Aeros Roster Update

For those of you who don't get out Twitter feed -- Forecheck, I'm talking to you -- here's some roster news. Clayton Stoner is on his way to Minnesota. Anton Khudobin and Jaime Sifers are on their way back here. What this means for Barry Brust I have no idea. Maybe Heather can give us some info about that later.

11/7 -- Aeros v. Rampage -- The All You Need Is Love Edition

The Aeros played, without a doubt, their best game of the season tonight. As a result 8443 people got to see not only a 5-2 Aeros win, but also got to see an entertaining game that at times resembled not so much hockey as we have come to know it, but hockey as played in Slap Shot.

The Aeros dominated play in the first period, out-shooting the San Antonio Rampage 13-4, but also out hitting them. But they left the period with only a 1-0 lead because, as has become the norm, they just couldn’t hit the back of the net. The one goal was outstanding however as, at 11:31, Peter Zingoni got his stick on a Max Noreau slap shot from the point and thus deflected the puck just a touch to let it slip past Rampage goalie Josh Tordjman for the 1-0 lead.

But wait, it gets better. Not only did the Aeros take the lead on the shot -- a lead they never surrendered -- but the goal came on a power play. Yes, you read that right. The Aeros, are their 45th power play chance since last getting one, also against San Antonio, found a way to get the power play goal.

Things were just getting good, though.

The Rampage were on the power play early in the second period when Mr. Penalty Kill, Danny Irmen, got the puck and went into Krys Kolanos mode. Dragging Chad Rau with him, Irmen split for the San Antonio net and drew Tordjman toward him. As he did that, he sent a nice backhand pass to the trailing Rau who had buried the puck in the wide open net to put Houston up 2-0. And at 4:25, just seconds after the end of an Aeros power play, Clayton Stoner fed Robbie Earl and Earl, taking advantage of the angle he was at in terms of the goalie, went top shelf to put Houston up 3-2.

All of this scoring action was mixed with some hits that jarred even those of us sitting up high in the press box. Matt Kassian engaged in three fights, defeating Francis Lessard in the first, Troy Bodie in the third, and Ryan Hollweg after the game ended. Nathan Smith went after Kevin Porter after Porter attempted to decapitate Colton Gillies toward the end of the first period. Clayton Stoner took out Bodie in the second, and Petr Kalus and Sean Zimmerman went at it late in the third.

The Rampage got two goals late in the second, and came near to tying the game when a shot went off the post at about 19:10 of the second, but Jon DiSalvatore scored at 12:56 of the third to make it 4-2, then at 14:45, Petr Kalus came down on a breakaway attempt. He missed the initial shot but knocked the defenseman into Tordjman. Before Tordjman could recover, Kalus got the puck, went behind the net and got the wraparound into a wide open net to make it 5-2.

“It’s a rivalry game,” Kevin Constantine said afterwards. “It’s the team we’ve played the most since I’ve been down here. I think the rivalry goes way past me coming here as a coach. It’s a good rivalry game, and rivalry games always have a little more emotion and a little more passion in it. It’s pretty entertaining when a game gets that way. It was nice to get a win. It’s a nice heated rivalry, and that’s all good for the game.”

And it’s even better for the game when the Aeros get the win. And get the win they did.

SOME MISCELLANEOUS GAME NOTES:

With the win, the Aeros record improved to 8-7-0-0 (16 points). But even better than that, the win moved the Aeros past San Antonio and Peoria and into a tie for second place with Rockford. The Aeros are behind only Texas, and they are now a point up on the Rampage and Rivermen. And for any of you who care, the Aeros are still in second place of the so-called Lone Star Faceoff.

The Aeros next play on Friday the 13th when they take on the Lake Erie Monsters -- how appropriate, I guess -- in Cleveland. They also play the Monsters on Saturday, then return home to take on the Chicago Wolves next Sunday.

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What can one say about that Aeros penalty kill? They killed off another three San Antonio power plays. The Aeros have now killed 53 of 55 power plays this season. That is the number one penalty kill in the AHL.

"It starts with pride," Kevin Constantine says of his team's penalty kill. "And then it starts with trying to be fairly aggressive and put a lot of pressure when we can. It certainly has to be great goaltending -- that’s a big part of your penalty kill. And then maybe the occasional shot blocking if you get in trouble. We didn’t anticipate having the percentage that we have now. We’ve been in the top five the past two years, so the idea of being in the top five was something we were shooting for. This is a little above what are expectations were. It’s been nice to have that….The guys have done a great job killing."

The most spectacular of tonight's penalty kills had to be in the second period when the Aeros got the short-handed goal to go up 2-0. The play saw Danny Irmen breaking free with the puck and hitting Chad Rau with a fantastic pass and a wide open net. And just like Danny Irmen said his first goal on Thursday night would not have been possible without the play of Clayton Stoner, Rau said that this goal would not have been possible without Irmen's passing.

"It was a gift from Danny," he said. "I just tapped it in. He made a heck of a play. He made a nice backhand pass, and draw the guy to him and it was an empty net. It was a super nice play."

As for getting the short-handed goal, Rau said that a thing like that is a blast.

"It’s pretty nice," he said. "Your main concern out there is playing defense and making sure they don’t get one. So anytime you can kind of get an opportunity where they’re thinking more offense and they break down…it’s great….It doesn’t happen too often."

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Speaking of not happening too often...did I happen to mention that the Aeros scored a power play goal? And their third goal came just about two seconds after another power play expired. Could it be possible that with the proverbial monkey off of their backs the Aeros are going to break lose for the rest of the season on the power play?

"It would be nice if that happened," Constantine said. "If one turned into a nice 15-20 percent power play based on maybe getting some confidence from scoring. I don’t know if that’s going to happen. We need to keep working on it. We need to get that power play a little more consistent. You can see tonight it kind of changed the game because we scored on a power play and we haven’t been doing that. I’m just really happy those guys got some goals with it tonight."

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And let's not forget the stellar play, once again, of Anton Khudobin. I've got to confess, I didnt' always have confidence in Anton's abilities when he was up with the team last season. But the playoffs seemed to bring out the best of him last year, and it sure looks as if that confidence has stayed with him this year.

Anton didn't face a lot of action for the first half of the game. And as I've been told by numerous goalies, it's hard for a goalie to mentally stay in a game when he's not under the gun.

"It’s actually pretty hard when I don’t have lots of shots…," Khudobin said. "I try to stay focused on every puck. Sometimes, it’s just happening, like they score a couple of goals….Third period I just focused on their puck and I stopped all of them."

Which, he said, is difficult when it comes to San Antonio.

"They love to shoot from everywhere," he said. "So I have to beware of shots from everywhere. And actually they’re a really tough team to play against. They try to hit everybody. They’re running around. It’s just tough…."

It may be tough, but he handled it.

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As Constantine said, this was a rivalry game between two teams that have already faced each other a bunch this season. And they looked like they were really sick of seeing the other guy opposite of them. I haven't seen this many fights in one game in a long time. Chad Rau attributed the fighting to the fact that both teams play pretty aggressive hockey and that this draw clashes.

That might be, but maybe it's just like John Lennon once sang, "All You Need Is Love." Yep, maybe all the Aeros need is Mitch Love to bring the fighting down a notch though I have to say that Kassian was quite impressive. And I don't think I've ever seen Stoner that angry before.

So let's go out tonight with The Beatles and "All You Need Is Love."

10/9 -- Aeros v. Stars -- The Matt Beaudoin Is Not The Second Coming of Wayne Gretzky Edition

I find it hard to write about the kind of game that was played tonight. The Aeros came out hard, and fast, and physical. They took the 1-0 lead after Clayton Stoner fired in the puck from the blue line at 17:29 of the first. They left their intensity in the locker room for the second and most of the third periods, but trailing 3-1 late in the third, the Aeros still found a way to make it interesting before losing 3-2 in front of 8514 fans inside of Toyota Center.

There’s just not much to say.

Stoner put the fault on the entire team, saying that “we were turning over pucks at the blue line going into their zone and just giving up odd man rushes the other way. Then break downs in our own zones. I think pretty much we just handed them everything they got.”

In many ways, he is correct. But without the play of Texas Stars goalie Brent Krahn, Texas loses this game. The Aeros won the shot battle 35-20. They outshot Texas 12-4 in the first period. They hit Krahn with a six-man rush late in the third. And he made the stops, especially when it counted.

Still, the Aeros could have, should have won this game. But despite the massive off season roster turnover, this Aeros team played like year’s team. Consistently inconsistent. They came out strong, trailed off, then came back at the end.

“We’re a mature group,” Stoner said. “A lot of older guys. If we’re down a goal or two we can always come back.”

But head coach Kevin Constantine doesn’t want to hear comparisons to last year.

“There’s a lot of newness here,” he said. “New management, new players, getting used to things. It’s so much change, our style of play, you would think we would be fairly similar to last year once we all adjust to how we’re going to play. I would summarize the game with saying we had a good start. We had a lot of energy. We had a good first period. We had an average second period with a little too many turnovers. And didn’t manage the puck very good, and let them back into the game because of that.”

The Aeros and Stars go at it again tomorrow night, 7:35, at Toyota Center. And the Aeros will attempt to even up their record at 2-2. Something which Stoner thinks is possible. “I think we need to come out with a bit of an edge,” he said. “We can’t be happy with the way we handed them the game. We’ve just got to come out with an attitude and play like we deserve to win.”

MISCELLANEOUS GAME NOTES:

I’ve got to admit to a little disappointment from tonight’s game. After reading the comments here over the summer, I was convinced that Matt Beaudoin was the second coming of Gretzky and Crosby. Instead, all I saw tonight was the Beaudoin I saw during much of the regular season last year -- nothing. He’s a good guy. He was good in the locker room. He was very good in the playoffs. But you guys have got to get over him already. Mitch Love and Tony Hrkac played as important, or bigger, roles with this team last year than Beaudoin, and I can’t understand the adulation that has been coming his way.

Though, on the plus side, this did give me and Heather a fun way to waste time during the game as we were making “Matt Beaudoin is so great, how great is he?” jokes throughout the game.

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The Aeros have really got to let those of us sitting on press row pick the stars of the game. There’s just no justification for Texas goalie Brent Krahn not being the number one star of the game. Hell, he wasn’t even a star. I often asked myself this same question last year: are they watching the same game that I am?

I also think that they ought to turn over game scoring duties to those of us on press row. Heather, Andrew, GM Jim Mill, and myself all correctly identified Clayton Stoner as being the one to score the first period goal as soon as it happened, and verified it by way of replay -- thanks Jamie Spencer for that as, if I remember right, we didn’t always have replays on Friday games last year. But the stat crew gave it to right wing Jean-Michel Daoust. That mistake was corrected during the first intermission.

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The Aeros do not have a captain this year. They are using a system of rotating Alternate Captains, which is shared by the veterans, and will rotate among those who are not having to sit out during a particular game due to the Veteran Rule. Tonight's Alternates were Clayton Stoner, Brandon Rogers, and Ryan Lannon.

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I was impressed by rookie Chad Rau. He got the team’s second goal, late in third period, and he always seemed to be around the puck for the whole night. And Clayton Stoner was again delivering some quality hits during the game.

And I was impressed by P.A. guy Steve Vidal for correctly pronouncing new goalie Wade Dubielewicz’s name throughout the night. I think I would have nightmares every night if I had to pronounce it on a regular basis.

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And finally, before I go, it’s time to play DJ. So I thought I would bust out this little beauty from The Pretenders. First, because it gives me a chance to watch Chrissie Hynde. Second, because it’s a good song. Third, because the first line is the “reason we’re here” which allows me to remind you that, despite everything that’s happened, we here at T3I are here to give you the best game coverage possible. And fourth, as my dedication to Mitch Love who is off in Peoria this year (also, though he probably won't like it, it's also for Mr. Fred).

So here’s The Pretenders with the “Message of Love.”

10/9 - Aeros v. Stars

In a very uneven game that started with the Aeros looking like they might never even allow a Stars shot on goal, but ended with the Aeros scrambling to make up a 2 goal deficit, the Texas Stars took home the 3-2 win tonight in the first ever regular season meeting between the teams.

Clayton Stoner opened up the scoring when he ripped a shot from the point past Stars goalie Brent Krahn, during a first period in which it took over half the period for the Stars to finally get a shot on goal. The Aeros dominated; the Stars must have given up 15 turnovers in the neutral zone. It was the kind of period where you're glad you're gonna see this team 11 more times this season.

But two different teams came out of the locker rooms at the second. The Aeros were flat and lacked the energy of the first. The Stars looked like they'd gotten a talking to in the room and were ready to make amends for a sorry first.

And make amends they did. Shots were almost exactly the reverse of the first period with the Stars gettin 11 to the Aeros 4, but they capitalized one extra time with goals from Rallo and McCulloch.

The McColloch goal was off a nasty rebound into traffic and the bouncing puck hopped past the pad of Dubielewicz.

The Aeros started the third on the power play, but it was Texas who scored first when Korostin popped the puck 5-hole on Dubie midway through the period on what looked like a bad play defensively for the Aeros.

With about 4 minutes left in the period, Constantine pulled Dubie from the net and the Aeros went to work with 6 men. Amazingly the Stars were unable to get the puck in the empty net, but had several good chances as the Aeros organized their man-advantage.

Though it was too little too late, rookie Chad Rau scored his first professional goal after the Aeros had been storming Krahn's crease for nearly 3 straight minutes. But the boys in the bomber sweaters were unable to get another puck past Krahn, who was truly outstanding in the final minute of play, stopping a whopping 18 of 19 shots.

Which leads us to the stick figure of the night:

Folks, Stars goaltending is out of this world. Climie is just as good as Krahn. The mere 4 penalties in this game indicate that it's not a rivalry yet, but give it time.

All 4 RFAs accept qualifying offers

Well, on the heels of some disappointing exits for many fans, the (good?) news is that Robbie Earl, Clayton Stoner, Benoit Pouliot, and Danny Irmen have all accepted their qualifying offers from the Minnesota Wild.

So that's one more year from all of them to play either for the Aeros or Wild.

Wild qualify 6 of 10 restricted free agents (updated)

As we've mentioned before, restricted free agents become unrestricted free agents and the team loses their rights to a player if they are not given a qualifying offer by the deadline, which was today.

Here's the list of players who were qualified, with Aeros bolded:

C Kyle Brodziak
LW Robbie Earl
G Josh Harding
RW Danny Irmen
LW Benoit Pouliot
D Clayton Stoner

The Wild did not make qualifying offers to:
D Paul Albers
LW Riley Emmerson
LW Dan Fritsche
LW Peter Olvecky

Not entirely surprising on any front, though I always liked Paul and will miss his fantastic shot blocking. I thought they might keep Olvecky around, but I guess the new regime doesn't see a fit. Will add more later if clarity around the decisions is made public.

On Wednesday, NHL free agency begins. It's also Canada Day and really the most exciting day of the off-season, typically. Though teams are so burdened with salary cap issues, it will be interesting to see what GMs can pull off with such constraints. I, for one, take the day off and just follow the flow of signings and trades like a kid at Christmas, but I'm kind of a dork for hockey. :)

UPDATE: From Russo's blog, it appears the goal is to keep Olvecky but avoid having to sign him to a one-way (NHL-only) contract.

About Pouliot, Fletcher said: “We’re excited to see where he is come training camp. He’s had his ups and downs along the road, but (new coach) Todd Richards is excited about seeing him in camp. We want to see if he can push his career forward, take the next step. It’s up to him, but we want to give him that opportunity.”

He said not qualifying Fritsche and Olecky was a roster “flexibility” issue. About Olvecky, Fletcher said making him a qualifying offer might possibly have “made him eligible for a one-way contract. We wanted to keep the option open of a two-way contract.” So, by not qualifying him, Fletcher said he still held out hope that he could reach agreement on a two-way deal and keep Olecky in the fold. Fletcher said it was important for the franchise to have as much financial flexibility as possible heading into free agency.

And of no particular consequence to the Aeros but might be of interest if you were a fan of his, John Lammers has not been qualified by the Dallas Stars organization, so he, too, will become a UFA on Wednesday.

Round 3, Game #3 -- Aeros vs. Moose -- Photos Part II

A few more from game 3, Clayton Stoner.

Marco Rosa

Mitch Love

Cory Schneider

Tony Hrkac

Matt Kassian and Maxime Fortunus

Mitch Love

Robbie Earl

All Photos:Fred Trask

Round 2, Game #7: Aeros vs. Milwaukee -- The Pretender Edition

“If you can’t get yourself ready for a game like this,” Clayton Stoner said after Wednesday’s morning skate, “then you don’t deserve to be here.”

Guess what? The Aeros were ready, and they deserved to be here.

The Milwaukee Admirals came out hard, slamming guys into the boards and hitting any guy in the dark green shirts any chance they got. But the Aeros were ready. And when it counted, it was the Aeros who did the actual damage. They didn’t slam Admirals into the board. They hurt them in a different fashion.

They scored goals.

Corey Locke, the team’s leading playoff scorer (and one of the AHL leaders) with 13 points (7-6=13) got a pass from Max Noreau and Locke got the puck past Milwaukee goalie Drew MacIntyre to make the score 1-0 at the 3:34 mark of the first. The point was Locke’s 14th of the playoffs, but the team barely had time to celebrate before Krys Kolanos got a pass from Marco Rosa, and Kolanos took the puck and buried it in the net to make the score 2-0 at 4:23.

And just like that, the Aeros had Game Seven won.

“I think it was pretty big,” Corey Locke said of his goal. “Especially after we got beat pretty bad and got shut out. The [Admirals had] confidence and MacIntyre’s got confidence. I just got a lucky bounce. It went to the net, it hit me, and it landed right in front of me. I just put it over the net. It was just kind of the bounce we needed, and we weren’t getting those in Games Five and Six.”

Coach Kevin Constantine agreed, calling those first two goals the key to the victory.

“I felt…the guys with the ability to get some things offensively done would have to get it done,” Constantine said. “And Krys Kolanos and Corey Locke got our first two goals. And not to take away from the other goals, but those are huge. When you lose seven-nothing, you need something good to happen early to remind yourself you’re okay. So those two goals by those two guys were just big, big, big. I tip my hat to those two guys to put our confidence level back to where we could compete in a Game Seven.”

The Aeros did more than compete. They dominated, playing perhaps their best all-around game of the playoffs. The defense was, for the most part, solid in front of Anton Khudobin (the defense did let Khudobin down on the Admirals second goal), Khudobin was solid, and the offense was good, keeping the puck in the Milwaukee zone for large parts of the game.

With Houston up 2-1 in the second, Clayton Stoner scored what proved to be the game-winner at 14:21 on the power play to make the score 3-1. And after Milwaukee scored in the closing minutes of the second to make it 3-2 and give a slight momentum shift, Bryan Lundbohm, getting a great pass from Tony Hrkac – who faked out Drew MacIntyre – buried the puck at 5:30 of the third to put the Aeros up 4-2.

Milwaukee would not challenge after that. And Corey Locke, who started the scoring, ended the scoring, getting the empty-net goal at 18:09 to make the final score 5-2.

“It’s awesome,” Stoner summed up at the end. “I can’t really describe the feeling. The game’s just so intense. Everyone’s up on the bench the whole game, and every guy’s just yelling and pulling for each other. And when it comes to the end of the game, when that final buzzer rang we felt great because we knew that we gave it all.”

Gave it all they did, because they were ready.

SOME MISCELLANEOUS GAME NOTES:

One of the keys of the game was Anton Khudobin. Khudobin was on top of the world last Thursday night after he shut out the Admirals on his birthday. But he got pulled early from Games Five and Six. And with Nolan Schaefer available, there was some thought that Kevin Constantine would turn to the veteran. Instead, Constantine went with Khudobin yet again.

And the move paid off.

"It felt good," Khudobin said. "It was a kind of pressure, Game Seven. For the second time in my life. But we scored right away two goals, so there wasn't any pressure on me any longer."

Khudobin said he spent the past several days working with the coaches on his play. "I talked to our coaches, and they told me what I did wrong."

One thing Khudobin did, which the rest of the team also said they did, was forget Monday night. "I forgot about everything," Khudobin said. "I just focused on this game."

Constantine didn't think Khudobin was at his best in the game, but in the end, that didn't matter. "The bottom line is he got it done," Constantine said. "I thought he battled with the puck a little. I didn’t think the saves came easy to him. I thought he was kind of fighting all night….He’s had two game sevens under pressure where he’s given up two goals in each, and I think that’s pretty good."

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The goal that probably put the game away was scored by Byran Lundbohm at 5:30 of the third to make the score 4-2. It's been a bit of a frustrating season for Lundbohm as he battled injuries for most of the season and sought to find his place on the team. But he's been a surprising playoff presence. So it was nice to see Lundbohm get one of the goals.

"It was obviously pretty sweet," Lundbohm said. "Especially doing it against a team I played for before. I wanted to just keep myself in good shape and ready, and I’ve been really given a good opportunity, and I’m making the most out of it. It’s definitely exciting. We’ve got a special team here."

The special team concept is one that runs through the locker room as everybody says the best part was winning it for the rest of the guys.

"It’s great to win with these guys," Locke said.

"That’s a group of guys in there that really care," Constantine said. "They really want to be successful. And they got it done."

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The Aeros made AHL history with this victory. They became the seventh team in AHL history to win two Game Sevens in one playoffs. And with the Game Seven victory, Kevin Constantine himself went back in the books as, once again, he took an underdog into the opposition building and won a Game Seven.

When asked how he pulls this off, Constantine kind of shrugged. "I don’t know why," he said. "I don’t know how, really."

And with the win, the Aeros are now 6-1 all-time in Game Sevens, and they are 4-0 in Calder Cup Game Sevens. And all four of the AHL wins have come on the road. And it should be noted that, once again, the team leading after the first period won the game. In this series, the team to lead after the first period was 7-0.

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Oh, I just feel the need to note that I, and I only of the T3I staff, picked the Aeros to win this series. So there.

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The Admirals came out on the ice just before the start of the game to some music from the Foo Fighters. Specifically, they came out to "The Pretender." And as they played that song, I couldn't help but wonder if they had picked the wrong song, because, in many ways, if you listen to the song, the lyrics are more descriptive of the Aeros.

So, to play us out, here's Foo Fighters with "The Pretender."

Foo Fighters - New Music - More Music Videos

More Notes From The Morning Skate and a Quick Look Inside the Numbers

“If you can’t get yourself ready for a game like this,” Clayton Stoner said, “then you don’t deserve to be here.”

Here is Milwaukee. The game is Game Seven of a best of seven series with the Milwaukee Admirals.

“I’m excited,” Stoner said. “This is the kind of thing you dream about when you’re younger. Playing these big games. Hopefully the best team wins. It’s just exciting to be part of it.”

The Aeros looked a bit different out on the ice this morning. There wasn’t all of the laughing and joking of Saturday’s Game Five skate. The guys are all smiles and they rib each other a bit. But the focus is a little different. And after the disasters were games five and six, perhaps the focus should be a little different, especially after Monday night’s 7-0 disaster.

“Right after the game, we said it’s over with,” Stoner said. “We weren’t real proud of the way we played. But some games go like that. It’s hockey. We got over it quickly. We went to dinner afterwards and we talked about Game Seven and not Game Six.”

The Aeros have been a maddening team to watch this season. Offensively, this has been one of the most talented teams the Aeros have sent out on the ice in years. And Krys Kolanos, Corey Locke, and Jesse Schultz have brought a scoring mentality to the team. But there have been stretches when the offense has backfired and accomplished nothing. Then the offense has been on fire but the defense has let down. For the first half of the season, the team couldn’t keep a lead, but the team would never quit and could score in the third to steal the game.

So I don’t really know what to tell you to expect tonight. I’ve got no clue.

Anton Khudobin is starting at goal with Nolan Schaefer prepared to come off of the bench to back him up. Barry Brust is also now skating with the team, but he won’t suit up tonight. Khudobin has shown in these playoffs that he can play some really fantastic hockey. He’s also been awful at times, and in six games against Milwaukee, he’s completed only three. And if he starts out poorly again, Schaefer will probably come out to relieve him.

“It’s tough not having played for five weeks,” Schaefer said about his play on Monday night. “My first full practice was the morning skate with the team, but it’s the playoffs, and we have to rise to the occasion. And I didn’t really do that….Anton’s got the start tonight. I know he’ll do well.”

“The bottom line is it’s just down to a winner-take-all situation,” head coach Kevin Constantine said. “We just want to stick with our plan and stick with what’s worked for us all year.”

What do the stats indicate for tonight?

The Aeros are 5-1 all-time in playoff game sevens, including 3-0 in Calder Cup games. So the Aeros have that in their favor. The Aeros are 6-2 in the playoffs when they score first, and they are 5-0 when they lead after the first and 2-1 if they are tied after one period. But if the Aeros are losing after two periods, they’re 1-5.

So it’s pretty much the standard things that I’ve been writing this series: the Aeros need to get the first goal, and they need to have the lead after one period. If they can do that, they should win.

Krys Kolanos will be a game-time decision. He didn’t skate this morning, but it’s my understanding that he doesn’t always make the morning skate. Tomas Mojzis didn’t travel with the team, and he’s in Houston.

So what happens tonight? Hell if I know. The Aeros have been consistent at one thing this year. And that’s being inconsistent. With their play the past two games, it looks like they should lose, but then again, the Aeros have sometimes played their best hockey when it’s thought they’ll be awful.

All that I know is I predicted the Aeros to win in six games. That didn’t happen. But I’ll stick with my prediction that the Aeros win. I’ll probably be wrong. But I don’t back off my predictions.

SOME MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:

I'm listening to the radio up here in Milwaukee, and apparently, according to Milwaukee management who were just on the radio here, Krys Kolanos was a healthy scratch on Monday. So it's nice to see that they don't know what the hell they're talking about. I confirmed during the game on Monday that he was injured, and I reconfirmed at the skate this morning.

Also, according to Milwaukee sports radio, if the Admirals win tonight, they're going to the Calder Cup finals.

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The definitive Aeros scratches for tonight are Tomas Mojzis, Jesse Schultz, John Adams, Barry Brust, and Matt Climie. The Milwaukee exec who was on the radio getting the facts wrong about Kolanos also thought that it was funny the Aeros had to have four goalies on the roster. Yeah, it's a real laugh riot that the team's two top goalies got hurt at the end of the season.

And the new guy might be in town with the team, but he didn't skate with them this morning.

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And one further thing. I watched Game Six on AHL Live Monday night, and I was a bit disgusted by some of the chatter on the chat room. So I'd like to make a plea for a little civility during the game. There's no need to be making fun of the way people look or calling them fat and getting into flame wars.

I think we're all adults and we should act like adults. Of course, I won't be watching the game on AHL Live so I've got no clue as to what will happen on there anyway. But I just wanted to make the suggestion.

Round 2, Game #3 -- Aeros vs. Milwaukee -- Photos

We'll start with the Krys Kolanos goal. He had the whole net to look at as the puck came off of MacIntyre right to him.

Here you can see the puck (circled) is in and between the legs of Robbie Earl.Some celebration, Kolanos style.

A huge hit on Ryan Jones by Justin Falk. The stick between the legs of Jones is his own.

Some Clayton Stoner, with playoff beard for Ms Conduct and her fans.

Late in the 1st period Anton Khudobin had a huge stop on a Cal O'Reilly break away.

Another Anton Khudobin stop in the 2nd period.

And the look from Anton as he talks to the crowd as the #1 star.

More Photos tonight.

All Photos:Fred Trask

Just in case you missed it on Aeros.com

There are important things during the playoffs, like being fierce and winning games and kicking ass. Scores and stats and injuries and strategies.

And then there are beards. Go check out Scott Henninger's write-up on the history of playoff beards and progress shots of the guys and their furry chins. Never mind that some of our favorite fellas are scratches and aren't pictured, but we'll take what we can get.

They encourage you to send your favorites to online@aeros.com, so while you do that, I'll remain all impartial and stuff. But I will say, we're just a Stone's throw from game 3. I know you all would Love to see those beards get a lot longer, as that would Beaud well for a Calder Cup.

Is Kass rocking a mohawk? Badass.

And kissy face Khudobin... totally full of win. Are you guys nuts?

Some clean-up from last night, with photos!

Woke up this morning and thought, "Wow, still can't believe they won."

Also woke up to an email from friend of T3I and local photographer, Chris Jerina, with incredible photos from the game last night. Here's the link and here are a few teasers that will embiggen if you click them:

For CC, Beaudoin

Dimples says No

KK has his fierce on... rawr!

Also, Eric over at Admirals Short Shifts was nice enough to run over to the Aeros room and get some quotes from Stoner and Constantine for us.

STONER:

Q: Obviously, this was a big win for you guys
A: We felt like we wanted to take one of these two coming into Milwaukee. We went to game 7 last series, we were a little more fresher. You know, we just finished playing. We're just trying to stick with what we do and we're lucky to get 2 points.

Q: The dust-up with Yonkman really set the tone, and you guys ended up scoring because of that.
A: I Can't say I was ready to drop the gloves there. I didn't see that coming. It worked out in our favor, we went on the 5-on-3 and I'm glad the guys capitalized.

Q: were you hoping that would happen - it looked like you didn't want a part of it.
A: No, I was in his face and he was in my face. You know, that stuff happens a lot in the playoffs. I didn't expect him to jump me like that.


CONSTANTINE

Q: How big of a win is this?
A: I thought this was the only game, I felt, that we might have to catch them rusty a little. I think their game will get better and better. I just think it's hard to play when you haven't played for a while. I was hoping we'd have a little momentum from game 7 that might have a carryover effect and they might have a little rust. I thought this was a really really key game. I think it will get harder to be honest with you from here on out because now we're a little tired and they're not rusty. So I thought that was an important game for us.

Q: You probably can't expect too many five on threes that early in the game.
A: Everybody's trying to mark their turf in the first game. We're fortunate that we came out on the power play side of that thing and getting a goal early is always important - so it really helped us.

Q: In your mind what was the difference maker tonight?
A: Probably scoring first. In all honesty I though we looked more nervous in the first than the second. To get through that nerves, you know that nervous first period with the lead I think that was really helpful. Getting through the 1st period and getting our heads into the series was the biggest thing for us.

Gotta say, the Milwaukee-area folks sure are working up the good karma on behalf of their team. Thanks Eric and Chris!!!

Check out the Ads side of things at the Ads blog. Also, here's the Chron write-up and my write-up for PHN with my all-time favorite lead.

Round 1, Game #5 -- Aeros vs. Peoria -- Photos

Peoria came out hitting everything that moved in this one. Here you can see Clayton Stoner getting one in on Nicholas Drazenovic.

I thought Bryan Lundbohm had another good game.

Anton Khudobin got the win but he looked unsteady at times. Here he came way out for a poke check on Trent Whitfield that was a near disaster. Gotta love the effort though.
Khudobin came up huge on this stop of Yan Stastny. The Rivermen were shorthanded when Stastny got the break away on the Aeros power play unit.
Here you can see the kind of juicy rebounds Anton gave up all night. This puck went back out almost to the blue line.

Here is a nice close up shot of Anton.

Mitch Love dropped the gloves with Tyson Strachan after a Aeros "near goal" in the 2nd period.

Finally the Aeros Matt Beaudoin scores on the power play to cut the Peoria lead to 1.

And the celebration after.

This is the Robbie Earl goal to knot the game at 2.

With the score tied at 2 in OT, and trying to kill a 2 man Peoria advantage, Anton Khudobin was frustrated by Yan Stastny and pushes Stastny's helmet down over his eyes
The Rivermen were unable to score but Anton still gave the crowd heart attacks by continuing to cough up juicy rebounds and failing to control the puck. But he did the important thing and kept the puck out of the net.
Finally Max Noreau shoots the game winning shot. Here you can see what it looked like for Manny Legace and Maxime Noreau.

Here you can see the puck beat Legace glove side and the game is over.

It was a huge win in a poorly played game but the Aeros had no quit in them.

All Photos:Fred Trask

Aeros vs San Antonio 4/12: Welcome to The Krys Kolanos Show

“For our psyche, it was definitely important to get a win,” Brandon Rogers said after the game. “It’s kind of nice to have a positive.”

The Aeros have been in a downward spiral this past month, and they were only 2-6-1-1 for their past 10 games. So while maybe their were some of you out there who were hoping the Aeros would lose this game so they would end up facing the Milwaukee Admirals in the first round of the playoffs instead of the Peoria Rivermen. The Aeros felt differently. They wanted this win.

And while it wasn’t easy, needing a Krys Kolanos empty-netter to guarantee the 6-4 win over the San Antonio Rampage, the Aeros still got the much needed win that their psyche so sorely needed.

The Aeros offense, especially in the first period, was turning over the puck left and right while not converting on scoring opportunities. And while they ended up not really having many opportunities for the rest of the game, they did get much better at converting. Especially one Krys Kolanos.

The scoring started fourteen seconds into the second period when Bryan Lundbohm virtually stole the puck from San Antonio goalie Josh Tordjman and buried it in the net. Now this being the Aeros, the Rampage were able to tie the game about a minute later as they got a power play goal on Anton Khudobin at 1:16.

Then the Krys Kolanos show got started.

At 7:49 of the second, just seconds into a power play, Kolanos fired a laser of a shot from up high to make the score 2-1. The goal came so fast that the Toyota Center video screen was still showing the Aeros logo as the game was coming back from a break. Then at 14:11, Jesse Schultz broke toward the Rampage goal with Kolanos coming up the other side. Schultz kept the puck as long as possible, and just as Tordjman committed, slipped the puck over to Kolanos who made the shot and got the score to 3-1.

Within seconds of the second Kolanos goal, Wyatt Smith made the score 3-2 on a play where it looked like Khudobin just lost track of the puck which was hanging in the air in front of him. At 18:34, Brandon Rogers fired a pass to Matt Beaudoin who tipped in the puck, and as the second period ended, the score was 4-2.

Jesse Schultz made the score 5-2 Houston on a breakaway at 9:22 of the third, but the Rampage, with some help from the Houston defense, got back into the game, and with a minute left in the game, the score was 5-4. But with the San Antonio net empty, Benoit Pouliot got the puck and started skating toward it with just a defender coming with him. Pouliot probably could have buried the puck at any point, but he waited for Kolanos to get in on the play then passed it across, allowing Kolanos to get the goal, and the hat trick, with only 15 seconds remaining in the game.

The next stop for Houston is Peoria, a team they’ve seen a lot in the past month. But now they’ve got some momentum and a much-need lift of the psyche. “We’ve been in a bit of a losing skid,” Clayton Stoner said. “Going into the playoffs on winning note was a huge lift for the team.”

As to how large a lift is something we’ll have to wait until Wednesday to find out.

SOME MISCELLANEOUS GAME NOTES:

The win moved the Aeros past Rockford and into the third seed for the playoffs. As such, they get to face the Peoria Rivermen, one of the hottest teams in the league for the past month or so. These teams played each other eight times, with each team winning four games, and with three of the games going into the shootout. The teams have played each four times in the past month, and Peoria holds the edge in those games with a 2-1-0-1 record.

“We’ve got a pretty good read on this team,” Clayton Stoner said. ‘We’ve played them a lot the past month, so we know their tendencies. They’re a hard working team, and they play very physical. So we better show up physically.”

“Ever since they got Legace they’ve been a great team,” Kevin Constantine noted. ‘They were a good team before that, but he’s made them a better team. They’re probably the hottest team in our division down the stretch. So it should be hopefully a good series.”

Game one of the series is Wednesday night at 7:00 in Peoria. Game two is Friday night at 7:00, also in Peoria. Games three through five are supposed to be in Houston, but until the Houston Rockets get their playoff status settled, the dates and times for those games will be up in the air. Games six and seven are scheduled for Peoria on Saturday April 25 and game seven is scheduled for Monday April 27.

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The goalie situation is still up in the air. Constantine says that Barry Brust is definitely out for the first round, and Nolan Schaefer has not yet been cleared to play. As for Wednesday night’s game one, it’s possible that Schaefer could play. “We hope that,” Constantine said. “We just don’t know. It’s still a day-by-day thing….we really, really don’t know.”

Brandon Rogers isn’t concerned about who plays in goal. And he feels that the problems the goalies, especially Anton Khudobin have been having lately, are more the part of poor defensive play in front of them than it is the fault of the goalies.

“In fairness to those guys,” Rogers said. “I think they’ve done a pretty good job all year. Anton’s come in and played great for us, he’s had some defensive breakdowns in front of him that have cost him some goals and even wins.”

As to whether Schaefer or Khudobin plays, Rogers says it doesn’t matter: “We have complete faith in him or Schaefer, whoever’s going to be in there.”

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The one thing the Aeros have this time around for the playoffs that they didn’t have the last time is Krys Kolanos. And the team appears to play markedly better hockey when he is with the team. He finished the season with 51 points (31-20=51) in just 45 games. It’s fascinating to think what his numbers, and the team’s record, would like if he had been here for all 80 games.

“It’s definitely nice to have a scoring punch you count on,” Rogers said of Kolanos. “Obviously last year we didn’t have that. We struggled to score in the playoffs. This year we don’t have that problem so it’s all going to come down playing team defense and everybody committing to keeping the puck out of our net because we know if we have the chance we’ll score.”

Kolanos finished the regular season by getting five goals in his final two games, including getting a hat trick tonight, the team’s only hat trick at Toyota Center this year, and the team’s second hat trick of the season (Matt Beaudoin accomplished the feat in Iowa on February 14).

Corey Locke finished the season as the team’s leading scorer, getting two more assists tonight to finish 79 points (25-54=79). Locke finished the season in a tie for seventh place in scoring in the AHL.

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Zooperstars? Seriously? Zooperstars? That’s really the best you could for between period entertainment? Well, I guess it could’ve been worse in that the Aeros could have gone with the 20 choirs singing “God Bless America.” But still.

Here’s an idea. You’ve got the Lady Dynamics, so use them. Let them do dance routines on the ice between periods. You do on the occasional weeknight game when nobody’s there to watch, so why not let them strut their stuff when there’s a big crowd? I know that I would definitely get more enjoyment out of that.

Aeros v. Rampage - 4/10 - Dueling Themes

There were two parallel themes for me last night:

• Brusty was back to his old self
  
• Kolanos cured my spinal meningitis

First, Brusty. Y'all know I have kind of a soft spot for him. I love to watch him play. Hell, I love to just watch him skate from the net to the bench and back during a timeout. He's just got a way about him, a bit of swagger. Like, "Yeah, I'll stop your pucks, and along the way I'll give all the fans heart attacks and maybe nut a guy or two. Whassup, bitches?"

So, I was delighted to see him back in net and even more delighted that he seemed to be playing very much like his old self. The timing was back, the crazy saves were back, the doing-whatever-ya-gotta-do-to-stop-the-puck was back.

Oh and that puck moving. *swoon* How about that feed from the top of the crease all the way up to the opposing blue line to Kolanos' tape for a breakaway opportunity? And less than 3 minutes later, stopping the Spina breakaway with the toe of his pad. Oh sweet Buddha. That was good stuff.

And then... big slide across the goal mouth in the splits and it's adios Barry. I knew as soon as he didn't pop right back up that he'd busted something up on that move. It looked painful and obviously, it was. And with that, my Happy Barry Fun Time was ovah. *sob*

It's tough for a goalie to come in so late in the game and Dimples made some phenomenal saves in relief, but then left a big ol' 5-hole for that regulation goal that just bounced in between his legs. I don't even remember how the OT goal went in, but you could feel it coming. It was over in a blink. And now we have a goalie situation again. Hey, Aeros, if you need someone, I know a bunch of goalies. :)

Next, Kolanos. Okay, he didn't really heal my spinal meningitis, but I'm kind of a hypochondriac (okay, a really bad one actually), and here I am as the game is starting, with a stiff neck and a sudden fever, and I'm thinking through the whole first and second period, "Great, I hope I can make it through the game before I have to go to the hospital."

I also spent those two periods writing unpleasant things about Kolanos in my notes. For instance, I wrote that Kolanos was playing like the good players on my novice league team play, which is essentially at half speed because they're so much better than the rest of us, they can't play full speed or none of the new people will ever get to touch the puck. Making lazy plays, lazy passes, "I'll turn on the jets when I must."

My second note about him was, "Kolanos is pissing me the hell off." I'm not sure what instigated that note but it suffices to say, I wasn't exactly rushing out to buy a ticket to ride the K-Train, if you know what I mean.

But then the third period starts and right away, Kolanos swats the puck in behind Goehring, who had committed to a shot from Pouliot that turned into a pass to Kolanos. Nice teamwork by the cowboys! And, magically, I'm starting to feel better. The fever is letting up. The neck isn't bothering me so much.

[insert 18 more minutes of play in which Barry gets hurt and Khudobin lets the go-ahead goal in]

And then Kolanos gets his chance on the wrap-around and Goehring can't get over to stop it.

And with that, the Aeros get their point and we get extra hockey and my fever is gone. So it was either Kolanos who cured me, or it was the chocolate ice cream I had between the second and third periods. (For $5.50, it f**king better cure spinal meningitis.)

A few other notes:

• The reffing wasn't perfect but I thought they did a great job keeping order in a game that could easily get out of hand. The guys did a great job of not letting San Antonio get to them, too. Though really, I thought the Aeros played tougher in general.
  
• What's up with Albers? He had a rough game, I thought. Don't recall seeing him a whole lot later in the game, so either he got it together or they let him sit.
• Falk improves more every game. This was a high stakes game and he made good decisions with the puck all night.
• My Super Secret Star of the Game goes to Stoner. I can't help myself: I love the C on that guy. I thought he should have been the captain all season. And when the team needed to just get the puck to the net late in the third, there he was, blazing up the ice, getting the puck deep. That's what I'm talkin' about.

A few of my favorite things: Brusty and Stoner. Photo by Fred Trask

• Oh yeah, and to those who poo-pooed my suggestion that this team was in utterly desperate need of the Wild sending Kolanos back... told ya so. Thank you, Riser.
  

Off to San Antonio later today. Beaver Nuggets, ahoy! Though I'm already dreading those ZOOPERSTARS tomorrow. Keep those inflatable freaks away from me.

Aeros vs Peoria 3/22 - Game Photos

The game started off with a vicious hit on Tomas Mojzis by Peoria's Ryan Reaves.

It looked clean but it got all of Mojzis and he went down in an ugly manner. Tomas has really been getting pounded since he's returned from injury and this one looked like it hurt.Defensive partner Clayton Stoner thought Reaves took a little too much liberty in hitting Mojzis so he dropped the gloves to teach him a little respect.

Nolan Schaefer made some more big stops on the night.

Corey Locke started off the scoring on the night as he got Manny Legace all twisted up on this one. The crowd seemed to enjoy it.

The was plenty of physical play and I beleive it was Maxim Noreau who knocked out the glass with a big check on a Peoria player. The crew had to go to work and put the glass back in place.

Marco Rosa had an awesome tip in front of Manny Legace to put the Aeros up 2-0.

And he was pretty excited after it went in.

Corey Locke scored to make it 3-1 Aeros and the Rivermen seem to have some kind of problem with the celebration (which was quite mild) and Cam Paddock decided to give Matt Beaudoin a shot. This started a scrum and ended with Beaudoin and Danny Richmond fighting behind the net.

I'll have more photos later this week.
All Photos:Fred Trask