3/11/11 -- Aeros Lose To Moose

Okay, that was a tough loss. Very tough. Any game lost in a shootout is, in my opinion, a tough loss, but losing 2-1 like that, when you gain the early lead in the shootout...well, ouch. The Aeros had a rough first period, and if not for the play of Matt Hackett in the first, the Aeros would not have been close to getting this game to a shootout. Unfortunately for the Aeros, Manitoba's rookie goal, Eddie Lack was just as on his game as Houston's rookie goalie.

1. Mike Yeo wasn't happy with the play of his team in the first period, but he that on himself and his assistant coaches for failing to get the team ready for the drop of the puck. And while the bad luck of Robbie Earl and Patrick O'Sullivan in the second period -- hitting the posts on several occasions -- could have sapped the team of any momentum, Yeo had no problems with the second and didn't see it as proof that this was not going to be the Aeros' night.

"I wasn’t thinking it that time [second period]," Yeo said after the game. "I was thinking it wasn’t our time in the first period because I thought we were just not good. And I’ll take the blame for that. It was our week as coaches to make sure we were ready to go at the drop of the puck, but I liked the way we responded in the second period. I thought we were – as you said – starting to get the momentum and starting to tilt the ice. But having said that, obviously you would like to put in the net. But I felt like if we kept going like that we would give ourselves enough chances to get back in the game."

2. This was a tough game for Hackett to lose because Hackett played his ass off. I was down in that corner during the first period, and he was barraged with shot after shot (Manitoba got off 18 shots) and if he hadn't of been on his game then the score would have been way worse than 1-0 Manitoba after one period.

"It’s a tough way for Hack not to get the win because I thought he deserved it," Yeo said. "I thought he was great. Their guy was very good, too. I thought Hack was great. We had no business even being in that game after the first period. We were awful the first period, and Hack really gave us a chance."

3. Andrew asked about Hackett's perceived problems in the shoot out. Yeo said that wasn't the problem tonight. The problem rested with the Aeros not being able to get the puck back into the net after Patrick O'Sullivan started off the shoot out with a beauty of a shot.

4. Still, despite it all, the Aeros, as Yeo noted, did battle back to get a point tonight. And while it wasn't two points, the Aeros still came out better than Milwaukee, who lost to Rockford, Texas, who lost to Syracuse, and Chicago, who lost to Peoria.

5. And while the Aeros getting a point is a comfort, damn, it's getting hot in here. Milwaukee leads the division with 81 points. The Aeros are in second with 80. But Peoria's now in third with 79 points, Texas is in fourth with 78, Chicago's in fifth with 77, San Antonio in sixth with 75. Oklahoma City seems to be falling off, finally, and they sit in seventh with 73 points.

6. The Aeros and Wolves only have 12 games left while Peoria has just 13 and Texas just 14. While I'm more optimistic about the playoff scenarios than Andrew, who Heather has nicknamed Fun Killington, this is whole thing is just too damn close and I would really like to see some other teams start to fall by the wayside.

7. The Aeros welcomed back Casey Wellman, Cody Almond, and Drew Bagnall to the lineup tonight. As for the rest of the walking wounded, Yeo says not to expect to see any of them on Sunday. The bad news is that it appears that the MASH unit that is the Minnesota Wild suffered another shot on Friday night, so it's quite possible that somebody could be on plane Saturday morning.

8. Speaking of Drew Bagnall, for all of the great play by Hackett tonight, it might have been Bagnall who guaranteed that one point for the shootout. At one point in the third Hackett made a block but was out of the net. The puck bounced around and around in front of the net, just begging for one of the Moose to tap it in, but Bagnall flew into the scene and shot the puck out of the way of danger.

9. We spoke with Jed Ortmeyer for a bit after the game. Being the old man vet of the team -- and what a pick-up he has turned out to be, huh (thank you San Antonio for screwing the pooch there) -- who has handled these type of tight scenarios before, I asked him about what he's trying to tell the youngsters for handling the pressure, and I think he gave a great answer.

"There’s a bigger picture," he said. "The goal is to make the playoffs and to have a big run, and I think that at this point in the season you get banged up, start to mentally get a little bit fatigued, and you have to have the idea of having fun, making sure that coming to the rink everyday is fun."

He also said the team just has to stay with the process and not deviate from that. And when Ortmeyer speaks to the team, guys listen.

"But more than that, he’s a guy that has a very good pulse for what the team needs to hear at that time, whether it’s between periods, whether it’s on the bench," Yeo said. "He’s a guy when things get a little bit hectic and he needs to calm them down, he’s quick to do that, or if things are a little big sleepy, he’s quick to pick them up. I think a big part of that is experience, but it’s also making sure that first and foremost you go out and do the right thing to give yourself that credibility. So when you speak, guys listen."

10. A final thing. I really like these uniforms the team's won the past several games. I've always hated that stupid, cartoonish bomber logo -- yeah, I know, most of you love it -- because it just doesn't scream hockey to me. The unis they had on tonight, those screamed hockey. But since the team has yet to wear a game wearing them, I'm not counting on seeing them again.