OK, I will save the sarcasm about the Aeros season-high tying two game winning streak. They have won three of four overall, and are playing much better defensively with players getting healthy and Matt Hackett getting all the playing time in goal.
Two of the wins are against the Rampage, the AHL's worst teams by points, including Friday's 2-1 win. Justin Fontaine scored the game winner on the power play late in the third period to get the two points. Fontaine is the team's player of the month so far with 12 points.
Since that 7-5 win on kids day in the Alamo City, the Aeros have not allowed more than two goals in the three games. Their scoring is down, too, and goals are going to be even harder to come by on Sunday when the Heat come to town with the league's best defense.
Like Heather reported yesterday, Kuemper will be back as the back-up Sunday, but it's Hack's net for the short term with no three games in three nights for a couple of weeks.
Photo by Darren Abate/pressphotointl.com
The Heat are the first of three great teams the Aeros will host on the homestand, as Oklahoma City comes to town next week for a pair of games at Toyota Center. The NHL lockout has afforded us to see a lot of decent talent so far this year, and OKC is loaded with NHL players. The Aeros are 2-1 against OKC this year, and you'd have to think we'll see more high scoring games next weekend.
The other bit of drama this weekend is former Aeros goalie Barry Brust COULD get the start with an AHL record on the line. He's about a period away from recording the league's longest shutout streak. Personally, I think the Heat will start him tonight against San Antonio, but maybe not. The Heat got a shutout Friday night at Texas, and they may ride the hot hand saving Brust for Sunday against the Aeros.
I think most of us are kind of hoping for the latter. And if you're the Aeros, I think you want a crack at trying to break up that streak. Either way, be sure to check the box scores tonight to see if Brust gets the call in San Antonio.
True to their mediocre form, the Aeros split their two games this weekend, losing at Rockford Friday and then winning the "home" game at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. Basically the story of the weekend was this:
Fontaine celebrates his goal on Sunday (Bruce Kluckholm)
Power play went 1-for-9 Friday, and the team whiffed on two 5-on-3s in a 2-1 loss. Then on Sunday, Matt Hackett essentially saved their bacon in an ugly win in front of more than 11,000 fans. The game Sunday wrapped up a stretch of nine games in the first 17 days of the month, and now the team will be off until Friday when they visit San Antonio.
After a fourth straight road game, the Aeros will kick of a stretch of three straight home games and five of six overall at Toyota Center.
Johan Larsson scored twice Sunday, and Justin Fontaine scored the other goal to secure a win.
Defensively, Hackett and the Aeros allowed fewer goals in the two games than they did in the 7-5 win over the Rampage last week. The Aeros improved to 3-4-0-2 in November. Not TOO bad, but they have fallen back in the pack in the Western Conference.
Hackett has started the last three games and seven of the last eight overall. He has all three wins, and Kuemper is 0-2 and has given up eight goals this month after a nice October.
Even though the power play failed them Friday, that unit has scored goals in four straight games (6x28) and has come through at least once in six of the nine games this month. And until yesterday, the PK unit has been mostly OK. Sunday marked the first time all the month they allowed more than one power play goal in the game.
Here are the highlights from the win on Sunday at the X.
Apparently I'm no longer on the Aeros PR email list, but since Heather and Andrew are on vacation, and since I still got the info, here's a list of re-signings the Wild just made, and a list of players they just assigned to the Aeros roster as the NHL gets ready for the lockout.
Re-signed by the Wild and assigned to the Aeros are:
1. C David McIntyre
2. RW Carson McMillan
3. RW Jarod Palmer
And also assigned by the Wild to the Aeros roster are:
1. D Drew Bagnall
2. C Joel Broda
3. D Jonas Brodin
4. RW Brett Bulmer
5. D Josh Caron
6. D Brian Connelly
7. RW Charlie Coyle
8. D Tyler Cuma
9. RW Justin Fontaine
10. LW Kris Foucault
11. D Chay Genoway
12. C Mikael Granlund
13. G Matt Hackett
14. D Colton Jobke
15. D Steven Kampfer
16. G Darcy Kuemper
17. LW Johan Larsson
18. D Kyle Medvec
19. C Zack Philips
20. C Chad Rau
21. D. Marco Scandella
22. LW Jason Zucker
Last night it was hard to tell just how much of the loss was on the Aeros not showing up to play the game, and how much of the loss was due to the Barons being the superior team. Tonight we know the answer.
The Aeros lost Game Two of this opening round Best of Five series to the Barons by the score of 4-1. Yes, the Aeros actually did find a way to score a goal on Yann Danis. And they actually appeared to make more of an effort, holding the Barons to only 37 shots tonight while totaling a stupendous 20 shots of their own. (Cody Almond scored at 3:48 of the third period.)
But though the Aeros effort factor was noticeably improved, it just didn't matter, so superior was the play of the Barons, proving tonight, perhaps even more than last night, why it is that they're the number one seed in the Western Conference.
Matt Hackett made a valiant effort to play tonight, stopping 19 of 21 shots. But he played injured, and whatever injury he suffered last night he aggravated horribly on the second goal, leaving the ice bent at his waste, not to return.
But even if Hackett wasn't injured, it would be difficult to see the Aeros finding a way to contend on Sunday and take this series to a fourth game. And frankly, if the Aeros were able to win Sunday and take it to game four on Tuesday, does anybody think they're healthy enough, or talented enough, to make it to game five on Wednesday?
It was an ugly day in Houston today. Massive storms that caused power outages throughout the city as the afternoon moved into evening. And the Aeros game tonight was just as ugly as the weather outside.
Tomorrow's post in the mothership will be on the Aeros's playoff hopes seemingly slip slidin' away, to rip-off Mr. Paul Simon. The Aeros failed to win their fifth straight game, losing 4-3 in the shootout to the Lake Erie Monsters who jumped into seventh place in the playoff standings.
The Aeros gained a point, which moves them up from sixth to fifth place with 78 points. The Heat also lost in the shootout tonight, so they too have 78 points, but they've won more games, so they get the coveted fourth slot.
Frankly, I'm shocked the Aeros were able to get a point tonight. Matt Hackett didn't have much defensive help -- I was down in that corner for the Monsters second goal, and it seemed that he was screened by the entirety of both teams. And the team was inept in the shootout.
The season's not over, and the Aeros control their own destiny -- and bright side, damn it, they're in fifth place. But they have not done themselves any favors over the past two weeks. And it's possible that, come Sunday evening, the Aeros will have had several more teams leapfrog them in the standings.
Torchetti was happy to see the team get a point tonight, because, as he pointed out, they did everything possible to give away points. He made it very clear: if this team wants to make the playoffs, they have to start playing the system.
In other words, it's all in their control, and right now, it's just slip slidin' away.
Sometimes things get so bad that you want to cry, but instead, you just have the urge to laugh. Like, for instance, now. Things are just so damn bad with the Wild that it's no longer sad, it's funny. And things are just so bad with the Wild that the Aeros have started getting sad. But after today/tonight, it's not sad, it's funny.
The Aeros lost to the Rockford IceHogs tonight 4-1. That's the second loss in a row, and the second on this four game road trip. As Andrew and Heather wrote below, Joe Fallon's injured and Matt Hackett's with the Wild because the brittle twins that play in goal for the Wild are, as you guessed, injured.
The result was that the Aeros threw a guy just literally out of college between the pipes tonight -- he's got just two games of ECHL experience -- named Scott Greenham. Now it would be easy to put the loss on Greenham since Rockford did score four goals. But then you look at this stat: Rockford out shot Houston 41-18, including 16-2 in the second period. Yes, you saw that right, 41-18, and it becomes a wonder that Rockford only scored three times on Greenham -- the fourth goal was an empty-netter.
That leads to the question of what happened to that offense we were bragging about just last week. There have been no roster changes. The lines haven't changed. But the Aeros can no longer score any goals. It's ridiculous, really ridiculous. What makes it more ridiculous is that the Wild's Matt Cullen broke a finger in tonight's loss to Buffalo (shocking, right? The Wild losing, and a Wild getting hurt) which will necessitate the Wild calling up one of the Aeros forwards, which in itself is funny seeing as how the Aeros forwards have forgotten how to shoot the damn puck.
However, despite the loss, the Aeros are still in fourth place. Yes, that's right, they're still in fourth because just about everybody below them in the standings also lost tonight. So for one more day, the Aeros hang on to fourth place with 76 points. The Heat, Americans, and Rivermen are tied for fifth with 75 points, and the Checkers are hanging onto the eighth spot with 74 points. The Rampage and Monsters are tied for ninth with 73 points, and the Admirals are in 11th with 70 points.
Yep, that's right, a total of six points separate the fourth spot from the 11th spot in the standings. And we thought it was ridiculously close last season.
The Aeros play in Chicago on Sunday afternoon. Peoria, Abbotsford, and Charlotte also play on Sunday. So it's conceivable that, come tomorrow night, the Aeros could be sitting in seventh place.
Like I said, it's so sad, it's funny. Which leads to this video from a classic Broadway musical/movie of the 1960s called A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. So here's the opening song, "A Comedy Tonight."
If anything, doing the power rankings today made me realize that I probably had the Aeros too low last week. It takes a lot to move up or down six spots in one week, but what Joe Fallon did this week for the Aeros cannot be minimized.
Joe Fallon won all four games for the Aeros last week. He said he lost about 7 pounds per game, too.
He stole probably three points the Aeros did not deserve on Saturday and Sunday, and he was great when the offense was clicking on Tuesday and Friday. A perfect 4-0 week moved the Aeros all the way up to the No. 3 team in the conference and the No. 7 ranked team in the AHL overall. Obviously, because of the playoff rules, the Aeros cannot be seeded 2 or 3 if they finish behind the OKC Barons.
The Aeros magic number is down to 10, and they'd really have to fall off the wagon not to at least snatch one of the top 8 seeds for the postseason tournament.
The Aeros get some much-needed rest this week before starting a tough four-game road trip in Rockford on Friday.
As for the rest of the league, OKC is back on top. Toronto was unimpressive against the Wolves, and they really needed a weekend sweep to stay on Top. Speaking of Chicago, they are bag atop the Midwest and Charlotte has really hit the skids.
San Antonio and Lake Erie fell back, too, after bad weeks, but both of those teams are right in the middle of the playoff chase.
Don't go anywhere, fans - things are getting REAL interesting now.
2011-12 Western
Conference Power Rankings Edition 8,
March 19, 2012
There was a lot of movement this week because some teams have kept winning and losing, showing that previous slumps or surges were no fluke. The addition of Patrick O'Sullivan has been magical for the Peoria Rivermen, a team that I think could be VERY dangerous during the postseason.
Something about this just makes me sad on the inside. The Rivermen won't lose in the first round this year.
And what happened to the Milwaukee Admirals? Some fans of theirs think it is nothing more than a lack of maturity, and that this is just a temporary slide. Whatever it is, it doesn't look like they are going to recover in time to make the playoffs for the billionth time in a row.
With Carter Hutton, the Rockford IceHogs just don't lose any more, and the Lake Erie Monsters have become a force recently. And we have a new No. 1 this week with Toronto taking over on top as the OKC Barons, a team that recently looked to have no flaws, has been sputtering around for the better part of three weeks.
Here comes Rochester, too. David Leggio took the No. 1 goalie spot away from Drew MacIntyre and hasn't looked back. That team has a light schedule down the road and may benefit from all the true Western teams beating up on each other.
Abbotsford is slumping again, but they own the Aeros this year and will probably score four goals in the first period Tuesday night at Toyota Center. The Aeros to the Heat are like the Grand Rapids Griffins to the Aeros: When you need a win, just circle that game on the schedule.
I really struggled putting Chicago ahead of the Rampage. I think San Antonio might be the better overall team, so these two I will really watch closely the week. I just thought the Wolves had the better week, so I gave them the nod.
John Torchetti told us Sunday that he is not doing ANY scoreboard watching. Even though that is hard to believe, I almost believe it with him. It'll ALL be different tomorrow, so why bother?
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