Aeros put down the Bulldogs in Hamilton 3-1

Well, it might be Hell Week, but so far Hell's looking pretty damned good.

The Aeros made this season's second foray north of the border last night to play the Hamilton Bulldogs and somehow found a way to switch up some of the bad habits that have been plaguing them.

For the first time this season, they won in spite of not being the first team to score. AND, they got the lead early in the third period and HELD it.

I know! Me, too!!

Matt Hackett also got off his personal 3-game losing streak with 24 saves in the victory.

And what's more, Brandon Buck moved up to the Almond/DiSalvatore line and earned his second career AHL tally, and first in 49 games with the Aeros, with the game winning goal early in the third period. Even nicer is that he's from the area, apparently, and hopefully had a bunch of folks in to see it.

He was replacing Daoust on that line and if the goal is any indication of the success of that move, I'm guessing the spot is his for a while. Daoust just isn't producing like I would have hoped, so maybe this shake-up will be good for all parties and get him going, too.

Before that, the tying goal came from Robbie Earl midway through the second, literally within seconds of Hamilton getting the first goal of the night. I only heard it on the radio but it sounds like Casey Wellman did the work to set it up. Dude is en fuego. We better hope the Wild's top lines stay healthy or he's gonzo.

Hamilton pulled goalie Curtis Sanford out of the net with about a minute and a half left and from the sounds of it (which Joe was fantastic calling as I was driving to my own game last night), the Aeros had several chances on the empty net. But it was Warren Peters, fresh back from the NHL, who found the inside of the net to seal the deal.

Tonight, the boys face Grand Rapids at 6 p.m. our time. The Griffins are toiling at the bottom end of the North Division standings, but boy do hey have a lot of PIM. Either they're very undisciplined or they're mean sons of bitches. Or both.

They've only won 2 of their last 6, but they're showing up well-rested but, having played Sunday, not quite rusty. The Aeros, on the other hand, had to make the 6 hour haul from Hamilton to Grand Rapids after the game last night. That's always easier with a belly full of Win but still, no morning skate to shake off the bus legs. Wouldn't be surprised at all to see it take half a period or so to get the legs going.

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In other news, the Houston Women's Hockey League Wisco Badgers whipped the Harvard Crimson last night at Space City Ice 3-2. And then drank a helluva lot of beer. Woohoo!

Have a great day! I'mma go scrape the cotton balls out of my mouth.

Pics from the Miracle and (grumble) roster moves

Updates first: Dubielewicz has been sent down to Houston, which means Brusty has also been sent back to ECHL Florida. And the Aeros have recalled Brandon Buck from Florida. Guess I'm a Blades fan again. Awesome. *sigh*

Here's kind of a funny account of the game last night from a blogger in Peoria.

And here's the photos, all courtesy of Chris "Leadfoot" Jerina:

Disco Dobby

Here's a cool series of shots showing the 5th goal that was inches from happening, which Chris and Andrew both mentioned, and rookie Carson McMillan saved.

You can see the puck start on top of Anton's leg...

Then it falls off. Uh oh. Reach back Anton. REACH!


Never mind, Anton. Mac Attack's got this...

Clear it, Falker. Clear it!

Phew!

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The uprising begins...


Photos like this are why people think goalies are crazy. Noreau winds up a bomb.


I hate when some asshole skater sprays me in the face with snow, but man, it makes an awfully cool picture.

Anyway, thanks again to Chris for these fantastic shots. Here's the rest of them for your perusal.

Buck returned to Florida

Just a little note I ran across from the Florida Everblades beat writer. Brandon Buck was a scratch in Thursday's Aeros game and now official word is that he's been sent back to the Everblades.

The team is currently on the road in Cincinnati, OH and have a game tonight, so I'm assuming he's joined them on the road.

Thought it was interesting that he called out Buck as the fastest player on the Florida team when he was up before. He fit into the Aeros mix quite nicely, so it's good to know there's a reliable body to bring up when the roster gets thin in Houston.

11/20 -- Aeros v. Admirals -- A Hard Day's Night Edition

The Houston Aeros are a team premised on smart play, execution, and energy. When one of those elements doesn’t fall into place, the Aeros lose. When two of those elements don’t fall into place, it’s a recipe for disaster. Yet despite some very stupid play by some who should know better, and some poor execution, the Aeros found some much needed energy to get back into the game.

Yet in the end, as 5672 people who witnessed the game at Toyota Center will tell you, the Houston Aeros still lost to the Milwaukee Admirals 3-2 to fall to 10-10-0-0 on the season.

The Aeros were shorthanded to start the night as just before game time Clayton Stoner discovered that he couldn’t play because of an upper back injury. Nathan Smith had been called up to Minnesota earlier in the day, and the Aeros made the call to the Florida Everblades to get Brandon Buck. And Buck arrived at Toyota Center at 6:30, just in time to suit up and hit the pregame skate.

For the first fifty-five minutes of the game the Aeros played stupid hockey and didn’t execute. About the only thing the Aeros were good at was fighting -- I didn’t think Colton Gillies had that in him when he took out Nolan Yonkman in the first period. Matt Kassian also came out with kind of a draw against Yonkman in the first. But the fighting hurt the team, more than it helped. Especially Peter Zingoni who ended up serving 17 minutes of penalty time in the second and third period after a fight with Ryan Jones.

Anton Khudobin was pulled early in the first after giving up two goals (one on a power play) on only four shots, and Wade Dubielewicz did what he could to keep the team in the game. But he gave up a goal in the third which made the Aeros up hill battle that much harder.

“We worked hard,” Kevin Constantine said. “We’re a four-line probably, more than anybody in hockey. We just roll people because we like to keep fresh and play with lots of energy. That’s why we play 12 forwards. So in a game like this, guys playing every third shift -- on some teams, that might be fairly normal, but on this team, it isn’t. So that’s probably the first time guys ever had to log that much ice time with that little rest in between. They kept going. We kept working. That was good.”

That was good. But not good enough. Especially with the early stupid play and the poor execution that found the Aeros, like usual, having several excellent opportunities at the end to knot the game yet not being able to pull it off.

These two teams battle again on Sunday afternoon. Who knows, maybe they’ll have a full roster. Maybe they won’t. That’s just how the puck bounces.


SOME MISCELLANEOUS GAME NOTES:

The Aeros didn’t know until close until game time whether Brandon Buck would be able to make it to Toyota Center in time. Constantine told us after the game that Nathan Smith didn’t get the call until 10:30 Friday morning to report to Minnesota. The Aeros were then left trying to find a player that was in position to pack a bag and get to an airport where he could then catch a flight that could get him to Houston in time for tonight’s game. And Buck didn’t get to the arena until 6:30.

No Buck would have left Houston with 17 players able to suit up. Until Clayton Stoner got injured which would have left the Aeros with 16 players. Luckily, Buck did arrive, and he played a decent game for a guy playing under those circumstances. And Zingoni’s penalty time didn’t help as it left the Aeros with only 16 skaters for most of the second period and the first part of the third period.

“There’s a couple of things you’ve got to think about,” Constantine said. “We were down one with Clayton not being able to go. And then we had a couple of fights, and then we had a guy [Zingoni] who got 17 minutes in penalties. So not only was it a game we started without a body, we had lots of penalties that kept guys in the penalty box instead of on our bench.”

So the fact the Aeros were actually able to make a game of it says a little something about the character of the team.

“Guys were tired,” Constantine said. Yet they found a way to perform.

“It’s been one of the things we’ve been focusing on all year,” Chad Rau said. “A hard working team. Especially when things aren’t going your way you have to make sure you are working hard and going as hard as you can.”

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Constantine said afterwards that he thought that Clayton Stoner should be able to play on Sunday. But when asked if the team was going to try and bring someone else in just in case, his response was that we would have to talk to the bosses.

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Once again the Aeros had to play defensemen up front. It’s not the best of circumstances, but Brandon Rogers seemed to make it work. I thought it was Jamie Fraser playing up front, too, but Andrew says it was Jaime Sifers. Whoever it was, the defenseman up front did their jobs.

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According to the AHL stat sheet, the actual three stars of the game, as opposed to what Steve Vidal announced, were 3) Petr Kalus, 2) Ryan Jones, and 1) Mike Santorelli.

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In case you didn't notice, Peoria demolished San Antonio night. As part of the demolition, former Aeros fan favorite Mitch Love got his first goal of the gameseason.

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And seeing the day that Brandon Buck, and the team endured, getting to Houston, I can think of nothing better than The Beatles with "A Hard Day's Night."

Brandon Buck To Aeros

Sorry, I twittered this earlier, but I forgot that not everybody follows the Twitter feed...

To take the place of Nathan Smith who was called up to Minnesota, the Aeros are bringing in Brandon Buck from Florida, and he should be suiting up with the team tonight. Actually, if he doesn't, the Aeros are going to have some problems because they had trouble putting a team out on the ice Wednesday night.

Buck sent to Florida

It appears the Aeros have sent another guy packing to some place where he can get playing time. This time it's Brandon Buck who is headed to the Everblades.

He is on an AHL/ECHL contract and I don't believe he ever dressed for the Aeros.