Updates from the AHL and Free Agency

Heya gang! What do you say we do a little catching up this fine Monday?

AHL News

First, the old news from last week with a few items that were voted into action at the AHL Board of Governor's meetings:

1. Video Goal Review: Yep, you read that right. Apparently they tested it last season in Bridgeport and feel that video goal review is ready for prime time. There is some additional cost for teams to implement, but it's the right (and long overdue) move. So, now when the Aeros put pucks through the net on goals, the refs can have another look at it and hopefully get them all right.
2. Realignment: After some deck shuffling last season, a smidge more this season as Abbotsford moves to the North division and Charlotte moves to the South division. So fewer arduous trips to Abby for the Aeros. Maybe a bummer for guys from that area, but also a lot nicer traveling to mild Charlotte instead. And Charlotte gets to spend most of its travel in Texas, which has the potential to be a nice, compact effort for them.
3. No-Touch Icing: One of the fun things about the AHL is getting to see some rule changes tested at the request of the NHL, and this is one I'm VERY happy to see. You only need to see Kurtis Foster break one femur to be in favor of no-touch icing. This is modified no-touch icing, where the play could continue depending on where the pursuing players are when the puck crosses the goal line. But the idea is to avoid those full speed collisions into the end boards that can really wreck a dude if it goes wrong. The new rule will be in effect for the first month of the season, at which time the board will decide if it's a keeper or not. 

Signings/Comings/Goings

• Warren Peters is a goner. He signed with the Penguins organization yesterday. 
• Other than Corey Locke signing in Europe, none of the really big AHL fish have signed anywhere yet, so there's still some intrigue on that front. I'd pay cash money to be a fly on the wall in Jim Mill's office right now.
• Around the West, the Blues signed underrated veteran goalie Mike McKenna, so we'll likely see him a bit in Peoria in tandem with prospect Jake Allen. They also signed Scott Ford from Milwaukee, much to Chris "You Suck, Ford!" Jerina's delight. 
• Also, the Barons up in OKC re-signed super-stud goalie Yann Danis for another year, and the Rampage will have another season of C Greg Rallo and G Dov Grumet-Morris as both got 2-way deals from the Panthers. 
• Aeros D Chay Genoway was re-signed by the Wild for 2 more years. Matt Kassian was, too, but it's 1 way for him, so we won't see him, or if we do, he'll be getting paid an awful lot to beat up AHLers.
• Free agency opened with a wimper yesterday and the big fish still have yet to be caught (though word is the Wild are on the short list for both Parise and Suter). They did sign two players: Zenon Konopka and Torrey Mitchell. Fourth and third line signings, respectively. Filler guys that bring some grit to the bottom lines and give the Wild depth to hopefully avoid having to call up guys from Houston who aren't ready and/or aren't right for those grittier roles. So as far as Houston is concerned, I like those signings. Kind of "keep the kids in Houston" insurance.

That's also I can think of for the moment, though I'm sure that as soon as I post this, something will be announced.

Joe Fallon Named Player of the Week

Congrats to Aeros goalie Joe Fallon who, today, was named the AHL's Player of the Week for that incredible stretch of games he just played. He went 4-0, stopping 120 of 125 of shots. That included Saturday and Sunday when he played 130 minutes of hockey and went 13 rounds in the shootout over the two games.

Meanwhile, in related news, Fallon may be getting some rest as Matt Hackett has been returned to the Aeros from the Wild.

And Andrew, seeing as how you enjoyed the last Barry Gibb Talk Show clip I included with a Fallon post, here's another. And don't forget, everybody congratulate Joe Fallon for an incredible week of hockey.

All Star Aeros

The AHL All-Star Game rosters have been named, and Jon DiSalvatore and Matt Hackett will be representing the Aeros for the game to be played in Atlantic City on January 30.

Starting tomorrow, fans will have the chance to vote on the starting lineups for the game.  And you can do that by visiting theahl.com and completing the ballot. 

Aeros Defeat Rampage 2-1 (IN OVERTIME!!!!!)

The Aeros did the unthinkable tonight.  They got the overtime win.

That's right.  You read that correctly.  The Aeros got the overtime win tonight, defeating the San Antonio Rampage 2-1 for their first OT win since March 15, 2011.  And boy, did it feel good.

"It's not even the New Year yet, so that's a good sign," head coach John Torchetti said shortly after the victory.   A victory powered by a pretty Jeff Taffe goal at 1:03 of the OT that came from the left of goalie Jacob Markstrom and was set up by a beautiful Jon DiSalvatore cross-ice pass from down low.

The Aeros tied the game in a most improbable fashion, scoring on the power play at 13:40 of the third period, Chad Rau taking a rebound and lifting it over the shoulder of Markstrom.

"It was good to see our power play," Torchetti said.  "It did a good job, got a big goal.  Got us back in the game, changed momentum.  I thought we played more of our style in the third."

The lone goal for the Rampage came at 3:31 of of the second period when San Antonio's Michael Caruso at mid-ice, hit the puck off of a stanchion and the puck flew past Hackett.  It was one of the goals that can kill a team, and in weeks past, it probably would have killed the spirits of the Aeros, but the veterans were back from Minnesota, and they were out in full force, as if willing the team to victory.

"Our leadership was fantastic tonight down at the end.  All of our leaders played huge roles.  Ortmeyer, Almond.  Strong penalty kill.  [Hackett] played big, Hack kept us in the game in the first."

The Aeros (17-6-2-7, 43 points) moved back into second place of the AHL's West Division with the win, bypassing the idle Abbotsford Heat, and they're one point behind the first place Oklahoma City Barons.  The Aeros return to action when they travel to San Antonio to face the Rampage on Friday night.  The Aeros return to Houston next year when they host the Barons on Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 5:05.

Aeros Do The Patriotic Things And Lose To The Americans

The Aeros saw an awful lot of this tonight, Matt Hackett, back turned to the bench, with the Americans celebrating a goal.

The good news tonight:  the Aeros didn't lose another game in the shutout.  

The bad news:  the Aeros lost 6-3 to the Rochester Americans, the team with the worst road record in the AHL.  And if not for a burst of scoring in the first five minutes of the third period, the score would have been much, much worse.

There's not much positive to say about this game.  Matt Hackett surrendered five goals on just 18 shots, including two first period goals while facing just six shots.  The problem wasn't entirely Hackett's as his defense was, for most of his two periods in the game, non-existent.  

More than anything, this game seemed to indicate, though not stated by John Torchetti afterwards, that the rash of injuries in Minnesota, which in turn is taking Aero after Aero away from Houston, is really just messing with the team.  Jed Ortmeyer and Chad Rau are the latest guys to catch a flight up to the big club -- this time, I believe, they had to fly to Vancouver to meet up with Mike Yeo and the guys.  Cody Almond came back down, and Aaron Lee was brought in from Rio Grande Valley to fill out the roster.

But just because there are guys injured in Minnesota doesn't mean that the Aeros should just be expecting to get free minutes on the ice because nobody else on the team is available -- every healthy player suited up and played for the Aeros tonight.  Torchetti made it clear that he's not happy with some of the things he saw on ice, and he was clear that there will be some roster changes forthcoming.

"You're getting free ice," Torchetti said.  "And some guys need to get some nights off.  That's going to be the bottom line after this next game.  It doesn't matter how many guys are called up.  We'll call up some guys from the other leagues that want to play hockey every night.  Some of these guys are getting free ice."

The Aeros did score first, taking the early 1-0 lead, but less than a minute later, the Americans tied it up.  Then Rochester scored just before the end of the first period to make it 2-1.  They scored 46 seconds into the second period, then made it 4-1 eight minutes later.  And by the time the Aeros skated out for the third period, with Darcy Kuemper taking over goalie duties with the Aeros down 5-1, it really just didn't matter.

Sure the Aeros showed some life in the third and made it look halfway respectable, but in the end, respectable doesn't cut it.  

The Aeros return to action on Wednesday night when they host the Texas Stars at 7:05.  And for the interested, Wednesday night is also the Miss Aeros Bikini Contest, so come out for that if not for the hockey.

SOME MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:

That was the Aeros first regulation loss since losing in Toronto on December 3rd.  And it was their first regulation loss at Toyota Center since losing to Abbotsford 5-3 on November 10.  The loss also breaks a six game streak of earning a point.

With the loss the Aeros dropped into second place with a record of 16-5-2-7 (41 points).  The Barons grabbed a point in their shootout loss to Charlotte, so they're now 20-7-0-2 (42 points).

Stop Me If You've Heard This One

The Aeros made it to the shootout tonight. Again. They lost in the shootout. Again. Final score 3-2 with the Barons getting the two points. The Aeros are tied for first (points wise) with the Barons, both having 41 points, though the Barons get first place because of a better winning percentage.

Aeros are 0-7 in the shootout this season. The record for consecutive shootout losses, courtesy of the AHL, is 0-8 by the 2008-09 Iowa Chops who finished the season 1-10 in the shootout for the season.

The Aeros return to Toyota Center to take on the Rochester Americans at 5:05.

Jon DiSalvatore: The Heart of the Aeros

The Aeros media gurus asked us at T3I to assist them this year with providing material to the AHL.com "On The Beat" feature. And I was tasked with the first story. So...here's the link to the just posted story on Jon DiSalvatore, the captain of the Aeros. I hope you'll go over and give it a read.

And just a note, I got a lot of material from DiSalvatore that I didn't use in the story (and they didn't use my favorite photo) including his thoughts on the new scheduling, so I'll try to throw those up on your favorite website on Thursday as kind of a Thanksgiving stuffer.

Ortmeyer Suspended

The AHL has just announced that Jed Ortmeyer has been suspended for one game because of an illegal check to the head on Friday night in Hamilton. He will miss this afternoon's game against Toronto.

Carson McMillan Suspended

Just a quick note -- I probably shouldn't blog while at work -- that the AHL just announced a bunch of suspensions for this week. And number one on the list is Carson McMillan who has been suspended for four games, beginning this week, for an illegal check to the head he delivered during Saturday's game against the Rampage.

Unfinished Business: 2011-2012

The Aeros are calling this season "Unfinished Business." So I guess that tells you what they're aiming for. There are a lot of changes to the team, new coach, new coaching staff, new players, and we'll get into all of that later on, but the big news is that we finally have a schedule.

The season opens at home on Sunday, October 9, when the Aeros host the Chicago Wolves at 5:05. That's one thing you'll notice, lots of Sunday games, which might cause some problems for those of you happen to be football fans as the Aeros are playing nine games at home on Sunday during the NFL regular season. Plus some Sunday games during the playoffs, and they're also playing a home game on Super Bowl Sunday. The good news is that we don't have to worry about any team from Texas making the playoffs, much less the Super Bowl, and the Super Bowl Sunday game is at noon, so you'll only miss about five hours of the pregame show and not the game itself.

There's some really good news about the schedule. Most of the home games are on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. There are seven games on a non-Friday weekday, including the annual kiddie game in early December and a Monday game on the day after Christmas. And as always, they'll have a game at home on the Friday after Thanksgiving as well as a game on New Year's Day, so don't party too hard on New Year's Eve.

And the Aeros only have nine10 three-in-threes this season.

The one troubling aspect of the schedule, to me at least, is that the Aeros have an 11-game road trip in February/March that will see them away from Toyota Center for a month. They have three home games at the first of February, then they're gone from February 7 until March 10. Four of those games will be up at Abbottsford, which they'll visit for two games midway through the road trip and then again for the final two games of the road trip. They'll play Grand Rapids twice on the trip, the Stars twice, and the Ads, Wolves, and Rampage once each.

But of the Aeros last 10 games, seven will be at home. So if the team can survive that road trip in good shape, then they're in a good position to cement a playoff spot. So there you go.

Look the schedule over and give us your thoughts.

And The New Coach of The Admirals Will Be...

While we're all still wondering if we'll have Mike Yeo around next year, or whether he'll be rewarded with the top job with some NHL team somewhere, comes the word that Milwaukee head coach, and former Aero, Lane Lambert is being promoted by the Nashville Predators organization. The word is a press conference has been scheduled for tomorrow in which it will be announced that Lambert's been hired on as assistant coach to the Preds, which means the Ads will be in search of a new coach.

Just a reminder that, while the actual hockey is finished for the year, hockey itself is not finished. There'll be more coaching moves to come. AHL/NHL affiliations will be shifting around. The Moose are moving to St. John's, Newfoundland and we're waiting for the AHL to figure out which conference/division in which to place them -- my guess is that the AHL finds a way to keep them in the so-called Western Conference, North Division because the teams in the Eastern Conference don't want to be bothered with all of that far-flung traveling the teams in the Western Conference have to deal with.

There'll be roster changes throughout the league, more coaching changes, and don't forget, the league's moving to a 76-game schedule next year.

Notes, Quotes & Observations from Game Four, Houston v. Binghamton

The Houston Aeros lost game four of the Calder Cup Finals tonight to the Binghamton Senators by the score of 3-0. But that score doesn't even begin to indicate how much the Senators dominated this game. They outshot the Aeros 37-21, and most of the Aeros shots weren't even that great. The Senators kept possession of the puck and kept in the Aeros zone for about the first four minutes of the game.

The first goal of the game was one that looked like Matt Hackett should have been able to stop, coming off a really slow to develop wraparound. But it's hard to pin this loss on Hackett as he did everything he could to keep the Aeros in the game, especially seeing as Binghamton came out on the attack and peppered him with 18 shots in the first period.

The Senators won this game because they wanted this game. They played this game like it was game seven. The Aeros seemed to play like it was game five of the regular season. But who knows, maybe if they would have played with the same effort during the game as they did in getting into that stupid scrum/fight at the end of the game they might have been able to at least make the game close. But alas, it just wasn't meant to be.

1. We're all familiar with the story by now since it's a story we've seen throughout the last month of the regular season and during the playoffs. The Aeros get the ultimate goal within their reach, then all they care about is that goal which results in them forgetting everything that made it possible for them to get where they are. What's more aggravating than anything else is that the Aeros recognize this, too. Mike Yeo knows about it. The players know about it.

Jed Ortmeyer said on Monday that he thought the guys had learned a lesson from the Hamilton series about what happens when they get away from their game. But it appears that, if they did learn the lesson, they forgot all about it tonight.

2. "We weren’t ready to match their desperation level," Mike Yeo said. "It’s tough – it’s like your sinking in quick sand when that happens. You dig a little bit deeper and you sink a little bit more."

The Senators wanted this game. They knew they had to win. The Aeros played like it was game four against Hamilton.

3. They paraded Kurt Klienendorst, Robin Lehner, Cody Bass, and Corey Locke out to the press room tonight and didn't bother to bring any Aeros along. And frankly, I'm not in the mood for transcribing everything they said.

Klienendorst said that he hadn't been frustrated by his team's play, and neither was his team. He felt, and the team felt, that they were all capable of much better play than what they'd had so far in the series, and that tonight was what they expected. They're all expecting a much better Aeros team out on the ice tomorrow, and they're all expecting a much better effort from the Aeros.

4. My recorder malfunctioned when it got to Lehner, so this note I have might not be his exact quote, but he speaks truth: "If you don't play desperate, you're not going to win the game."

Like I said, that might not be exact, but it's close. And you could tell the difference tonight. The Senators were desperate to get the win tonight -- they didn't want to go down 3-1 -- and the Aeros, well, they weren't desperate.

5. Mike Yeo admitted to slamming a few things around after the game. And while he didn't name names, he was not very happy with the play/effort level of some of his players. Personally, I think the only guy that gave out a good effort tonight was Hackett.

"There’s some things we talked about [during intermissions]," Yeo said. "There were some moments where we saw our game kind of getting there, and I don’t think that we had full contributions from everybody tonight. And that’s going to be tough when you’re playing against a team – we had a lot of guys who had below average games, and if you have one guy that has a below average game right now, the odds of you winning the game have just gone down by quite a bit, and we had a number of guys.

"The one thing that you always find is that it’s tough to recover, it’s tough to have – to not be ready, or not have a great first period and then all of a sudden flip the switch. It doesn’t happen. I think that we’re not too far in the process to learn. We’re not too far in the process to learn from our opposition, and what we’re facing, and even ourselves and what we have to bring going into a game."

Emphasis mine.

6. Yeo's not too worried about playing the back-to-back. The Aeros should be used to this anyway since the AHL had them playing three-in-threes seemingly every weekend. But Yeo said that no guy should be tired when it comes to the Calder Cup.

"If you want to sit here right now and look at it that way, yeah you can, but this time of the year, I don’t know," he said. "The adrenaline’s got to kick in. I’m already excited for the game tomorrow. Our players should be excited for the game tomorrow. You know, it stinks. It stinks to lose. I don’t think there’s anybody who hates to lose more than I do. And I had my moment where I went and I slammed a couple of things. Even as I sit here right now, what an opportunity. We’ve got a best of three for the Calder Cup. Two good teams going at it. I don’t know how you could get tired right now. You’ve got to get excited, you’ve got to get fired up. When you have that approach, I think that energizes you. There’ll be plenty of time to be tired."

And besides, he said in another shot at his players, a back-to-back shouldn't be a problem because "I think that we saved a little energy tonight."

7. I've got to give it to the Binghamton fans, the "You can't Hack It" chant was funny. However, they did the Wave, so what credibility they gained from the chant was lost with that.

8. Yeo didn't think the crowd had much of an affect on the Aeros. He did, however, think the crowd helped out the Senators, especially after that first goal. The building was loud, and Corey Locke spoke afterwards about how great the Binghamton fans were. And the crowd tonight was way more into this game than the crowds I saw in Peoria and Milwaukee.

9. The game ended with a big scuffle after the buzzer in which the Aeros just seemed to lose their cool and got into with the Senators down by where the Senators exit the ice to get to their locker room. Justin Falk, Warren Peters, and Nate Prosser were each hit with two minute roughing penalties and 10 minute game misconducts for persisting a fight. Eric Gryba, Mike Hoffman, and Cody Bass were nailed with the same penalties.

And the reason for this, beyond just the Aeros losing their cool, was the once again god-awful absolute crappy officiating of Terry Koharski and Ghislain Hebert. These guys never had control of the game and missed many obvious penalties committed by both teams while making up, from nowhere, a four minute double minor high-stick on Justin Falk in the second period. But hey, at least Koharski didn't screw up any goal calls tonight.

Seriously, if any of you suits with the AHL are reading this, could you answer me this: are the officials you've been assigning to these games really the best you have because, if they are, I fear for the future and the integrity of the AHL and NHL officiating. I know that the AHL is a developmental league, but that doesn't mean developmentally-challenged officals should be continuously assigned to the league's most important games.

I hope I don't sound like a homer because I've seen these guys, especially Koharski, miss way too many calls this playoffs, and just not calls against the Aeros. Hamilton and Milwaukee have just as much right to be angry with this guy as the Aeros, and I don't think Binghamton should be too happy with him, either.

10. Cody Almond left the game about midway in the third period after being hit on what probably would have been a penalty in the regular season. It looked like his leg was injured because he sure skated slow and seemed to be favoring one of his legs -- sorry, I don't remember which one.

Yeo didn't know his status after the game as he was still being checked out by the medical staff, but we're hearing rumors that he left the arena on crutches, so that doesn't sound good. Hopefully we can find out something more at the arena in the morning.

11. I'm trying not to go into full on negative mode here, like Heather, so it should be noted that Heather's prediction of the Senators winning in five is wrong. Second, we've been watching the Aeros do this throughout the playoffs. They'll throw out a stinker of a game then recover. The question is how long that recovery will take. They switched it on-and-off several times against Milwaukee. They were demolished by Hamilton in game four, then spent the next two games trying recovering before getting it all together in game seven.

But unlike with Hamilton, the Aeros don't have a 3-0 lead with which to play. And I think the Senators are better than the Bulldogs and the Admirals. Hopefully Jed Ortemeyer will knock some heads together and get the guys back on track -- I say Ortmeyer because the guys have made it pretty clear that he's their spiritual leader in the locker room.

12. On a positive, non-hockey note. I made a pilgrimage to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown today -- it's about an hour-and-a-half drive from Binghamton. It was my first time, and I really got a kick touring the Hall and the town. My favorite part was something that I knew, but had forgotten. A friend of mine, Ria Cortesio, was the last female umpire in professional baseball, making it up to AA-ball about four years ago before hitting the glass ceiling. I was walking through the Diamond Dreams: Women In Baseball exhibits when I came up on one of her umpire masks.

While I knew her mask was there, she had told me several years ago, I had forgotten, and you have no idea what a kick it is to be walking through a shrine of great players from the sport I love the most and seeing that my friend has been acknowledged. If only the guys running MLB would have been more open minded because she should have made the majors -- I know for a fact that she's a better umpire than Angel Hernandez can ever dream of being.

That's it for tonight. The Aeros and Senators return to action on Saturday night, same bat time, same bat channel -- sorry about that for those of you stuck with AHL Live. And if the Aeros are going to win the Cup, then they're going to need a much, much better effort on the ice. They're going to need to play like it's game seven.

A View From The Press Box: Aeros Embarrassed By Senators

Well that was ugly. Binghamton came out and kicked the Aeros collective asses by the score of 3-0, and if not for the play of Matt Hackett, it might have been worse. Much worse.

I'll be back later with some quotes and observations and a rant about the officiating, but there's one reason why the Aeros lost tonight: the Senators wanted this game much, much more than the Aeros wanted this game.

I think we're all pretty accustomed to this by now. The Aeros get that glimpse of the ultimate prize, then fall apart. And fall apart tonight the team did. Mike Yeo was asked after the game if there was any facet of the team's game with which he was pleased. His answer was a simple no. This was a complete breakdown of effort and composure.

The two teams go up against each other again tomorrow night with the series tied at 2-2 and coming back to Houston next week. The question being whether the series will be 3-2 Houston or 3-2 Binghamton.

That's it for now. I'll be back later, but you can use this to post to make whatever comments you so desire.

Notes, Quotes, Observations, And End Game Controversies -- A Fun Night In Houston

Sorry folks, this is going to be quick. They're doing electrical work at my apartment complex tomorrow and shutting off the power at 9:00 a.m., so I've got to get some sleep. But I wanted to throw out a few things, and answer some questions.

1. Some of you have wondered why Hamilton got so upset over the DiSalvatore game-winner, besides it being the game-winner. Hamilton was arguing that Drew MacIntyre was in control of the puck, so the whistle should have been called. This is an issue we've seen all series with the officials taking forever to blow the whistle, allowing players to play whack the goalie.

I was down at the other corner, but I checked my photos of the sequence. In most of them, I can't tell anything because there are too many players blocking my view of MacIntyre, but I do have this one photo below. And if you look closely under MacIntyre's pads -- click on the photo to enlarge it -- you'll see that the puck is free. This is just a split second before the goal is called.


Here's what Jon DiSalvatore had to say about the play: "The puck was thrown at the net. It was laying there between his pads. I think he may have thought he had it covered, so throw everything at him and see what happens. Sometimes that’s the way you’ve got to get it through that guy."

2. This next sequence of photos involves the very end of the game where we had the scrum in front of Matt Hackett and where it looked like some of the Hamilton players were going to kill the officials. The issue here, as I understand it, was that the Hamilton players felt one of the Aeros, and I heard Justin Falk's name, covered the puck with his hand while in the crease, thus there should have been a penalty shot called.

This happened just in front of me, so I checked my photos. If you look closely, you'll see the puck right below the "4" of Falk's sweater. You can't see the puck in the final photo as it appears that he's rolled over on it.

Three things. If you look at the photos, it appears that Terry Koharski is looking right at the puck and at Falk. Second, from these angles, I don't see how Falk could have grabbed hold of the puck. Third, in the final photo it looks as if Warren Peters was making a grab for the puck, but that's the best shot I have as chaos ensues in the photos I have after that.






3. We get lots of access to these guys during the season, so we get to know them. And as much as advancing to the Calder Cup means to all of these guys, I think it means more to Jon DiSalvatore than it does anybody. He's spoken in the past about never winning a playoff series, and about how special this group of players is, and how much he wanted this. And now he's got it.

"You can go around the league and find maybe more talented teams than our team, just on paper," he said after the game. "But character-wise, top to bottom, the depth that’s on our team, the coaching staff. Everything has just come together so nicely and we’ve grown so much. Guys have brought into the process of maturing as people and as athletes. You see that all come together in 20 minutes of a hockey game. Everything that we battle through to persevere and come out. That’s what makes it so special. We put in all that extra time throughout the year just for a moment like that. And that’s why this team’s so special."

4. This couldn't have been an easy night for Casey Wellman. Wellman's struggled throughout out the playoffs, and tonight he was on the fourth line after having started the playoffs against Peoria on the top line. So playing on that fourth line, Wellman went out and had his best game of the playoffs, scoring the second and third goals of the game.

"This series has been a struggle," Wellman told us. "Obviously we went up three games, and lost three in a row. And personally, it’s been kind of a struggle for me. But these are the games you dream about, game sevens, and I’m glad I was able to step up for our team."

5. And we asked Mike Yeo about the move, and Yeo responded: "It’s a response by him. It’s a tremendous response, and that’s what you’re looking for, and that’s how we got to this point, really. I give Casey huge credit for the way he responded tonight…."

6. And let's hear it for you fans who were attendance. That was the loudest I've heard Toyota Center in years. There were 6,000-plus in attendance, and your presence was felt every moment. You have no idea how much it meant to the players, and how they fed off of it. That's what home ice advantage is all about.

"We haven’t been a team to go to center ice and salute the crowd before. I think it’s a great tradition, and it’s something that I would like to see," Yeo said. "But the guys thought it was appropriate tonight because that crowd was unbelievable. I thought that just the game, the excitement value of it, just the energy that the crowd brought to the game and the life that they brought to our players was phenomenal."

That's it. I'm out of here. I'll try to post a link to the mothership story whenever it goes up, providing I can find some power and a wireless connection somewhere. Also, some bad news. I'm not going to be at games one and two because of previous vacation plans, so there won't be any photos. Maybe Heather will nice enough to bring out the pen and paper and do us some stick figure drawings, though I'm sure all of her attention will be focused on Mr. Barry Brust. But the good news is that I will be in Binghamton for games four and five.

Goodnight everybody. It's been an incredible evening.

View From The Press Box -- Aeros Take Down Hamilton

Wow. Just wow. Right? What else is there to say, but Wow.

The Aeros did it. They defeated Hamilton 4-3 in a tough game that saw both teams playing some of their best hockey of the series. They were both playing desperate, neither wanting to go home, and in the end, it was the Aeros who were most desperate as Jon DiSalvatore fought like a mad man to shove a puck past Drew MacIntyre with 1:13 left in the game.

I'll try to post some quotes later. And Andrew said he would try to throw some stuff up, and I encourage you to read our bits in the Chronicle and the Press and Pro Hockey News.

But I just wanted to get some stuff up so you'll have a place to leave comments. And I thought you would want to see some photos. But I didn't think you'd care about action photos, I thought you would be interested in these photos from the game ending, and the handshake, and the players coming out to salute the 6,000-plus who made the Toyota Center a really loud place, and finally, this photo of JM Daoust and Matt Hackett, skating off the ice.

The Aeros now play Binghamton and former Aeros Barry Brust and Corey Locke for the Calder Cup, and the action starts this weekend in Houston. Game one is Friday and game two is Saturday. Game three is in Binghamton next Wednesday, as are games four and five, which will be played on Friday, June 3 and Saturday, June 4. If they're needed, games six and seven will be in Houston on Tuesday, June 7 and Thursday, June 9.

And once again, wow. Just wow.

And Our Game Seven Refs Are...

According to reports, aka Jason Iacona, the AHL has decided that the refs for game seven tomorrow night will be Terry Koharski and Ghislain Hebert. Which leads me to ask this of the AHL: don't you have any competent refs you can send down to Houston?

And I know the AHL is a developmental league not just for players, but for the officials. To which one has to say, if these guys are really the best the AHL has to offer then the quality of officiating in the NHL is doomed.

Notes, Quotes & Observations from Game Six and The Brink of History

Before you do anything else, or after, go read my story in the mothership. Please.

Heather handled the doom and gloom below. But I wanted to throw out some quotes from Yeo and DiSalvatore, and maybe offer up a little analysis. So...

I've had the pleasure, the past couple of years, of getting to know Tom Franklin. Tom's the radio voice of the Houston Cougars, and he's a mainstay of the Houston media -- he also did some PA work for the Aeros when they first started back up in the 1990s. But if Tom's best known for one thing, it's for being the radio voice of the Houston Oilers during their final stretch of glory in the early-90s.

Those Oilers, despite the gaudy stats, the good records, and the numerous playoff appearance, aren't necessarily viewed through of prism of fondness. And the reason for that is, despite an ability to run up the score and win big in the regular season, they just could not find a way to win games in the playoffs. And they didn't just lose games in the playoffs, they LOST games in the playoffs.

They would storm out to big leads over the likes of the Broncos or the Chiefs or the Bills, but despite the size of the lead, they would find a way to lose, a way that inevitably meant a last-minute drive led by a John Elway or a Joe Montana that the mighty Oilers defense suddenly couldn't stop.

I did a story in the mothership on Tom, and I asked him about the infamous Buffalo Bills playoff game of January 3, 1993. You know the one. The one they show over and over and over and over on the NFL Network. The one where the Oilers jumped off to the 28-3 halftime lead before increasing it to 35-3 early in the third. Yeah, that game, where the Bills were led not by Jim Kelly, but by his back-up, Frank Reich. Yeah, that one, the one the Oilers lost 41-38 in OT. The biggest come from behind victory in NFL playoff history.

And one of the things we discussed was when he knew the Oilers were going to lose that game. Read the answer here.

All of that's a long way around to getting to this point: the Aeros are on the verge of history, and it's not a good kind of history. Before yesterday, there had only been two occasions when a team, losing 3-0 in an AHL playoff series, had forced a game seven. Now there are three occasions. And on both previous occasions, that team coming from the 0-3 deficit won game seven.

So yeah, the Aeros jumping out to a 3-0 series lead and becoming only the third AHL team to find themselves having to then play in a game seven after having squandered the series lead are, roughly so to say, on the verge of joining the Houston Oilers in the epic annals of Houston sports misery.

1. You know, both Andrew and I predicted this would be a seven game series. And that the Aeros would win it in seven. But neither of us predicted it would get to game seven because the Aeros were choking away a 3-0 series lead.

2. I was in Milwaukee after game six, and I spoke to several of the Aeros, and to coach Yeo. I spoke to them again after yesterday's game. And though they're putting on the brave face and saying the right things, the tone in the voice was different. Game six in Milwaukee was also a loss in OT, but the team just seemed to feel that things would be fine and that of course, a series with Milwaukee was going to go seven.

But yesterday, there was just this despondent sound in the voices I didn't hear in Milwaukee. Perhaps it's just the nature of that game, and the crappy officiating, and finding a way to score two goals to send it to OT that just really deflated the team more than normal.

3. For instance, maybe I'm reading too much in this statement from Jon DiSalvatore, but I haven't heard him say something like this before. And while the players are unnamed, he just never goes about throwing guys under the bus. Until last night.

"Obviously this loss kind of stings," he said. "But there’s a lot of great things that happened in that game for our team tonight. We showed how resilient we are, being down two goals and bouncing back. Obviously out-shooting them, I think that we controlled and dictated most of the game. But obviously it just goes to show you, one play’s the difference. I’m not blaming anyone, but one play is the difference in situations like this." Emphasis mine.

4. But these one plays have been making the difference, yet game after game it seems that, at least two or three times, Hamilton has an odd-man rush on Matt Hackett because somebody's turned the puck over and there's no defense around to help out. And while it would be nice if Hackett were able to pull a Drew MacIntyre and stop 57 of 61 shots in one game, it's hard to put all of the blame on the goalie when he's dealing with breakaways and odd-man rushes time and time again because of poor puck handling.

5. The Aeros can win on Tuesday. But to do so, they have to come out and play a complete game. They played a good first period. They played a good second half of the third period. And it was during those stretches that they pressured MacIntyre with shot after shot after shot.

6. "Just keep doing it. That’s all you can do," Mike Yeo said about dealing with MacIntyre. "Obviously you look at video and you look for weaknesses. And certainly the more traffic you can get around him the more you’re going to make it difficult for him to see the puck and control his rebounds. Having said that, you can’t try to get too precise with your shots. When you do that, that’s when you start missing the net. That’s when you don’t get them off because you take that extra second, and that’s when – that opportunity when the puck gets to the net and we’re banging in the rebound, that opportunity’s lost. We have to make sure to just continue to shoot pucks and go to the net. Certainly, when you’re in tight you want to go in upstairs. We have to put pucks in places where he’s kicking out the rebounds. But otherwise, just keep shooting."

7. Dear Aeros, yes, the officiating sucks. It's beyond suck, if that's even possible. And putting both of the guys named Hebert on the same crew and having them work a playoff game was just beyond stupid. But damn it, you've got to forget about those bastards. I know they're missing obvious penalties that are happening right in front of them while inventing phantom calls to nail you with. But don't let that affect your play on the ice.

The game was lost for the Aeros during a five minute stretch at the end of the second period and the start of the third period. It began when Colton Gillies got called for doing something to the goaltender that nobody in the entire building not named Hebert could see. Then Jed Ortmeyer is somehow about to start up on a rush and he's interfered with, which is great because it would be 4x4 hockey. Instead, the Heberts don't see the interference, play goes on, and Hamilton gets a goal on the power play to tie it at 2-2.

And things just went downhill from there with Hamilton scoring shorties right before, and right after, the second intermission. Yes the Aeros got back into the game and sent it to OT, but it was the loss of composure at that time in the second that cost the Aeros this game.

8. Game seven can be won. DiSalvatore said afterwards that the team needs to wipe away the negatives, focus on the good things, and come out and play.

"We have to try to forget about the pain that we’re feeling right now, the sting of the loss right now," he said. "But we have to recognize and see what we did so well this game. I think, it’s just when we get away from the details of our game that we give them opportunities. And I don’t think that we made a tremendous amount of mistakes tonight, but they were just opportunistic. You give them credit, but I think we can feel really good about a lot of things that we did tonight, and we can build a lot of confidence off of what we did tonight heading into game seven for sure."

9. There's the word from DiSalvatore. Details. Focus on the details. When the Aeros execute, they score. When they execute for a complete game, they win. But when they get sloppy, when they make bad passes or lose composure or miss on a hit, they fall apart.

10. Yes this is only the AHL. There's no AHL Network to replay historic losses over and over again. The Aeros losing this series could never, to the populace of Houston, hurt the way the Oilers losing to the Bills did. But damn it, going in the history books for the wrong reason hurts, no matter how large or small the impact. The impact on the city will be small, but the impact on the team should they lose, well that's going to be huge.

Aeros Take 3-0 Series Lead

The Aeros just defeated Hamilton by a 3-2 score and lead the series 3-0. Jon DiSalvatore and Max Noreau scored in the first period, and DiSalvatore scored on a power play in the second period for the game winner. Matt Hackett stopped 25 of 27 shots.

Aeros Win Another Thriller, Take 3-2 Series Lead

This is what it looks like in the scrum after a huge win.

When the Milwaukee Admirals took the 2-0 lead on a short-handed goal with just five seconds left in the second period, I turned to Heather and Andrew and made the following statement: it's all over. The Aeros are going to lose tonight. Then they're going to lose Sunday.

While a bit dramatic, one couldn't be blamed for thinking this, seeing as how the Aeros were losing 2-0 in a game they were absolutely dominating. They had out-shot Milwaukee 38-16. They were playing physical hockey, and they were forcing the action in the Milwaukee's zone. There's just no way they should have been trailing, except that Matt Hackett had a brain fart on the first goal and there was a huge defensive breakdown on the shortie.

But Milwaukee goalie Jeremy Smith was just light's out dominating this game, stopping anything and everything the Aeros were throwing his way. There was just no way, NO WAY, the Aeros were going to make a comeback and win this game.

NO FRIGGING WAY!

We know now how the game turned out. Robbie Earl scored on a 5x3 power play with 4:22 remaining in the game. Then Jon DiSalvatore hit Chad Rau with a beautiful pass and Rau buried the puck with 1:22 left to tie the game. Then Robbie Earl again, off a play by Casey Wellman, netted the game-winner at the 8:45 mark of the overtime.

And just like that, the Aeros got the 3-2 OT win for the second night in a row to grab the 3-2 series lead over the Admirals.

What more can be said after that? Well...

1. I think Jeremy Smith could kill his entire team and get off with justifiable homicide. He faced 53 shots in this game as the Admirals defense struggled to keep the Aeros out of the offensive zone. The Aeros weren't successful for most of the night, but the reason they weren't successful was that Smith was getting to everything.

That said, the Aeros knew they could get to him. They knew if they kept attacking he would break because he's only human. Here was the Aeros game plan as the game got late.

"He was great, again," Mike Yeo said. "He’s played – the one thing you keep saying is we can grind him down, too. If he’s going to make 50-something saves then we’re going to get to the net, and we’re going to get to the net. And we’re going to keep throwing pucks there, and eventually he’s going to get tired, too.

"He played back-to-back, and he played two hard games in a row. So hopefully we’re going to get to him as well."

And eventually, the Aeros did get to him. It took nearly the entire game, but they got to him.

2. Fifteen of the 53 shots Smith faced came off of the sticks of Robbie Earl and Chad Rau. Earl, specifically, has been attacking Smith the entire series, but he hadn't been having much success. Until tonight, when the team needed him the most.

3. Of the game-winner, Earl gave the credit for the play's success to Casey Wellman who won a face-off and started the action. Earl claims to have just been in the right place at the right time.

"Off the face-off, Wellman had it," Earl said. "I’m not sure what happened, but I know he cycled it back down to me. And I was able to get the bead on the D and was able to cut back, and then I saw a bunch of legs and I decided to pick one out, and it went in."

4. Earl's goal comes off of the rype of play that Yeo wants to see. Attacking the net. Again, and again, and again, forcing Smith to make plays. And he thought they were better at it tonight than they were in game four.

"That’s where you give the guys a lot of credit," Yeo said. "I thought last game we started to try to get a little too precise with our shots. Tonight we were just focusing on getting them to the net and creating those battles in front of the net. Those are hard plays for the goalie, and physically draining when you’re scrambling around and there’s traffic in front and guys are poking at pucks. I thought we did a nice job with that."

5. The Aeros had doubts when they went to the locker room for the second intermission. They had been following the game plan, putting the puck on net and trying to create havoc, and they were losing. But Chad Rau said they talked about this and knew what they had to do.

"Just to stick with it," he said. "We knew for the most part, besides a couple of plays, a couple of turnovers, that we were playing a good game. That’s the kind of feeling we all felt. So we knew we just had to stick with what we were doing and come out of strong."

6. And Mike Yeo noticed this, saying that a mindset that Jeremy Smith was just too perfect began to get to the team in the second period, leading to the two goals.

"That is exactly what happened," he said. "One way we can get better is, once that happened, we started to force things a little bit and we put ourselves in some tough positions. You start to force a play into the middle. And now we’re all kind of caught on the offensive side of the puck, and we’re back-checking. There was some frustration in our game where we started to take some penalties. It’s a good lesson for us. One way, certainly, we can improve. And then when they scored that second goal, we were stretching a shift and we were forcing a play. You want to do the right thing. You just have to make sure you keep your focus and go and do it the right way."

7. As you read below, Admirals coach Lane Lambert attempted to have a heated discussion with the officials in their locker room after the game. And in some ways, that was understandable as the officiating in this game, hell, this whole series, was horrendous.

For instance, I'm still trying to figure out how, where two players drop their gloves, throw numerous punches to the face that land, don't get called for fighting but instead each get four minutes for roughing. And it appeared to me, numerous times, that both goalies were mauled and mugged by guys jumping all over them and jabbing them with sticks while they were covering the puck. So while I'm sure Lambert will be getting a hefty fine from the league office, I hope that somebody with the league will do something about Ghislain Hebert and Mark Lemelin.

For what it's worth, I think Lambert might have been right regarding the interference penalty on Grant Lewis as I felt it was a fantastic acting job on the part of Casey Wellman. Still, that shouldn't have caused the Admirals squad to melt down, get called for a delay of game penalty seconds later, and have to kill a 5x3 power play.

Also, for what it's worth, I've been going down that corridor for four years, and this is the first time any coach, either the Aeros or the opposing coach, has attempted to get to the refs after a game.

8. Once Earl made that first goal, you could feel the momentum shift. Still, I was really worried and I was mentally cursing Mike Yeo as Matt Hackett stayed in the net and stayed in the net and stayed in the net as the clocked ticked down. I was down in that corner, and I saw him keep looking at the bench, waiting for the sign to rush off so the Aeros could get that extra skater out there. The irony being, of course, that they didn't need the extra skater as Hackett wasn't even halfway to the bench when Jon DiSalvatore hit Chad Rau with that perfect pass which Rau then buried in the net to tie the game.

9. The Aeros were lucky tonight. As much as they dominated the action, they needed luck to swing their way, and swing it did when they got that 5x3 power play. And when they got that chance, they capitalized.

"We needed that," Earl told us. "It’s one of those moments where you’re like, okay this is do-or-die, and we were able to capitalize. That second goal, it was an unbelievable play, and a timely goal. It was a valiant effort by everybody, and now we’re up 3-2."

10. Yes, the Aeros are now up 3-2 and they're heading back to Milwaukee. You've got to wonder if all of the action he's been facing is going to get to Smith. But the Aeros can't worry about that. They've just got to concentrate on their game.

"They’re a strong home team," Rau said. "We know that. We’re going to have our work cut out for us when we get back to Milwaukee. We’re going to have to come with an even stronger game."

11. Games six and seven will be in Milwaukee. The Aeros will fly to Chicago on Saturday morning, then bus to Milwaukee. They've got the momentum on their side. But while it looks like the Admirals might be going into meltdown mode, that can't be counted on.

I hate to keep going back to this, but I have to go back to what Jed Ortmeyer said after the last regular season game. The key to winning a series is what happens on those days between games. You can't get too high; you can't get too low. You can enjoy it, but you've also got to put it behind you and focus on what's ahead. The Aeros can't worry about Jeremy Smith or how Milwaukee responds in an elimination game. The Aeros have to concentrate on their game, on their process. They've got to control those things they can control, and they've got to work hard.

It's worked so far. Let's see if it keeps working.

(And just a reminder, T3I will be in the building for game six, and for game seven, if needed. I'll be there for both, and Andrew hopes to be there for game seven.)

In Which Lane Lambert Throws A Fit

The corridor that leads to the Aeros locker room is also the same corridor that houses the locker room for the AHL officials. And it's after the game and various people are gathering. Families of the coaching staff start drifting down. There are various security people there, and the medical staff, waiting to see if anybody needs to be treated.

It can get kind of crowded.

This is also where we conduct our interviews every night. And we're talking to Mike Yeo, getting his thoughts on the game, and a commotion begins down at the door where the officials locker room is. We keep on with our interview, but it's kind of loud. When we're done, Yeo asks those around what the noise was about, and we're informed that it was Admirals coach Lane Lambert trying to get to the officials in their locker room. There were a few loud profanities exchanged, but nothing physical happened.

As far as we can determine, Lambert never actually got into the room. We have confirmed that he talked to the AHL officiating supervisor, who was down there, but we do not know if he ever actually talked to the officials, besides shouting various profanities at them.

We were also informed that he put the loss of the game and the loss of the series -- which has not yet happened -- on the officials. And we have learned that what ignited his fury was the interference penalty called on defenseman Grant Lewis at 14:49 of the third period when Milwaukee was still up 2-0. A few seconds later, the delay of game was called on Brett Palin, the Aeros were on a 5x3 power play, and just like that, the score was 2-1 Milwaukee and all of the momentum was on Houston's side.

And, this probably goes without saying, but Lambert can probably expect a call from the league office tomorrow demanding an explanation for his actions while hitting him with a fine.