Aeros Bite Bulldogs, Take 2-0 Win

The Aeros won their third straight game, taking a 2-0 victory from the Hamilton Bulldogs in a game that, despite the low score, the Aeros seemed to control throughout.

Dan DaSilva scored the only goal the Aeros needed tonight at 8:41 of the first period when, despite falling to the ice, he was still able to get his stick on the puck and deflect it into the net. The Bulldogs appeared to tie it up eight minutes later when the puck slid behind Jeff Deslauriers, making his first start as a Aero, and skated along the blue line. It was originally ruled a goal, but after a lengthy replay review, the goal was waived off, and the Aeros were never again threatened. Nick Petersen scored the second, and final, goal at 12:50 of the third period.

Houston Aeros Photo - Morris Molina

Hamilton tried to muscle their way through the Aeros, and lots of players went to the boards or to the ice. But the Aeros, for the most part, didn't bite, and the Bulldog bullying tactics didn't get to the Aeros.

The biggest fear coming into the game was that the Aeros would see the Bulldogs, sitting in last place in the conference and out of the playoff hunt, and take the day off, would then fall into a trap of a team that had defeated the Texas Stars on Saturday night.

"Those are the games that we have to understand the checking mentality," head coach John Torchetti said. "We have to be able to play a 5-1 game, or a 2-0 game. That’s the mentality. It’s a hard game."

Deslauriers didn't have much action in the first two periods, facing a total of only 10 shots. But he got hit with 12 shots in the third, and didn't allow any into the net, impressive for a goalie with not much action this season, and one adjusting to the temperature inside the building.

"That experience, it carries you a long way," Torchetti said of Deslauriers. "What I really like about our team is we’re a team that’s become very accountable to each other. Deslauriers is one of the top players of the game. He gets the award for best player, and he says you know 'what a great job the D did, you did a great job boxing out. You let me see shots. I’ll do a better job on my rebounds.' That’s when I know we got the right people with character in our room. And that’s what it’s all about night in and night out. That’s speaks volumes. It’s his first game and he’s talking like that to his teammates. He’s letting them know he’s accountable, too. That’s really big."

We asked Zack Phillips after the game what happened with the team between last Tuesday's lost and Thursday's win, and he was bluntly honest, saying that the team thought it would be easy coming back to play on home ice, and that they needed a little wake-up call. It appears that the team has indeed gotten that wake-up call, and let's just hope they don't fall asleep again.

The Aeros return to action on Wednesday night when they play the first of their three remaining regular season home games. The playoffs are looking more and more like a certainty, though the team has yet to clinch a playoff spot. They're in fifth in the conference standings with 82 points, tied with Rochester though I believe, should the two teams tie in points at the end of the season that Rochester would get the higher seeding due to more wins.

The AHL won't update it's playoff primer until tomorrow morning. Before today's game, the Aeros magic number to clinch a playoff spot was 12. My math shows that that number is now 9 points, but I'm not the playoff scenario calculator that is my colleague Andrew Ferraro, so I could be off by a point or two.