The word out of Winnipeg is that the group that owns the Manitoba Moose has purchased the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers and will be moving the team to Winnipeg.
The Thrashers have long been one of the NHL's failing franchises, and they've been propped up by an ownership group that, along with owning the team, also owned the arena and were willing to keep them so as to keep the building occupied. But the losses have just been too much, and nobody in Georgia has expressed any interest in buying the team, thus the Winnipeg group has swept in and purchased the team.
The deal isn't official -- there's no announcement from the NHL yet -- but Gary Bettman will probably be banned from Canada should he attempt to stop this deal. It's also not sure when the team would actually move to Winnipeg, whether to start the upcoming 2011/2012 season or if they would hold off for the 2012/2013 season.
This does, of course, mean that the AHL could be down a franchise at some point, kind of like how the Edmonton Oilers held onto the ownership rights of their Edmonton AHL franchise but refused to actually put a team on the ice until placing their franchise in Oklahoma City this past season. So the Manitoba group could just not field a team, they could move the Moose to another city since they will still own the rights to the franchise, or they could sell the rights to another group.
The odds are the Moose will be relocating, it's just a question of when or where. And once that happens, we'll probably see more division and conference shake-ups.
UPDATE: Okay, according to True North, the group that is supposedly buying the Thrashers, this is not a done deal.
It's tough to say that today's game was the biggest game of the season for the Aeros because it seems that since January every game has been the biggest game of the season. But if the Aeros had lost today they could have fallen into a tie for fourth place. So it was big for the Aeros to get the 6-3 win over Manitoba today.
This will be quick and dirty today because of some time constraints, but....
1. For those of you interested, the six goals the Aeros scored in the third period were a franchise record for goals scored in the third. And it was the first time since November of last season that they scored five goals in a period.
2. You can slowly see the Aeros regaining their confidence on offense, especially their big scoring lines. Patrick O'Sullivan's game-tying goal at the start of the third just seemed to open up the flood gates, and when a team gets a gift like the second goal, where the Manitoba goalie just seemed to hand the puck to Jon DiSalvatore, you just get the feeling that things are going your way.
3. Yeo said after the game that that DiSalvatore goal, which put the Aeros up 2-1, was a result of the ways the Aeros were just grinding away and wearing down the Moose defense and the goalie.
"We talked about it yesterday and our game plan going into every game is to grind teams down, regardless of whether they've played three games in three nights. That first period was only okay, but second period -- the amount of times that we made their D turn and go back for pucks," he said. "You could see towards the end of that period that we were just taking the game over. And that's what we talked about in between periods, as far as sticking with it, and we did. The first goal is getting the puck in deep and a good forecheck. And on the second goal you've got a skilled player like Casey Wellman coming down, and instead of taking a high risk play he chips the puck in behind the defense and makes them go back again, and from there, the game was over."
4. We talked to Jon DiSalvatore after the game, and I followed up on something I got from Jed Ortmeyer on Friday night. And that's the fact that those these games are grinders, and the Aeros have been having to play playoff caliber hockey since January, the game is supposed to be fun, and the best way to cope with the pressure is to go out and have fun.
"Since the day that [Ortmeyer's] got here, he's said that 'winning's fun, winning's fun,'" DiSalvatore said. "He's said that every day in the locker room. The result of winning is always fun. And we went on a big tear when he got here. And it was all based on little details that we really stuck to. And when you see us out there playing our game at a high level, and we're hemming teams in their own zone. You have so much more energy when you're playing in the offensive zone as you do than when you're playing defense. Our game, and what we stress to our guys, is let's just get the puck up the ice, and let's just play offense. It's easier on the D, and we have more energy as forwards. And it's a lot more fun when we're just moving the puck up quick..."
5. There are now 11 games left in the season for the Aeros, who are now 38-25-1-5 (82 points). Yet while it's hard to believe, the Aeros are still just in second place. They played incredible hockey in January and February and they're 3-2-0-1 so far in March. But for their incredible play, they can't put any distance between the clubs below them.
6. Both DiSalvatore and Robbie Earl noted after the game that the West Division is always the toughest division in the AHL in terms of teams making the playoffs. It's just par for the course in playing in this division. And as DiSalvatore told us, while things are tight and everybody's sweating it out, this is still fun for the players because they're always out playing for something meaningful.
7. That's it for me. I won't be here for Tuesday's game against Milwaukee -- vacation time -- but I'm sure Heather and Andrew will give you lots of good stuff on the game. And I hear that there should actually be some good photos -- instead of my crap -- for that game.
Okay, that was a tough loss. Very tough. Any game lost in a shootout is, in my opinion, a tough loss, but losing 2-1 like that, when you gain the early lead in the shootout...well, ouch. The Aeros had a rough first period, and if not for the play of Matt Hackett in the first, the Aeros would not have been close to getting this game to a shootout. Unfortunately for the Aeros, Manitoba's rookie goal, Eddie Lack was just as on his game as Houston's rookie goalie.
1. Mike Yeo wasn't happy with the play of his team in the first period, but he that on himself and his assistant coaches for failing to get the team ready for the drop of the puck. And while the bad luck of Robbie Earl and Patrick O'Sullivan in the second period -- hitting the posts on several occasions -- could have sapped the team of any momentum, Yeo had no problems with the second and didn't see it as proof that this was not going to be the Aeros' night.
"I wasn’t thinking it that time [second period]," Yeo said after the game. "I was thinking it wasn’t our time in the first period because I thought we were just not good. And I’ll take the blame for that. It was our week as coaches to make sure we were ready to go at the drop of the puck, but I liked the way we responded in the second period. I thought we were – as you said – starting to get the momentum and starting to tilt the ice. But having said that, obviously you would like to put in the net. But I felt like if we kept going like that we would give ourselves enough chances to get back in the game."
2. This was a tough game for Hackett to lose because Hackett played his ass off. I was down in that corner during the first period, and he was barraged with shot after shot (Manitoba got off 18 shots) and if he hadn't of been on his game then the score would have been way worse than 1-0 Manitoba after one period.
"It’s a tough way for Hack not to get the win because I thought he deserved it," Yeo said. "I thought he was great. Their guy was very good, too. I thought Hack was great. We had no business even being in that game after the first period. We were awful the first period, and Hack really gave us a chance."
3. Andrew asked about Hackett's perceived problems in the shoot out. Yeo said that wasn't the problem tonight. The problem rested with the Aeros not being able to get the puck back into the net after Patrick O'Sullivan started off the shoot out with a beauty of a shot.
4. Still, despite it all, the Aeros, as Yeo noted, did battle back to get a point tonight. And while it wasn't two points, the Aeros still came out better than Milwaukee, who lost to Rockford, Texas, who lost to Syracuse, and Chicago, who lost to Peoria.
5. And while the Aeros getting a point is a comfort, damn, it's getting hot in here. Milwaukee leads the division with 81 points. The Aeros are in second with 80. But Peoria's now in third with 79 points, Texas is in fourth with 78, Chicago's in fifth with 77, San Antonio in sixth with 75. Oklahoma City seems to be falling off, finally, and they sit in seventh with 73 points.
6. The Aeros and Wolves only have 12 games left while Peoria has just 13 and Texas just 14. While I'm more optimistic about the playoff scenarios than Andrew, who Heather has nicknamed Fun Killington, this is whole thing is just too damn close and I would really like to see some other teams start to fall by the wayside.
7. The Aeros welcomed back Casey Wellman, Cody Almond, and Drew Bagnall to the lineup tonight. As for the rest of the walking wounded, Yeo says not to expect to see any of them on Sunday. The bad news is that it appears that the MASH unit that is the Minnesota Wild suffered another shot on Friday night, so it's quite possible that somebody could be on plane Saturday morning.
8. Speaking of Drew Bagnall, for all of the great play by Hackett tonight, it might have been Bagnall who guaranteed that one point for the shootout. At one point in the third Hackett made a block but was out of the net. The puck bounced around and around in front of the net, just begging for one of the Moose to tap it in, but Bagnall flew into the scene and shot the puck out of the way of danger.
9. We spoke with Jed Ortmeyer for a bit after the game. Being the old man vet of the team -- and what a pick-up he has turned out to be, huh (thank you San Antonio for screwing the pooch there) -- who has handled these type of tight scenarios before, I asked him about what he's trying to tell the youngsters for handling the pressure, and I think he gave a great answer.
"There’s a bigger picture," he said. "The goal is to make the playoffs and to have a big run, and I think that at this point in the season you get banged up, start to mentally get a little bit fatigued, and you have to have the idea of having fun, making sure that coming to the rink everyday is fun."
He also said the team just has to stay with the process and not deviate from that. And when Ortmeyer speaks to the team, guys listen.
"But more than that, he’s a guy that has a very good pulse for what the team needs to hear at that time, whether it’s between periods, whether it’s on the bench," Yeo said. "He’s a guy when things get a little bit hectic and he needs to calm them down, he’s quick to do that, or if things are a little big sleepy, he’s quick to pick them up. I think a big part of that is experience, but it’s also making sure that first and foremost you go out and do the right thing to give yourself that credibility. So when you speak, guys listen."
10. A final thing. I really like these uniforms the team's won the past several games. I've always hated that stupid, cartoonish bomber logo -- yeah, I know, most of you love it -- because it just doesn't scream hockey to me. The unis they had on tonight, those screamed hockey. But since the team has yet to wear a game wearing them, I'm not counting on seeing them again.
The Aeros were a little rested. The Manitoba Moose were a bit tired, and were missing some key players due to call-ups and injuries. But that didn’t matter to the Aeros. All that mattered was the team’s 4-1 win before 3163 fans inside Toyota Center.
“They’re a great team,” Danny Irmen said. “Well coached. They’re missing a lot of guys. But we’ll take the win. A win’s a win. We played really well tonight.”
One of those playing well tonight was, of course, Danny Irmen, the subject of a Thursday post in the Houston Press. Irmen got the game’s first two goals for the Aeros, the first coming at 13:43 of the first period off of a fantastic pass from Clayton Stoner.
“I could have scored that goal blind,” Irmen said. “I sat my stick on the ice and he put it on there and it went it. It was a great play by [Stoner].”
And his second goal came off of a nice pass from Jon DiSalvatore who snuck around the back of the net to feed Irmen up top for the goal. That goal at 1:51 of the second broke up a 1-1 tie that the Aeros were disappointed to find themselves stuck in.
“We actually thought, even in the first period,” Kevin Constantine said, “we thought it was kind of bummer to come out of it one-one because we thought we had much better scoring chances in the first. But it was just nice to see some goals go in.”
On top of Irmen’s two goals was a two-goal performance from Max Noreau who had been without a goal this season. The first goal came at 19:03 of the second period off of a Marco Rosa turnover that Noreau turned around and slammed into the net.
“I looked at Clayton Stoner and I just said I’ll take that one,” Noreau said. “It was my first goal. It doesn’t have to be pretty. I just wanted to get that monkey off my back. He looked at me with a big smile and I just said I’ll take whatever I can get right now.”
The Aeros dominated this game in just about all aspects of the game, which was fun to watch since this has been seen so seldom this season. And just as Noreau didn’t care that his first goal was ugly, the Aeros don’t care that the Moose were tired. They just wanted the win. And the win they got.
SOME MISCELLANEOUS GAME NOTES:
With the win, the Aeros record is now 7-7-0-0 (14 points). And amazingly -- especially when you think of their play this season -- the Aeros, with the loss tonight by the San Antonio Rampage, find themselves in a three-way tie for second place. And seeing as how the Aeros face the Rampage this weekend, maybe the Aeros will be able to move past San Antonio in the standings.
************** This game was the 1100th of Kevin Constantine’s coaching career. With the win, his record in the USHL, IHL, WHL, AHL, and NHL is 569-399-114-18.
************** I’m not going to take a lot of time tonight -- I’m tired and I’ve got this temp job thing I have to get to early in the morning. So I’m dedicating the end of this post to Max Noreau. Noreau has been frustrated with his game this season, and this was a nice night for him.
“It was a little bit frustrating,” he said after the game. “But at the same time, when you’re getting your chances you can’t be too frustrated. At some point, even though you might be snake bit a little bit, it will come.”
And come it did with two goals and an assist, which as he said, let him get that monkey off of his back. So speaking of getting the monkey off of his back, here’s The Beatles with “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except For Me And My Monkey.”
I'm sure many of you heard the announcement yesterday that the Aeros games are returning to 1070 KNTH this year. But for those of you who didn't read the fine print...
You will only get to hear 64 full games on the radio. Six games, including tonight's, will not be aired at all, and another 10, most of them which appear to be Sunday afternoon games, will be joined in progress at 5:00, which means sometime in the third period. The six games not being aired, are not being aired due to college football, but I'm not sure of what the excuse is for the Sunday games not being on the radio. For what it is worth, according to Chron.com and the KNTH website (not safe for sane people), there is no college football game on 1070 tonight, so I don't know why tonight's game is not on the radio.
However, as Joe O'Donnell mentioned, all games can be seen on AHL Live, and I'm sure if you try, you might be able to find the radio broadcast of the visiting team somewhere on the internets. For instance, if you don't want to pay the $6.99 for AHL Live tonight, you should be able to get the Manitoba broadcast by going here.
The Aeros have lost another of their free agents as the Manitoba Moose announced today that they have signed Marco Rosa to an AHL contract.
I'd like to wish Marco luck with the Moose, except when he plays against the Aeros. He was always an easy guy for us to deal with in the locker room after games, and he seemed to be well-liked by his teammates. He also, it seemed to me, to be a good Constantine-type player in that he wasn't the most gifted of players, but he always gave the maximum effort and did everything possible to make himself, and his teammates better.
And I'm sure I speak for the rest of us here at T3I in that I'd really like for the Aeros to start getting some guys under contract. I know there's been that whole change of regime thing going on up in St. Paul, but I don't think the Aeros can afford to lose all of their offensive skill players.
So, just a few, quick thoughts on the final game of the season....
First, the loss is probably my fault. I should have been there. It's clear now that my presence in Peoria and Milwaukee is what keyed those victories, so my absence is the fault for this loss. I hope you readers, and the team, will forgive me.
Basically, I think this end, this 3-1 loss to the Manitoba Moose in Game Six was the result that should have been expected. The Moose were the better team. They had the talent, and the experience, needed to beat Houston. Most importantly, they were, for the most part, healthy. Matt Climie put up the good fight in goal for Houston, but he was a fourth string goalie. And the Aeros played most of the playoffs with a third string goalie, Anton Khudobin, between the pipes. The Aeros were able to beat two teams who had two of the best goalies in the AHL on the ice, but in the end, they just could get past Cory Schneider, who was another one of the best.
The Aeros played 21 games in about six weeks, and they were tired, and injured. Besides Nolan Schaefer, Barry Brust, and Khudobin, Krys Kolanos has been battling a lower-body injury and Jesse Schultz had just returned from an injury. And I'm sure that as the days pass we'll be hearing more about the injuries the guys were playing with. I know the training room was often crowded after the game, but the guys always seemed to find away to tough it out and make it out onto the ice for each game.
The big questions in the coming months will be with the roster. Kolanos, Schultz, and Corey Locke are free agents, and those three guys provided a good share of the team's offensive power over the season. Matt Beaudoin, who emerged midway through the season and was, perhaps, the team's second-best offensive weapon in the playoffs, behind Locke, is also without a contract, as is fan favorite Mitch Love.
I'm not going to get to all of the roster questions, but who knows what new Wild GM Chuck Fletcher is going to have in mind for the Wild, and thus for the Aeros. I'm happy that Tom Lynn is returning as GM of the Aeros, and I'm hoping that Kevin Constantine and the rest of his staff also return.
It's going to be an interesting four months or so until the next season gets underway. And I hope you'll keep checking us out here at T3I because we plan on keeping you up-to-date on everything that happens.
And may I say on behalf of everyone at T3I, thank you for reading. We've been overwhelmed by the response and we hope to keep getting even better.
So for the final time this season, I'm playing deejay. Here's Ringo Starr with "Photograph."
Okay, sorry for the delay, but the Friday game story is finally up at the Houston Press -- it's a holiday, remember. And sorry for the formatting as that's beyond my control.
As for what happens tonight, I'm saying the same thing that I said Friday. Whoever scores first win this game. Especially since, from what I heard of the Manitoba coach's partial meltdown after Game Five, I think the Moose might be gripping the stick a bit a hard. So if the Aeros score first, that just puts the Moose even more on the defense. But if Manitoba is able to score first, then watch out, this could be a slaughter.
Here is the latest installment of "View from the Press Box" after Friday's 4-3 overtime win against Manitoba. This time we put the camera on a box rather than have a human being hold the camera for six minutes. Actually, that worked out better anyway because it allowed Heather to make faces at us the whole time.
To rehash the Aeros travel plans, they fly to Minneapolis this afternoon and then change for a flight to Fargo, ND. The team will then bus to Winnipeg from there, and Game 6 is Monday night. Should they win that one, Game 7 is Wednesday.
“In retrospect,” Kevin Constantine said after the Houston Aeros 4-3 double overtime victory over the Manitoba Moose. “I think it was a bad coaching decision not to call the timeout. If we’d lost, it would have been a long, long summer for me.”
But luckily for Constantine, and for the Aeros, the summer is not starting. Yet. As once again the Houston Aeros held off playoff elimination and live to see another day.
And looking back at the first 59:39 of the game, it’s hard to believe that this game came down to overtime and the failure of Constantine to call a timeout. Yet it did as the Aeros and Moose played one of the most entertaining and exciting hockey games seen in Toyota Center in a long time.
The game got off to a great start for the Aeros when Maxim Noreau converted on the power play at 2:56 to put the Aeros up 1-0 in the first period. And just under two minutes later, Tony Hrkac found himself in the perfect position to get his stick on the rebound of a Robbie Earl shot and sink the puck in the net to put the Aeros up 2-0 at 4:22. Then at 17:24 of the second period – topping a nearly 15 minute barrage of non-stop, high-speed hockey – a streaking Matt Beaudoin got the pass from John Lammers and put the puck past an out-of-position Cory Schneider to put the Aeros up 3-0.
Then the unthinkable happened. The Moose came out to start the third period with a new goalie as Curtis Sanford took the place of Schneider, the ace number one Moose goalie who’d played every minute of every playoff game for the Moose. But though the Aeros got several good opportunities, they couldn’t get the puck past Sanford. The Moose, however, had better some better luck.
The first Moose goal came at 2:29 of the third just seconds before the Aeros were about to kill off a penalty. But Michael Grabner got the puck past Matt Climie to make the score 3-1, and that’s where the score remained for the next 17 minutes. But as the crowd was roaring and the players were preparing to jump off of the bench and celebrate the sure-awarding of the number one star to Climie, the Moose, on the power play and using the six-on-four advantage, surrounded the net and kept shoving the puck at Climie as the Aeros failed to clear the puck. So at 19:39, Jason Krog got the puck past Climie to make the score 3-2. Then came that time in the game that had Constantine wishing he would have called the timeout as with just two seconds remaining in the game and the victory within their grasp, former Aero Mark Cullen got the puck past Climie to send the game to overtime.
“I felt good the whole game, but I caught a couple of unlucky breaks at the end there, Climie said. “They had a couple of lucky goals to tie it up. I just wanted to keep the boys in it and give them a chance in overtime. The third goal was a kind of weak one to give up, with just two seconds left. And I wanted to do my part in overtime to shut the door.”
So for the next 24:19, Climie did, indeed, shut the door, stopping 18 Manitoba shots in the two overtimes. Trouble was, Sanford, was just as good as Climie, stopping 16 shots. Until, at 4:19 of the second overtime, Robbie Earl found Tony Hrkac in the slot and Hrkac found a way to get the puck in the net to give the Aeros the 4-3 victory.
“Benoit [Pouliot] made a nice play behind the net to get it in,” Hrkac said. “Robbie [Earl] got it in the corner, and their forwards were kind of on me, but then they spread out because they were thinking about Robbie going to the point, and there was a little lane there, so Robbie saw it and I saw it, and he gave me the puck, the goalie went down and boom, over the shoulder.”
The Aeros then stormed the ice and the crowd erupted.
“I thought it was a great play,” Constantine said. “Robbie had enough patient and poise to wait till the pass was there. Like a coy veteran, you wonder how Hrkac put it in.”
And suddenly, Manitoba’s seemingly insurmountable 3-0 series lead didn’t look so insurmountable as, wonder of all wonders, the Aeros found away to get this series back to Winnipeg for a Game Six on Monday night.
SOME MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:
Matt Climie was solid in this game, despite the last 21 seconds. Except for some mop-up duty in two games, he’s barely played, and recently, with Nolan Schaefer’s return, he’s not even had as much ice time with the team. Then again, it’s not every AHL team that has a fourth string goalie who actually played three games in the NHL this season. And when the time came tonight, he was ready.
“It’s the AHL playoffs,” he said. “It’s a dream come true to play this caliber of hockey. I just wanted to make sure I was prepared and ready to go tonight. I just wanted to make the most of this opportunity, and the guys inside here have really welcomed me and I just wanted to do my part to them win.”
Jesse Schultz, who also returned to action tonight, stressed that the team has confidence in all of their goalies, then he mentioned how difficult tonight was for Climie. “He was unbelievable,” Schultz said. “He didn’t travel with us on the road last time. It’s tough to skate with four or five guys here and not see a lot of shots.”
Kevin Constantine called Climie’s play solid, and it looks as if he’ll be getting the start on Monday night.
********************* Jesse Schultz returned to action for the first time since injuring his ankle in Game Six against Peoria almost four weeks ago. And from the press box vantage point, he looked really good out there.
“I feel pretty good, actually,” he said of his ankle. “It held up real well. It was four weeks tomorrow since it happened. I wasn’t sure what to expect getting back in there. It’s felt pretty good the past couple of days, and it’s held up, so hopefully it just keeps getting better.”
********************* With his two assists, Corey Locke has now tied Mark Freer for the most points by an Aero in a playoff season. Freer got 22 points in 1999 (11-11=22), and Locke also has 22 points (11-11=22). Matt Beaudoin’s goal gives him 17 points (8-9=17) for the playoffs.
And how about a little appreciation for the old man. Tony Hrkac’s two goals gives him 14 points for the playoffs (4-10=14), including three goals in the past two games. Hrkac told us after the game that while he knew he could still play when he got the call from Troy Ward, he still didn’t expect anything like this.
******************** During the game, we found out that Tom Lynn, the Wild’s assistant GM and the Aeros GM would be staying with the team in his same capacity to work under new GM Chuck Fletcher. And if anybody has a right to be happy about the Aeros right now, it’s Lynn, who during the offseason added Krys Kolanos, Corey Locke, and Jesse Schultz to the team and who, during the season, added Matt Beaudoin and Tony Hrkac, traded for Robbie Earl, and even though the playoffs had already started, was able to get Matt Climie from the Dallas Stars for the remainder of the team’s Calder Cup run.
So I just want to congratulate Tom on the job he did with this Aeros team, and for keeping his job with the Wild since often, when people from outside an organization take over a team, they bring in their own people to work under them.
******************** The quote of the season definitely goes to Kevin Constantine who, after it was all over, was asked his thoughts on the game. “I always look at President Obama – or any president,” he said. “I look at how they age. I started the playoffs at 50 and I’m 73 years old already.”
******************** The Aeros are making the trip to Winnipeg tomorrow. They’ll fly to Minneapolis tomorrow morning. From there they’ll fly to Fargo, ND. And from Fargo they’ll take a three-hour bus ride to Winnipeg, arriving sometime late tomorrow night. They’ll probably practice on Sunday, and they’ll play on Monday night.
And for those of you (like Danny Irmen) who are wondering if I’ll be making any of the games in Winnipeg, the answer, unfortunately, is no. I’d love to be there, but damn, the cheapest airplane ticket I could find was around $1300, and I couldn’t even guarantee that I’d make the arena by game time. I’d love nothing better than to be there, but I’m unemployed at the moment, and there’s no possible flight combination I could use that could get me there on my frequent flier miles.
So guys, you’re just going to have to do it without me this time. Sorry.
******************* There’s no way, after Monday’s game, that I thought the Aeros were going to get this series back to Winnipeg. No way. So I thought that, to play us out tonight, I’d go with a little classic rock and The Beatles playing, appropriately enough, “Get Back” – and Paul’s even got him a playoff beard going.
After Monday night's loss, I never thought the Aeros would be returning to Winnipeg. Never.
So wow.
Andrew will post our View From the Press Box in a bit -- those get delayed because of other items we have to get done. So I just thought I would post some quick things.
First, for those who missed it...the Aeros won 4-3 in double overtime. That the Aeros won the game to send this series back to Winnipeg is one thing. That the Aeros won this game in double overtime is another. And then there's the fact that the Aeros had a 3-1 lead with 21 seconds left in the game and had to win the thing in double overtime.
Major props tonight go to Tony Hrkac. Another impressive outing with two goals -- including the game winner -- to lift his playoff point total to 14 points. Nice work from Robbie Earl who set Hrkac up for both of his goals. Matt Climie, except for about 30 seconds in the third period, was impressive, especially for someone's who barely played the past month or so.
So we'll have much more later, but just wanted to get this up. Game Six, believe it or not, is a reality, and it will take place in Winnipeg, Manitoba on Monday night.
By now you've heard the big news for today. And as Luke Strand told me, it's that Matt Climie is starting in goal tonight. I spoke to Kevin Constantine during the skate, and the decision had not yet been made -- he and the staff wanted to wait until after Nolan Schaefer and Climie skated to make a decision.
As for Anton Khudobin, Constantine said that he's got a lower body injury. He got the injury during the third period on Wednesday night. During a time out of the third, Khudobin informed the trainers that he was hurt, then he skated back out to the net. The trainers checked him out at the end of the third period, and told Constantine that he could not play. "So we had no choice but to play Schaefer," Constantine said.
I don't really have much else for you. There was some off-the-record talk about players' beards. I did overhear Constantine talking to Manitoba's radio guy for an interview to be played during the game, and Constantine basically said he's not sure of what to expect from Climie.
The obvious scratches for tonight are Dane Crowley, Barry Brust, and Anton Khudobin. Paul Albers, Jesse Schultz, Marco Scandella, Jason Ryznar, and Carson McMillan all skated with the rest of the guys in the skate. Krys Kolanos did not skate, but I've rarely seen him out on the ice at the morning skate, so that doesn't mean anything.
A quick inside the numbers give us some basics. Only two teams in AHL history have ever come from 0-3 to win a series: Rochester in 1960 and Adirondack in 1989. But the Aeros are 3-0 this post-season when facing elimination. All-time, the Aeros are 7-5 in Calder Cup play when facing elimination. And in Game Fives, Houston is 7-10 all-time and 4-5 in Calder Cup action.
Corey Locke leagues the AHL is Calder Cup scoring with 20 points (11-9). Matt Beaudoin is second with 16 points (7-9=16).
The Moose/Cory Schneider have allowed just eight third period goals in 14 games, but the Aeros are responsible for five of the eight. The Aeros have 23 third period goals in the playoffs, compared to just 24 goals combined in all of the first, second, and overtime periods. The Aeros are outscoring their opponents 23-14 in the third period.
The big key again will be the first goal. The Aeros are 8-2 when scoring first, and they are 6-0 when leading after the first.
So what happens tonight? That's a damn good question. I think if the Aeros can get the first goal and if they can give Matt Climie some time to settle in after that first goal, then they might be okay, and they might be able to get back to Winnipeg for a Game Six. But frankly, the odds aren't in the favor of the Aeros. But if there's one thing we've learned this season, it's to never count out the Aeros (still, you have to wonder about just how many goalie injuries this team can take).
After Wednesday morning’s skate, Tony Hrkac said that the team had to avoid making mistakes, they had to play smart, and that they had to focus on just winning this one game. Most importantly, he said, they needed to at least be tied at the end of the first period.
Things looked good for the Aeros (and for Hrkac’s prediction) when Corey Locke knocked in a rebound past Manitoba’s Cory Schneider at 1:26 of the first to put the Aeros up 1-0. But then the mistakes and dumb play began and the Moose got two goals – including another short-handed goal on the penalty kill – to grab the 2-1 lead after one period.
But the thing about the Aeros is that they just don’t quit. They came out in the second and tied the game at two-all when Corey Locke fired a cross-ice pass to John Lammers who then found Robbie Earl coming up the middle of the ice, and Earl buried the puck in the net at 13:58 of the second. Then the team got stupid again, and allowed Manitoba to score 25 seconds into the third period to take the 3-2 lead.
Enter Matt Beaudoin and Tony Hrkac.
Beaudoin took a pass from Benoit Pouliot at 13:31 of the third and slapped the puck past Schneider to tie the game at three. And seconds later, at 14:29, Beaudoin made a great play under the net to find a streaking Hrkac who tipped the puck past Scheinder to put the Aeros up 4-3.
“I got a good pass from Pouliot right outside their blue line, and I knew I had a winger going,” Hrkac said, “so I wanted to get the shot on the net for the rebound, and [Beaudoin] got the rebound, and from my angle I thought he put it in. But it went behind the net, and I just went straight for the net and he saw me and threw it out to me and I put it in the net.”
But the Aeros don’t do things the easy way. Anton Khudobin found himself badly out of position at 17:21 and Mario Bliznak got the wraparound to tie the game at four and send the game to overtime.
It was during the intermission leading to overtime that word filtered up to the press box that Khudobin had gotten injured in the third period and that Nolan Schaefer would be coming out to take over at goal.
“I just didn’t want to let the team down,” Schaefer said. “I wanted to get in there and give them the chance to win, and I didn’t even have to do that.”
He didn’t have to do that because the Aeros came out on the attack in the overtime and at 2:01, Matt Beaudoin scored his second goal of the night (and got his fourth point) to give Houston the 5-4 lead and to keep them alive in this best of seven series with the Manitoba Moose.
“Tonight we got our bounces,” Beaudoin said after the game.
But to stand a chance at winning this series, the Aeros are going to have to keep getting the bounces. And the next chance to get the bounces will come on Friday night as the Aeros and Moose go at it in Game Five from Toyota Center.
SOME MISCELLANEOUS GAME NOTES:
It's going to take a bit of a miracle for the Aeros to win this series. In the entire of the AHL, only two teams have ever come back from 0-3 deficits to win a series. Those teams were the 1960 Rochester Americans and the 1989 Adirondack Red Wings.
Tony Hrkac says that in this instance, the cliche has to win out, meaning that the Aeros can't focus on winning three games. They just have to focus on the next game and the next period. "The next game is the biggest game of the year. If we lose we’re done," he says. "But we’ve got to go out there one period at a time and hopefully get the next goal. We need to build off this win. It’s a big win for us. They’re a good team. They’re not going to be rattled."
******************** Corey Locke's first period goal tied the team record for playoff goals in one season with 11, tying Mark Freer who also scored 11 in 1999. Locke's 20 total points (11-9=20) is second all-time for playoff points in one season. He is behind only Freer who had 23 points in the 1999 season. Locke is also the AHL's points leader for this Calder Cup race.
Matt Beaudoin's four points (2-2=4) tied the Aeros' all-time playoff record. This has happened twice before, the last time being in 2001 when Shawn Carter got a goal and three assists.
"I think it was his best game of the year for us," Kevin Constantine said. "He’s been a real nice addition to our power play, but tonight he was also a really good five-on-five player, he did a little of both. It was his best game. It was good to see."
******************* The Anton Khudobin injury was rather surprising news to those of us in the press box. It was also, it appears, rather surprising news to Constantine and the rest of the coaching staff.
"At some point in the third, I don’t know when," Constantine answered when asked when the injury occurred. "It was during the third, he did play the end of the third injured. It was something the coaching staff didn’t even really know about. But it was brought to our attention that he was hurt, so we had no choice but to put Schaefer in at the end of the game."
And while we're on the subject of goalies, it should be noted that this was the first time that Cory Schneider's ever allowed more than four goals in a playoff game for his career.
"The stat was that prior to this game he’d given up six goals in the third and we had three of them," Hrkac said. "So we knew were good in the third period. We knew we could get to them in the third, and we did that and we got them in overtime."
******************** And I've got a note for Booker, or whatever the hell his name is. Hey, moron, when the goalie's in the net and action is about to start back up again, don't go shouting out his frigging name and trying to grab his attention. As hard as it might be for you to believe, Anton Khudobin's got more important things to focus on that your inane activities.
******************** And to play us out tonight, I thought I would do something a little different and play a song for the Moose. So to help you get over the loss of your 10-game post season winning streak, here's John Lennon with "Nobody Told Me."
Excuse the lateness of this posting, but I was busy with some breaking news for the mothership. That said, I’ll just combine the observations from the morning skate with inside the numbers for just one post.
So…
You’ve already seen the big news from the Morning Skate about Anton Khudobin getting the start tonight at goal for Houston. Kevin Constantine said it was nothing that Nolan Schaefer did wrong, but more that Khudobin is the guy who has gotten the wins for the team in the playoffs.
“We’re going back to Anton. He’ll start tonight,” Constantine said. “We really, with Anton in the playoffs, didn’t have a lot of choices because the other goalies were hurt. Then you get back to where Nolan and Barry are healthy and you start to have choices and the decisions get harder. We’d gone into our last game having won only one of our last five, so we thought we would try something so we tried Nolan. He didn’t play a bad game. He didn’t make some big saves in some situations where we needed big saves, but at the same time we gave up really, really high quality chances that you wouldn’t look at those as goalie mistakes but as we gave up too big a chances. We don’t think he played bad. At the same time, Anton seems to be the guy who’s gotten wins in the playoffs for us, so we’re going back to him.”
Constantine isn’t even looking at it as one game at a time or just winning a period. To him, none of that matters. “When you start worrying about wins and losses you’re way ahead of yourself,” he said. “You’ve got to get into the process that turns you into a winner and focus on that.”
And the process is one of learning from game to game and applying the good things from the last game to the next game while cutting back on the bad things. “All we’ve talked about is how have the first three games gone,” he said. “What did we learn from the first three games, how did Game Three go as opposed to Game Two, and what did we learn from Game Three. All of those things trying to prepare us to do our best job in Game Four. That’s all we’ve talked about.”
As for the guys during the skate, they looked loose. They didn’t appear uptight, and they didn’t appear worried about tonight’s game. They worked on their shots. Khudobin and Schaefer worked on blocks and rebounds.
Danny Irmen says he’s trying not to focus on Manitoba: “They’re an experienced team, and a lot of them have been here before. We’ve just got to worry about ourselves and not worry about them. We’ve got to focus on what we’ve got to do right.”
As to the actual game, Hrkac says it all comes down to the first period: ‘We have to have a good first period. Tie it at least.”
I think Mr. Hrkac has been looking at the numbers, because, while kind of bleak, the numbers speak truth. Manitoba is 9-0 when it scores first, and it is 7-0 when it has the lead after the first period. The Aeros are 1-7 when they let the other team score first, and they are a miserable 0-8 when trailing after the first. But if the Aeros can get the lead or a tie at the end of the first, they’re 8-1.
So forget all of the other numbers. The numbers at the end of the first period are all that matters. If Houston can get on the board first and at least hold it to a tie, then they just might be able to pull out at least one game of the series. Otherwise, it’s all over.
I've been a bit slack on updating everybody about the Phoenix Coyotes situation, so here's a quick update. First, the parties are all in court today, arguing before the Bankruptcy Court whether or not Jerry Moyes actually has the power to put his team into bankruptcy. I'll have more on that later tonight.
But this little bit from yesterday's Toronto Globe and Mailis really interesting, especially to our friends from Winnipeg who might be in town for the Moose/Aeros playoffs series. It seems that early last month, while the NHL was attempting (and failing) to help the Coyotes find new ownership, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman sent an e-mail to people at the Coyotes updating the situation. Bettman makes it clear in the e-mail that it's proving to be nearly impossible to find a new owner to take over the team and keep it in Phoenix, and that "if we don't have an alternative, I will have to start looking at the moving option."
And just where does that moving option start? Well, it starts with Winnipeg, the original home of the Coyotes. And as for Hamilton/Southern Ontario, Bettman essentially writes that he just wants to string them along.
Nice going, Bettman.
What you have here is Bettman and the NHL saying that the team probably has to move because it can't find a buyer to keep the team in Phoenix because it's not financially viable to keep the team in Phoenix, and you also have Bettman saying the best option is Winnipeg while the folks in Hamilton are just strung along as suckers. And Moyes did what Bettman said the league would probably do: he found a buyer in Canada, but because of lease problems, he had to go through bankruptcy court.
(Oh, and one thing I haven't made clear in the past: the NHL is not objecting to the Coyotes going into Chapter 11. They're objecting about who is sending the team into bankruptcy.)
But we should have a better idea of what's going to happen with Phoenix later today, when the court hearing is finished.
“I don’t have any excuses for it,” Nolan Schaefer said of Michael Grabner’s game-winning goal. “He’s a good player. It’s a good shot. I just have to make the save the next time.”
While offering that Grabner fanned on the shot, that the puck just kind of wobbled, and that it bounced off of the post, Schaefer made it clear that he still should have stopped the shot and led the team into overtime. But as has been the case with the Aeros so often this season, overtime was so close, yet still so far away as the team lost 4-3 to the Manitoba Moose before a Toyota Center crowd of 2634.
Now Manitoba holds the three games to zero lead in this best of seven series, and the Aeros are just one game away from the end of the season.
Schaefer, who started for the first time since the end of March, took the blame for the loss. “When it came down to it, we just gave up too many opportunities and I didn’t make the big saves at the right time.”
The game’s first goal came when Manitoba’s Mike Keane got his stick on a shot from Mike Bliznak and tipped the puck past Schaefer for the 1-0 lead at the 13:47 of the first period. Then with the Aeros on the power play, Manitoba got a short handed goal from Alexandre Bolduc at 2:33 of the second period. And in a bit of karma, Matt Beaudoin deflected a Krys Kolanos shot into the goal to make the score 2-1 at the 12:29 mark of the second. But with momentum possibly shifting in Houston’s favor, Michael Grabner scored his first goal of the night to make it 3-1 at 14:08.
The third period found the Aeros playing their most inspired hockey of the series. But it was a case of too little, too late. Marco Rosa fed a great pass to Corey Locke at 1:11 of the third, and Locke put the puck past Manitoba’s Corey Schneider to make the score 3-2. Matt Beaudoin then found himself in excellent position several times over the next several minutes, but he couldn’t convert his scoring chances into actual points. Danny Irmen tied the score at three-all when he got the short-handed goal at 6:30 of the third. For the next ten minutes, the Aeros did everything possible to grab the lead. Except for, that is, actually scoring a goal. And by the time Grabner made his game-winning goal at 16:11, the Aeros just appeared to run out of gas.
“I thought we played pretty hard. I wasn’t displeased with our effort,” head coach Kevin Constantine said following the game. “They were better than us tonight by a goal.”
So close, yet so far away. And isn’t it that, in many ways, the perfect definition of this Aeros’ season. So close. Yet so far. Does the season end on Wednesday night, or do the Aeros find a way to extend this series to a Game Five? Well that’s a question we’re not going to get answered until that time. But the prognosis appears to be negative.
SOME MISCELLANEOUS GAME NOTES:
It can be argued that Manitoba won the game at the 13:47 mark of the first period when the Moose scored the game’s first goal. In this postseason, the Aeros are now 1-7 when the opponent scores first, and they are 0-8 when trailing after the first period.
“It [first goal]only sets the tone if you let it,” Nolan Schaefer said. “We’ve been getting down after a goal, and it’s how you respond to the goal that matters. We set our own tone out there so we just have to be ready for adversity.”
With the season on the line, it was probably hoped the team would play the entire game like they did the third period, but as has been the case all season, the team kicked into a different gear when the third period started.
“I don’t know if we were at our best the first two periods,” Schaefer said, “but I don’t think we played a bad game either. They didn’t get a lot of shots. It’s just that the opportunities they did get were Grade-A/A-plus chances.”
******************** The goalie switch was not so much about the play of Anton Khudobin as it was Kevin Constantine trying to change the momentum of the series, and of the Aeros, who have now lost five of their last six games.
“We had only won one of our last five games so we decided to give Nolan a shot,” Constantine said.
******************** During the game, for some reason, the game day crew was showing clips from the later sequels to the Rocky movies. But seriously, seeing as how all of those movies suck, and suck really hard, was it really too much to ask that they trot out clips from the original? The original, after all, was actually a good movie. And though Rocky lost in the original, it was a great underdog movie about a man going the distance against a contender who should have knocked Rocky out early in the first round. So if there’s any movie which really fits into the spirit of these Aeros, it’s that first Rocky.
The Aeros can beat anybody in the AHL. I'm nearly convinced of this.
But I still picked Manitoba in 5 in my PHN preview, because while I think they CAN beat anybody, they have to be so completely focused and their game has to be clicking so well and consistently, I just don't see them sustaining that kind of intensity for yet another series.
Though with a day to reflect, I think my gut really says more like Manitoba in 6. But my predictions are never right anyway, so it doesn't matter. And I'm by far the least convinced on this one as I have been all along. The Aeros keep proving they're a better team than they appear to be. And if that sounds like a back-handed compliment ("you're smarter than you look!"), well I guess it pretty much is.
They've already gone a round longer than I ever expected, so maybe it's time to just chill out and enjoy the ride.
So as I'm waiting to talk to Kevin Constantine after the game last night, Barry Brust comes up to me and says that he's not going to be impressed with me unless I make it up to Winnipeg for a game with the Moose. I respond that if the team will cover my travel, I'll be glad to come. And everybody laughs, end of story.
I tell you this because I won't be in town this weekend. Not because I'm Winnipeg covering the team, but because I'm in Europe on a previously scheduled quick weekend jaunt to clear my head as I work on planning my future. And the money that this trip is costing will probably keep me from making any kind of trip to Winnipeg, even for a Game Seven, though, if it comes to that, I'll probably see what I can do in terms of cashing in some more of my frequent flyer miles.
But once again, that said, I'm hoping it doesn't come to a Game Seven.
Which brings me to the true reason for this post. I've got to go on the record and make my prediction for which team will win this series. The North Division champs, Manitoba Moose, or the West Division champs, the Houston Aeros. And frankly, everything points to the Moose winning this series.
After all, they finished in first in the North Division with 107 points. They beat the Aeros four times this season (once in shoot out). The Moose swept the Grand Rapids Griffins in the last round, and they've been resting for a week, preparing for either the Aeros or the Admirals.
And the Aeros are beat up. Anton Khudobin has played a lot of hockey in the net. Nolan Schaefer is available to play, but he's rusty after having not played for nearly five weeks before Monday night's debacle. Barry Brust is skating with the team, but it's been even longer since he played. Krys Kolanos is battling injuries. Tomas Mojzis didn't travel with the team to Milwaukee because of injuries. Jesse Schultz is with the team, but he's still not available to play. And the Aeros have played 14 games of physical, pounding, violent hockey.
This would be an easier prediction for me to make if I'd seen the Moose play recently. But the Aeros haven't faced them since December. And not having seen the Moose in the playoffs against Toronto or Grand Rapids, I'm just not sure of how they've really been tested.
I know this. One of the hottest goalies in the playoffs has been Manitoba's Corey Schneider. Schneider's 8-2 with only 17 goals allowed, having stopped 250 of 267 shots in 603 minutes of play for a 1.69 goals allowed average and a .936 save percentage. That's good. And Manitoba's got Jason Krog who is in the top 10 in AHL playoff scoring with 11 points (4-7=11). They've got the number one penalty kill in the playoffs, allowing only three goals on 33 power play attempts. Their power play is only so-so, ranking just sixth while scoring on 10 of 53 power plays.
Then there are the Aeros. Anton Khudobin has had a rough week. He shut the Admirals out last Thursday for his birthday. He barely made it midway through the second period on Saturday, and he was pulled in the first period on Monday before rebounding with a very good effort last night. And the Aeros have some of the AHL's leading playoff scorers, led by Corey Locke with 15 points (9-6=15), Krys Kolanos (6-5=11), Matt Beaudoin (3-7=10), and Tony Hrkac (1-9=10). The Aeros penalty kill is ranked right behind Manitoba's, as the team's stopped 62 of 69 opposition power plays, and they've scored on 17 of 69 power plays.
So who's going to win?
That's what I'm struggling with. The Aeros should lose this series. They should lose it easily. They're tired. They're banged up. They're facing a rested team. They're facing a hot goalie. But then again, what's new. To get to this spot, the Aeros had to get past Manny Legace and Drew MacIntyre, two of the best and hottest goalies going in the AHL. And the Aeros bested them. Milwaukee was rested. And the Aeros just fought on.
I felt sure the Aeros would defeat Milwaukee because I was in the locker room after Game Seven in Peoria and I just saw this thing about Krys Kolanos that said he wasn't finished yet. That he had a point to make.
I didn't see that Wednesday night, mainly because Kolanos went straight from the ice to an exercise bike. But there was something about the guys in the locker room. They were happy. They were celebrating. But it wasn't like with Peoria, where they were shocked that they could do this. This time, they expected it.
Corey Locke told me after the game that these guys are fast learners, and that they'd taken the lessons from Peoria and applied them to Milwaukee. About how to try and grab some rest when tired. About how to prepare for the same opponent time and time again. About how to handle a hot goalie. About how to handle a Game Seven. Against Milwaukee, the Aeros had to deal with injuries, a hot goalie, blowing a 3-1 series lead. They've learned their lessons Locke said. They're quick studies.
What they are, I think, what they've learned, if possible, is confidence. They learned that they weren't lucky in beating Peoria. They were good. They weren't lucky in getting that lead against Milwaukee, they were good. They learned that if they play Kevin Constantine's system, good things will happen. They've learned if things get tight, that they can handle the pressure.
The Aeros shouldn't win this series against Manitoba. They probably won't, but...
That's what people said about the Houston Astros in 2005. That they were a worn down Wild Card who wouldn't get past the Atlanta Braves. That's what people said about the Arizona Cardinals this past football season. It's something we see every year, in every sport, in every playoffs. An underdog team gets hot. The team starts playing with confidence. The team starts beating those teams they're not supposed to beat.
Corey Locke says they've learned their lessons. I think they have. But most importantly, I think that the Aeros are THAT team in this year's Calder Cup chase. That team that gets hot at just the right time, that starts believing that anything possible. The Aeros might be hurt. The Aeros might be tired. But something tells me that's not going to matter. That the Aeros aren't going to let that matter.
So here it is. The Aeros find away to win another series. And I'm picking this just on the basis of my intuition because the numbers say the Aeros should lose. But the numbers have been saying the Aeros should have lost since the playoffs started. Every year there's that underdog team. And this year, it's the Aeros.
I say they beat Manitoba in six, even though that means Barry Brust won't be impressed because I'm not there.
(I won't be around this weekend. You're just going to have to settle for the T3I crew. I'll be back Monday, but not in time for the morning skate, so you're going to have to do without my observations. But I'll be at the game, and I'll report after.)
Last night's game story is now posted over at the Houston Press, so give them some love if you get the chance because it's through them I get my press pass. Plus, it gives you another chance to see Mr. Fred's photo of Khudobin at center ice as the crowd sings "Happy Birthday."
Also, no matter when this Houston/Milwaukee series ends, the Western Conference finals against Manitoba are set to start next Friday in Winnipeg.
And it's my goal to get back here later tonight or tomorrow with some in-depth lawyerly stuff on the Phoenix Coyotes situation. My early take is that Gary Bettman is going to lose if the bankruptcy judge goes ahead and allows Jerry Moyes to file for Chapter 11 -- the NHL is attempting to have the bankruptcy petition kicked out of court. But I could be wrong, so I want to do a little more research.
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