner and I just said I’ll take that one,” Noreau said. “It was my first goal. It doesn’t have to be pretty. I just wanted to get that monkey off my back. He looked at me with a big smile and I just said I’ll take whatever I can get right now.”

The Aeros dominated this game in just about all aspects of the game, which was fun to watch since this has been seen so seldom this season. And just as Noreau didn’t care that his first goal was ugly, the Aeros don’t care that the Moose were tired. They just wanted the win. And the win they got.

SOME MISCELLANEOUS GAME NOTES:

With the win, the Aeros record is now 7-7-0-0 (14 points). And amazingly -- especially when you think of their play this season -- the Aeros, with the loss tonight by the San Antonio Rampage, find themselves in a three-way tie for second place. And seeing as how the Aeros face the Rampage this weekend, maybe the Aeros will be able to move past San Antonio in the standings.

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This game was the 1100th of Kevin Constantine’s coaching career. With the win, his record in the USHL, IHL, WHL, AHL, and NHL is 569-399-114-18.

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I’m not going to take a lot of time tonight -- I’m tired and I’ve got this temp job thing I have to get to early in the morning. So I’m dedicating the end of this post to Max Noreau. Noreau has been frustrated with his game this season, and this was a nice night for him.

“It was a little bit frustrating,” he said after the game. “But at the same time, when you’re getting your chances you can’t be too frustrated. At some point, even though you might be snake bit a little bit, it will come.”

And come it did with two goals and an assist, which as he said, let him get that monkey off of his back. So speaking of getting the monkey off of his back, here’s The Beatles with “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except For Me And My Monkey.”