The Aeros Lose In The Shootout Again (Yes, I Know, Shocking)

When I was a kid there was this cartoon called The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show which was a Flintstone's spin-off centered on the teenage kids of Fred and Barney.  One of the characters on the show was this kid called Schleprock, who literally walked around with a black cloud hanging over his head.

I bring this up because I'm convinced there's a black cloud of bad luck hanging over Toyota Center whenever the Aeros are playing there.  Like tonight where, once again, the Aeros lost a game in the shootout.  The Aeros have won just one game in the shootout this season, and that win came on the road, in Peoria.  This time, the Aeros lost 4-3 in the shootout, but unlike in games past, the Aeros actually were able to make shots in the shootout -- Casey Wellman and Kris Foucault were able to hit their shots -- but the San Antonio Rampage were able make three, including one that went through the net and was originally called a no-goal but, after consultation, was changed to a goal.

John Torchetti wasn't too sure about the call however, and after the game, he stormed out of the locker room to the ice, where he had them bring him the net for his own personal inspection.  He then had a nice, calm chat with the officiating crew -- way, way, way more calmer than the little discussion that Lane Lambert had with them after Game Five last season.

So of course we asked him about that goal, and about losing again in the shootout.

"You know what, it’s over," he said.  "That’s it.  I can see a puck going through the net on a point shot, but on a shoot-out, there’s no velocity?  It’s hard to do.  I can see if [the netting's] loose, but I just wedged it to get through a puck.  But whatever, it’s a point."

[For what it's worth, when we asked him, Matt Hackett said it was a goal, and the TV replays we were able to see off of the San Antonio TV replay monitors also seemed to indicate that it was a goal.]

The shootout wouldn't have mattered if the Aeros would have been able to hold on to their 3-1 second period lead.  But they couldn't.  There were multiple special teams breakdowns, and for a while, it seemed as if the Aeros were just content to let Casey Wellman do all of the offensive damage -- and welcome back Mr. Wellman.

And thus ended another three-in-three weekend.  The Aeros were unable to get a single win, but they were able to get a point in each game.  All three games went into overtime, and the Aeros were mixing and matching the roster at all times due to the Friday morning Wild call-ups.  And Torchetti offered up praise for the play of some of the newbies.

"Kids that come up, they want to come up," he said.  "[Chris] Clackson’s got a brother that plays in Chicago, so it’s in the bloodlines.  [Mike] McKenzie’s done a great job just working hard and just competing every night, and that’s what the game comes down to."

And as for the return of Wellman, Torchetti once again gushed with praise.

"He just plays hard.  He’s just come down and he’s accepted his role being sent back, and he’s just gone back to where he was.  And that’s kudos to him.  It shows you what kind of character he has as a person."

But in the end, the point is that the Aeros were only able to get a point out of a game where they appeared set to get two points.  It's a game where, once again, they failed to get the win at home.  Maybe this is just their Schleprock season when it comes to playing games at home.  Yet things could be worse.  They're still getting points after all.  Not two points, but one.  And one's better than none.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:

This was the seventh straight Aeros game decided by one goal, and the fourth of sixth games to go into overtime.  They are 3-1-1-2 for this seven game stretch.

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Marco Scandella appeared to take a shot off of his knee late in the third period.  He was barely able to make it back to the bench, and immediately went to the locker room from which he did not return.  We asked Torchetti about his status after the game, but it was still too early to know anything.

And for the curious, Cody Almond is suffering from a lower body injury and Jeff Penner is suffering from an upper body injury.

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Yes, this game was on television.  San Antonio television, so it was probably available on one of the various Fox Sports Southwest channels.  No, I don't know why it wasn't being televised here, and no, I don't know why Aeros games seem to have vanished from that thing known as a television.  The only games that make it on TV are those when they play San Antonio, and that means getting the San Antonio call of the game.

Notes, Quotes & Observations from Game Five, Houston v. Binghamton: Or The Someone's Going To Get Fined Edition

If the Aeros would have played in game four like they played game five tonight, then it's quite possible the Aeros would be the Calder Cup champs right now. Instead, they're down 3-2 and coming back to Houston tonight on what has to be a rather depressing charter flight.

The Aeros dominated the action in every single period of the game, outshooting, outhustling, and outplaying the Senators in just about every aspect possible. Yet tonight, playing an outstanding game, the Aeros still lost by the score of 4-2. But along with losing the game, they possibly lost Jared Spurgeon for the rest of the series with a hit that saw him prone on the ice for several minutes while trainer Jody Green worked on him.

Corey Locke put the Senators up at the 9:19 mark of the first when the Senators took advantage of, you guessed it, a turnover. Jean-Michel Daoust tied the game at 11:08 when he scored on a wraparound, but at 12:17, Binghamton went back up awhen Erik Condra got free on a breakaway. But Daoust came through again, punching the puck past Robin Lehner at the 19:54 mark of the first period.

The Aeros would not score again, though they had numerous chances. But the Aeros fell victim to some questionable officiating as well as their own stupidity, and when they fell behind 3-2 on a Zach Smith power play goal with nine seconds left in the second period, it was obvious the Aeros were going to lose.

So now the Aeros return to Houston down 3-2 and having possily lost two key players, Cody Almond and Jared Spurgeon, to injuries for the rest of the series. But it's doubtful the Aeros are going to play any more stinkers like they did in game four. The question though is whether the Aeros are going to be able to take this to a game seven. And that's a question we'll get the answer to on Tuesday night.

Now on to fun the stuff, notes, quotes, and observations.

1. The AHL, as I discovered today, likes to throw fits when you criticize the competence of the officiating. So I'm not going to slam the officials. I actually thought they called a better game tonight than last night. But just because I was a bit more happy with the zebras doesn't mean that the Aeros were happy with the officiating.

Mike Yeo's generally a pretty levelheaded guy, and he doesn't generally make statements that can be seen as criticisms of other teams or of officiating. But someone removed his filter tonight.

"If you didn’t ask me about [the officiating], I was going to ask you if you wanted to ask me about it," he said. "But certainly we took some penalties we shouldn’t have taken. But at the same time, I think that some were either called that shouldn’t have been called, or I think that there were some penalties that should have been called that were not called.

"The one thing that you ask is don’t just manage the game. As soon as it’s 4-2 in power plays you know that they’re going to call one. At the same time, we’re dominating puck possession time, and I think that, minus last game, we’ve dominated puck possession time in the entire series, yet they have 21 power plays to our 17. And we’re not known as being an undisciplined team. That’s not because we’re being undisciplined, they’re doing the same stuff after the whistle that we’re doing, both teams are doing that stuff. But the play between the whistles, when you’re actually playing, when you have the puck that many times, your team should be on the power play more than it should be short-handed."

But wait, there's more. Here's what he had to say being asked about Jared Spurgeon's injury in the second period.

"That’s one we’ll have to watch again and see if that was worthy of a call. If we lose a defensemen there, that’s tough. Same thing with Prosser in the third period when a guy leaves his feet. If it’s a penalty it’s a penalty. Doesn’t matter the situation, call it."

2. Jared Spurgeon's injury looked rather ugly to me, worse than Cody Almond's last night. I didn't see the hit. But even after he was down along the board it appeared that one of the Senators kept going at him. He lay on his stomach for awhile, then was able to turn over on his back, which is how he stayed for awhile while Jody Green worked on him. He eventually stood and was essentially pulled off the ice by Green and one of his teammates as he didn't really skate and really appeared to be favoring his left leg.

And of course, it was at the time of this injury, when the injury was obvious because the trainer was out on the ice and looking him over, that the Binghamton fans chose to start shouting out their taunts at Matt Hackett. A real classy move. We noted this on twitter, and we were informed that "hey, we clapped when he went off the ice."

3. The officiating isn't the reason the Aeros lost this game. They lost for the old familiar reasons. Turnovers and good goal tending from the opposition. Who knows what can be done about the turnovers? That just seems to be the team's modus operandi. And for the most part, Yeo was happy with the team's play, being really upset only about Binghamton's final goal.

"I was [happy with our play] up until about seven minutes left in the game, and then their fourth goal is a result of us forcing a play and not paying attention to detail the right way," he said. "We gave them that one. Otherwise, I think you could see five-on-five, we play that way and they feel pretty confident ourselves.'

4. DiSalvatore is confident in the team's ability to win this series. Especially if they keep playing the way they played tonight.

"Absolutely. Absolutely," he said when asked if they could win the Cup. "We’re extremely confident right now. More so now that we put forth a good effort again. After we felt like we kind of let go a little bit in game four. What we did tonight was just another affirmation that if we put forth a good effort, we dominate. We felt like the balance was more to our favor as far as chances were going tonight. So we feel like if we do that, we’re going to have a 70-30 game as far as game six is concerned. We have the utmost confidence that we can bring this thing home."

5. The stars of this game were the fourth line of J.M Daoust, Pascal Morency, and Carson McMillan. Daoust first saw playoff action toward the end of the Hamilton series, and Morency saw his first action of the playoffs. But together with McMillan they set the tone of the play, controlled the action, and made pests of themselves.

"Those guys are a tough line to play against," Yeo said. "They’re looking for every opportunity to finish every check. They’re going to force you to go back – they’re d-men to go back – that’s the type of game that we play. That’s the type of game that we want to play. Over and over and over again. They pay attention to detail, and when it’s time to defend, they defend the right way. But when they get the puck, it’s a matter of how quick can we get to the defensive zone and how many times can we make their D go back and force them to play in their own zone.

"When they get to the offensive zone, I like the way that they manage the puck. I like the way that they get the cycle game going. Again, they don’t have a mentality where I’m going to turn every touch into the goal. Because of that, they end up getting a lot of scoring chances. They manage the puck well. They force their team to defend, and that’s when you end up getting the good chances."

6. The Cody Almond injury forced some line shuffling. Casey Wellman was moved back to the first line with Chad Rau joining Robbie Earl and Jarod Palmer on the second line. The third line stayed intact, and then there were Daoust, McMillan, and Morency.

Yeo was adamant after the game that the shuffling was totally due to Almond's injury, and would not have come about because of the game four result.

"It was a direct result of Cody’s injury," he said. "Last game – we knew last game what it was, we didn’t show up, plain and simple. So we were comfortable with the lines we had, and we were going to give those guys a chance to respond. Cody couldn’t go, and when you’re looking for answers you go back to previous experiences and those guys had played together before and they’d done a nice job together, so we put those guys out."

7. The fourth line was outstanding tonight. There's no question about that. And while the overall effort was there, some of the Aeros still appeared to have a bit of an off-night. Yeo was asked his thoughts on Jed Ortmeyer and Patrick O'Sullivan and whether he could get more out of them than what he's been getting.

"You know what? Those guys have gotten us here. I’m not going to sit here and point fingers at anybody because those guys have gotten us to this opportunity. All our focus is on is winning the next game because if we do that, we’re playing in a game seven.

"And those guys again, not only their on-ice contributions, but when you’re dealing with young kids like we have year, their leadership, the way they help them prepare, the way they help them deal with the ups and downs, our leadership group and our core group has been phenomenal up to this point."

8. And unlike in Hamilton, where the Aeros had the series lead, this time, they're time they're the team fighting to stay alive. But DiSalvatore said that doesn't matter.

"At the end of the day, it’s still, you’re playing for your lives," he said. "We’ve put in two situations where we’ve played for our lives before, so we know how to handle that situation. What it comes down to is all of the preparation we put forth the entire year, that all comes to the forefront right now. We close our eyes, we see, we visualize what our game is, and we go out there and do it. That’s all we’ve got to worry about. We’ve got to manage our emotions, and we’ve just got to go out there and do what we’ve been doing all year."

9. I saw on Twitter today the Aeros have already sold over 7,000 tickets for game six. That's great news because there's nothing like a packed and loud arena for hockey. But one thing, let's keep things in check. I wasn't at game two, but I heard that a beer was tossed on the ice at one point. Let's not do that, especially not after the Binghamton fans littered their ice with trash after game three. And folks, this shouldn't need to be said, but if there's an injured opposing player on the ice, don't taunt. Be respectful.

10. And I've got a message from Jon DiSalvatore for those of you who will be turning up at Toyota Center: "Bring it! Bring it as loud and as crazy as you can bring it. We’re excited to get home and play for them. They’ve been great all year, and we expect them to be a huge boost for us coming home."

That's it from Binghamton. I've got a 7:50 a.m. flight out of Philadelphia, which means that I need to leave Binghamton in about two hours if I want to get there in time to deal with the rental return and the security line hassles. So everybody get some sleep while I deal with the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and I'll see everybody on Tuesday night at Toyota Center for game six.

Some Final Hamilton Thoughts and Story Links

Look in the background at Mike Yeo's smile.

Here's some links to some news stories from last night's game. Here's my Press story. Here is Heather's story from Pro Hockey News. And here is the write-up in the Chron from Andrew.

Chronicle columnist Jerome Solomon was also at last night's game, and he wrote a very good column on the game that really captures the essence of this team. So go read his, after you read mine.

Here's the story from the Hamilton side, especially their view of the DiSalvatore goal.

I don't know what more to say about that goal, though I think Andrew's working on something about Hamilton was robbed on it. I had a bad angle. I put up my one good photo of the sequence. And it looked to me as if Terry Koharski was actually in a good position to see everything that was happening. However, there have been countless times during this playoff run where it's looked like Hackett or MacIntyre or Jeremy Smith had control of the puck and play should be stopped but instead the officials let the whack-a-goalie approach go on and on and on and on, so why should it have suddenly changed for this game?

It's a shame that this all comes down to the officiating, but in a way, I think we all suspected that the guys in the zebra stripes would have too much of a say in how it all ended, and I hope that the AHL will use these playoffs to reevaluate how they assess officials because countless goals calls were missed, and penalties were missed while phantom calls were made.

As I said last night, I won't be around for games one and two of the Finals because of previously booked vacation plans. But I've been informed that our Milwaukee Bureau Chief, Chris Jerina will be around, so it looks like there'll be photos of those games after all. But I've booked my flights, hotel, etc., and contacted Binghamton media relations, and I will be there for games four and five.

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.

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.

Press Link and Goal/No-Goal Photos

First things first...Here's the link to the story in the mothership. Give it a read and show them you actually give a damn about hockey and hockey coverage in Houston. Send it to your friends. Send it to their friends. And so on, and so on, and so on...

As I said last night, I was down in the other corner for the goal/no-goal/goal scenario. Here's what I got. You can't see the shot. But you see the player reactions. And if you look in the last several photos, the goal judge appears to be reacting to the ref waiving it off. I don't know if he ever set off the lights. Some people said he did. Some say he didn't. I don't have a photo of it going off, but something sure set off the Toyota Center folks, and I doubt it was just the player reaction.