Give Me The Puck, Damn It

Okay, Matt Hackett didn't really say that to Mike Yeo on Sunday afternoon. We don't know really know what the two said. We just know what they told us they said. But what we know is this: Yeo was going to start Josh Tordjman today. He told Hackett a couple of hours before the game, when they were at Toyota Center. And Hackett asked to play instead. And Yeo said fine, go for it.

It could be argued that Yeo, no matter what, should have gone with Tordjman in this game with the San Antonio Rampage. There's some validity to that argument since Tordjman has a lot of AHL experience, so he probably offered up the better chance for the win. But Yeo was after something else. He wanted to see what his young goalie was capable of. Whether he had that fire.
I think we saw the answer, a 3-1 win that saw Hackett play an excellent game.

I didn't see Saturday's 4-0 disaster at San Antonio -- I was watching the NFL Playoffs, and from what I understand, is you tried AHL Live you couldn't see it either -- so I don't really know how bad the kid, or the team as a whole, looked. But they held their own against San Antonio today, and Hackett did a hell of a job against one of the best teams in the league.

So, here are the bullet points.

1. Yeo says it is not his practice to let a player dictate his lineup, and he's not going to make it a practice. But there are circumstances when you let Hackett do what he did. Today was one of them.

"It’s quite the story," Yeo said. "We’re a development league, right? But we’re also here to win hockey games. I was going to play Josh today, and after talking with Matt, he wanted it. Badly. He said, I’m ready for this. I want the game. This is something that I’ve talked to him about, and we’ve talked to him about. The next step for him is, he’s got to show that he wants that. That’s he the guy. That he’s the man, take the wheel. I want to see some fight."

[SNIP]

"If he wants it that bad, I’m going to see what you’ve got then. I’m going to give you that opportunity, and he responded the right way. I was pretty impressed."

2. For those wondering, things like this happened with Kevin Constantine, as well. I can remember talking to Constantine in his office after Nolan Schaefer or Barry Brust had had a bad game, or several bad games, and asking who would go at goal the next day, and he would say one guy, then come game time, out would skate the other guy. And KC would say after the game that they talked and he saw that they wanted to get back out there and set things right.

3. I know that there will be injuries, and people moving up and down from Minnesota. I know that different guys will join the team and depart, etc., but...

I really like the way the lines shape up right now. I think that Peters/Ortmeyer/Gillies line is doing a great job of getting things started with just the right sense of energy and urgency. And I'm also liking the Rau/Earl/Daoust line. Earl's been playing some really good hockey for several weeks, but Daoust has suddenly started to come life.

4. We talked to Daoust after the game, and he attributed part of his early season slump to bad luck: "I’ve been working hard, and all of that," he said. "The puck didn’t bounce for me since the beginning of the year."

But Daoust attributed his turnaround to something besides the puck finally bouncing the right way. Yeo's got him paired up with Rau, and Daoust likes the pairing. He said they were paired a lot last season and they work well together.

5. Was that really Max Noreau almost getting into a fight at the end of the first period? Seriously, I can't remember the last time I saw Noreau close to a fight. That's not a knock against Max, it's just not his game. The framing's a bit off, or I would post a photo of it, but the best part of the near fight was Max jawing it out with Nolan Yonkman who as just towering over him.

6. The Lake Erie goalie didn't hang out in his corner when I was down there on Friday. But Matt Climie was sitting in his corner on Sunday. He was supposed to be taking notes, as he had a clipboard and paper and pin, but the guy was having fun, talking to the guards and arena personnel. People were handing pucks for him to sign, and he was doing that. And there were these kids behind us shouting about how they wanted to see blood and kill them -- the standard hockey stuff -- and he was just laughing away.

Once again, while the results do matter, it's all just a game, and it's all about having fun.

7. One of the guards asked him when he was going to play in Houston again, and Climie reminded him that his last time out, he got raked over the coals by the Aeros, so he wasn't eager to repeat the experience.

8. I'm kind of sick of the Rampage. So I guess it's kind of nice that these two teams won't face each other again until mid-March.

9. I'll have a story in the Press sometime on Monday with a focus on Hackett. So please look for it. I'll try and post it, but I'm facing a possible root canal on Monday morning, so I might have other things to worry about.

Deck the halls with Climie's jock, fa la la...

Oh man. What a night of hockey, gang. Nights like this are why I never wanna miss a game for teams I care about. You really just never know what's going to happen, like this 5-3 win over San Antonio with 4 goals for Casey Wellman.

Andrew gave you the recap below, but I'll fill in with my usual nonsense, starting with a funny from the locker room. Well, just outside the locker room because I haven't quite reached the level of professionalism where naked hockey butts wouldn't be a distraction. So we interview in the hall when I go downstairs. ;)

Anyway, we ask Wellman about that cuh-razy fourth goal where he spin-o-ramas and Matt Climie looks like he needs his dizzy medication cuz he's just blindsided by this play. Honestly, I might have cried if I hadn't been so busy trying  convey this beast of a goal on Twitter. It was a monster in and of itself. But to be his 4th goal of the night? Shut up.

Here's what he had to say about it:

Prosser got the puck and there was a guy on me at first, but he kinda just drifted away and there was just a wide open lane and Pross, thank God, saw me.

It's funny, I actually did that move on Hackett the other day (in practice). He wasn't very happy about it. He said it wasn't realistic. So it's good to kinda get back at him there.

I tend to agree with Hackett. That wasn't realistic but nevertheless, there it was before all our eyes. I tweeted afterward that they had to pause the game for Climie to go retrieve his jock from the rafters.

Now, Matt Climie is a very good goalie. One of the best in the league. He wasn't perfect tonight but that score isn't on him. The team in front of him let him down enough times that if they'd played smarter, this would have been a very different game.

Y'all know I love goalies and I hate to mock one of the ones I particularly like, but I hope I'm making up for it by whatever implications you might want to draw from the size of his jock. HOSS!

That said, I was SO disappointed to see only ONE hat hit the ice after his hat trick. Come on, gang. WTF is that about. We don't get to see too many hatties. I know times are tough but you can get a new hat. Nobody's head is freezing on the way home. That bummed me out a little.

When it came time to pick the stars, only the third star was up for any debate. It went to Earl for his two assists but Andrew brought up Kassian's fight. I'm not sure it helped anybody but it was a gentlemanly gesture to accommodate Hollweg's request (at least I'm assuming that's how it went down... can't imagine Kass had any other reason to want to fight).

Anyway, Kass, as usual, won it soundly, but Hollweg's a tough dude and hung in there and didn't look foolish in spite of limited connections. It was a very good fight, all things considered.

And speaking of which... I think it really shows the confidence San Antonio has in their abilities right now that the game DIDN'T get dirty. Think back to when SA was bad.  A 4-1 game would have deteriorated into a fight-fest rapidly in most cases, or at least been way chippier.

But they knew they could come work their way back if they stayed focused and disciplined. And frankly, with the Aeros letting up in the third and "bad habits creeping back in" as Yeo said, I was getting a bit worried. But Anton made a big stop (which you can see along with other pics at Artandhockey's blog here) and kept damage at a minimum to preserve the 2-goal lead to the buzzer.

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Finally, a note of thanks from us press dingalings to Brian Duval, whose tenure as the media relations intern for the Aeros ended today. He's been a total pleasure to deal with since this summer when he WAS the media relations department for a while before they hired Rich. So, we wish him the best of luck in his job search and everything to come in what is sure to be a bright career.

2/27/10 -- Aeros v. Stars -- Comfortably Numb Edition

Kevin Constantine looked defeated after the game tonight. He sounded defeated. Even when he was defending his team and their effort he just looked and sounded defeated. Perhaps that's because he is defeated.

Once again Wade Dubielewicz got the start in goal on a Saturday night. Once again he allowed three goals in the first period. And once again, the team just could not overcome the start. But at least he was perfect. He faced three shots, and three shots went in the goal before Barry Brust was sent in to damn the flow. But the damning of the flow came too late as the Aeros lost 5-2.

I'll let Constantine's words speak for themselves.

"Actually, I loved our first period," he said. "I didn’t like the score, but I loved the way we worked, competed, and got scoring chances. I thought, we as a team, played really, really good. We gave up a few things. And it wasn’t really entirely Wade’s fault, but we gave up a lot. We played really, really hard. I wasn’t disappointed with the effort of the guys at all."

The difference in the game was goal keeping. Primarily, Matt Climie faced an overwhelming number of shots and let in only two -- both of which were mistakes. Jean-Michel Daoust banged a shot off the post that found the puck rebound to Jamie Fraser in just the right spot, and Fraser took advantage to briefly tie the game. And in the third, with the game out of reach at 4-1, Climie went away from the net while the Stars were on the power play in order to play the puck. Jaime Sifers swiped the puck and was past Climie and scored an illogical sounding empty-net, short-handed goal.

As to the play of Dubielewicz, Constantine explained:

"It’s tough....He actually hadn’t played for awhile because of being with the Wild. So he hadn’t played for awhile with the Wild, and then Barry was on a bit of a roll, so that kept him out, and then he didn’t play for a week here. It’s very tough for a goalie to find a rhythm, but we wanted to give him a chance. Barry hasn’t been played bad, but Barry hadn’t won in a couple of games, and the other guy deserves a shot when that happens. We wanted to give him a chance."

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The team just seemed to lose composure in the third period, which resulted in a fight-filled mini-brawl fest featuring cheap shots and lots of stupidity on the parts of many. This made a seemingly endless game seem infinitely longer than it already was.

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I'm jettisoning my year long Beatles music theme. There's only one song that I can think of which describes the horror that was this game. So here's Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb."

12/18: Aeros 2, Texas 5

You could see this one coming a mile away. The Texas Stars are just damn good. They've slumped a little in goal with Brent Krahn's injury, but Climie is still an excellent goalie and his backup, Dallas prospect Bachman is also proving to be quite good.

The win against them on Tuesday in their barn was... maybe not a fluke... but that certainly wasn't the Texas Stars you get on most nights. And they knew it and you can bet they were looking to redeem themselves like a book of S&H Green Stamps. (How much did I just age myself?)

On top of that, the Aeros are playing 4 games in 6 nights and they looked a little tired. I thought the Stars had the edge on speed and sharpness all night, even though the Aeros seemed to be giving it all the gas they had.

One of the guys will probably give you the full quote, but after the game, Constantine said the goals against were Team Goals Against. Indeed they were. Breakdowns started upfront and rolled back to the net. Man, that second goal on Dubie by Peters was just sick. Sure Gunderson got beat badly on it, but it was a sweet goal finding the hole over Dubie's shoulder.

I continue to be impressed by Cody Almond. He just has terrific vision and hockey sense and does the "little things" coaches always talk about that make a big difference.

Brandon Rogers is another guy who really seems to have that ability to dig deep and find energy when others seem to be lagging a bit. He was terrific tonight. And really, you can't say enough about a guy who goes from being a cornerstone of a team's defense to being the STARTING CENTER. This isn't just like John Scott filling in on the wing. That's still a tough transition, but centers have more responsibility, a LOT more skating, and then to be the starting center? Wow.

We always have a laugh about it and shake our heads when he's announced as such each night because of what it says about the team as a whole, but it says nothing but really great things about Brandon.

This isn't going to be popular, but I'm going old school with the stick figure today. Well, technically there's no stick figure at all, but this is the kind of thing where a string of photos from Fred would probably give us some proof one way or the other as to that no-goal call.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter, but we all felt like based on replays that it was not a goal. It looked like it hit the back of the post and out, but I really don't believe if you could look down from above, that the puck was ALL the way over the line.

This drawing conclusively proves that T3I needs Fred taking pictures for us, because that is just craptastic and proves absolutely nothing.

Speaking of Fred, be sure and tell him HAPPY BIRTHDAY because he turns 29 today (Saturday)! Happy Birthday Freddycakes!

10/10 -- Aeros v. Stars -- The Celebration of Newbies Edition

The Aeros and Stars battled tonight, in front of 5736 at the Toyota Center, and just as Friday’s game between the two was close, so was this one. So close, in fact, that the game went to a shootout before Jon DiSalvatore hit the lone goal for either team, giving the Aeros the 2-1 victory and increasing their record to 2-2-0-0 (4 points).

Tonight’s game belonged to the newbies, especially the fourth line which featured Peter Zingoni anchoring the wings of Cody Almond and Carson McMillan. While several of the lines featured some energy, and while DiSalvatore and Nathan Smith -- two more newbies -- had several opportunities to get scores, it was Zingoni who scored the one Aeros regulation goal, virtually shoving the puck past former Aero playoff hero Matt Climie to put the Aeros up 1-0 at the 17:26 mark of the first.

“It was a great forecheck from my linemates Cody Almond and [Carson] McMillan,” Zingoni said. “They stayed hard on the puck and got the puck to the net. [McMillan] gave me a nice little pass crossing…[Climie] made a nice initial save, and I just kind of buried my head and just kept working on it.”

The Stars tied the game at 5:11 of the second when Brad Lukowich’s shot hit off of one of Anton Khudobin’s defenders and deflected past him. But after that, Climie and Khudobin kept the offenses in check even though the Aeros had several good chances in overtime to get the score. Smith was working Climie so hard at about the 2:34 of OT that it looked like the two were going to come blows, but alas, the Aeros were unable to get the score.

Texas went first, and Khudobin easily stopped Kevin DeVergilio’s attempt. In fact, he easily stopped all of the Texas attempts, and if not for DiSalvatore getting it past Climie on the Aeros first shootout attempt, this game might still be underway.

Khudobin said after the game that the shootout was one of the best parts of his game when he was in Russia, but that it has suffered here. Tonight, however, he was solid. “I was sure I was going to stop the pucks [in the shootouts],” Khudobin said. “I was focusing on the pucks.”

The Aeros, as with last week, lost the first game of a weekend series, but came back to the win the second. And head coach Kevin Constantine noted how tough that was this weekend against the Stars.

“They’re a good team,” he said. “They’re on the road playing, and they haven’t lost a game in regulation out of four. They don’t give you much room. Getting pucks to the net is hard. We’ve got to give them some credit. They’re a very good team.”

As for his team’s play tonight, Constantine noted that they were more consistent tonight, and that while they might not have had the intensity at the start of Friday’s game, neither did they sink to the depths to which they sunk on Friday.

The Aeros will return to action next weekend when they take on the San Antonio Rampage for two games at Toyota Center on Friday and Saturday.

SOME MISCEALLANEOUS GAME NOTES:

The Aeros are still, at this point, a team in flux. The lineup for tonight’s game had some big changes, and Constantine and his staff are still trying to find the right mix of players. GM Jim Mill noted during the game that the Aeros are carrying a big roster, but that several players had been released. And Constantine told us after the game that the roster would be thinned come next week.

“We purposely held guys around longer than normal just to be real thorough in evaluation of who we want to play and who should make the team,” he said. “There’s a negative to that as it’s kind of hard to become a team and work with individual guys. The positive of that is that your decisions are better.”

Released before the game were right wing Simon Ferguson, left wing Gregg Johnson, and right wing Matt Fornataro. Mill noted with Ferguson that this really had nothing to do with his play, but just that there are a lot of veterans on the team, and that they did not foresee the Wild sending Craig Weller and Andy Hilbert down to the team. Mill stated that he liked Ferguson and that Ferguson would be one of the first guys he contacts should their be an opening on the roster.

What I don’t think either Mill or Constantine intended was that the team would be losing players to Minnesota. However, during tonight’s game in San Jose, the Wild, according to tweets from reporter Michael Russo, lost John Scott, Cal Clutterbuck, and Petr Sykora to injuries. The severity of the injuries isn’t yet known, though while Scott had returned to the bench, Clutterbuck and Sykora had not.

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Once again, I was impressed by the play of the rookies. Chad Rau had a nice game on Friday, and Almond and McMillan were nice surprises. They were hitting, they were attacking the net, and they brought an energy to the game that was kind of like what Clutterbuck used to do, and kind of like the Love/Ryznar/Kassian line last season.

Peter Zingoni, the veteran who played with them, was impressed.

“We did a great job, and I give a lot of credit to them,” he said. “It’s their first pro game. They did an awesome job….It was a lot of fun playing with them….they gave a good impression for the coach and the staff.”

And just as Rau got his first professional point on Friday, McMillan got his first professional point tonight when he assisted on Zingoni’s score. Also, note, that the score sheet is wrong. Almond, not Nathan Smith, was on the ice with Zingoni and McMillan when Zingoni scored. Zingoni even credited Almond, and Almond could easily be seen behind Zingoni on the replay.

Also, my apologies to McMillan. I believe that on the little video discussion with myself and Andrew that I said Corey McMillian instead of Carson. That was a stupid mistake on my part.

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I’ve got a problem, again, with the people who decided on the three stars. I’ve got no problem with Zingoni’s star, though I would have made him the third star. Matt Climie was a deserving star, but I would have made him two instead of three -- he did stop 30 of 31 game shots and four of the five shootout shots. And though Jon DiSalvatore did a nice job to get the shootout goal, I fail to understand how Khudobin, who stopped 23 of 24 game shots and all five that he faced in the shootout, could not have been given his proper recognition.

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As for our video to play us out tonight, I just can’t think of anything better than “Under Pressure” from Queen and David Bowie as a little salute to the excellent goaltending from Climie and Khudobin.

10/9 - Aeros v. Stars

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which leads us to the stick figure of the night:

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

Beaudoin impresses in Stars Scrimmage

Matt Beaudoin (photo by Fred Trask) scored two goals in Dallas' (white vs. green, I guess) White 5-0 win today. Don't crown the guy king of Stars hockey, but he is off to a good start. There is no doubt that he will hustle and do good things with the puck.

Mike Heika covers Stars hockey for the AM news up there and was very impressed with Beauds.
Matt Climie got a very good mention too for his big saves in the game.

I just realized that Clime and Krahn will likely be in Austin. If their "D" holds up down there, they will be a very good team. I predict they will be one of the four teams to make the playoffs (Chicago, Milwaukee, Houston and Texas are my early picks). No, not in that order.

Here is a little bit from Heika's blog:

"The other player of note on Monday was Mathieu Beaudoin, who scored two goals. Beaudoin is 25 and is coming off a year in which he played for new Texas Stars coach Glen Gulutzan in Las Vegas (ECHL) and also for the Houston Aeros (11-8_19 in 41 games). He powered two shots in and looked good doing it. He just signed with the Texas Stars, so he could become a player that the Stars might see this year. He's a right-handed shot, so that doesn't hurt his chances.

"Matt Climie had probably the most noticeable saves in net, as he stopped Jamie Benn and Ray Sawada on a couple of good chances. All in all, most of the goalies have looked good in the two scrimmages."

It's OK to lament of him not returning here, but the Wild have answered why to that question and he just did not fit in the plans for the organization. Fletcher wants guys that are comfortable to him in his first couple of years, and until the guys scores 20 goals in the NHL, there is no need to call this a mistake.

Climie signed by Dallas

Late season hero for the Aeros, goalie Matt Climie was signed to a one-year, two-way contract today by the Stars. Dallas now has 3 minor league goalies (Climie, Brent Krahn, who was also signed today, and Richard Bachman) so presumably one will end up in Idaho in the ECHL while the other two battle for the #1 spot in Cedar Park with the Texas Stars, similar to the Aeros goalie situation this past season.

Read more about it here.

Feature on Aeros' Masked Men

I finally decided the Aeros "Cirque du Goaltending" was too intriguing not to write a feature about it for InGoalMag.com, where I'm the AHL editor.

So, go check it out if you wish. Worst case, if the writing sucks, it's at least got Fred's beautiful pictures.

For more on Climie, check out Andrew's feature for the Chronicle yesterday.

Thoughts from last night; Media round-up

I think all the superlatives have been said already. That was an amazing game, and I'm pretty sure there are claw marks in the table on press row where I was sitting.

I needed every minute of those intermissions to gather my nerves and find my breath. I can't even imagine actually PLAYING that game.

Well done, boys. Amazing stuff. Keep it up. I cannot WAIT for Monday to see what happens.

And how great was it having Schultzie back? He made little (and sometimes big) plays nearly every shift that made a difference. Amazing stuff after having been out for a month. He's my super secret star of the night.

If Matt Climie isn't backing Turco up in Dallas next season, oh boy, is he gonna make the Aeros lives hell playing for the new Austin team. (BTW, if you want to keep tabs on the approach of their inaugural season, they have a decent Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/TexasStars) that's worth following if you are into the tweets and whatnot.)

Anyway, on to the media round-up. It was a night full of great quotes and even some great non-quotes from a very angry Manitoba coach.

From Houston:
Andrew's article for the Chronicle (plus video)
My article for PHN
John's article for the Press (coming soon)

From Winnipeg:
Post gamer from the Winnipeg Free Press
And finally, from the Winnipeg Sun

Round 3, Game #5: Aeros vs. Moose -- The Get Back Edition

“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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

Round 3, Game #5: Aeros vs. Moose -- Some Quick Thoughts

Wow. Wow. Wow.

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.

Observations From The Morning Skate -- Quick Notes Edition

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).

My bold prediction: the first team to score wins.

Goalie News for Breakfast

Here's a little something to start your Monday with a smile, unless you're Matt Climie: There are three Aeros goalies in Milwaukee with the team--Dimples, Schaefer, and Brust.

Neither Schaefer nor Brust have been traveling with the team until now, so that's kind of a big deal and great news. Though Climie has been a terrific back-up and definitely gets cookies from Ms. Conduct.

(Note to Matt: If you've got some spare time in the next couple of days, I could use some lessons on recovering from my ass without wallowing on the ice like an upside-down turtle...)

Anyway, I won't presume to guess who will be out on the ice Monday night, though from what Schaefer said about being ready to go and Constantine's penchant for riding the most recently hot goalie, I would guess he'll back Dimples up. But there's a little intrigue between the pipes for y'all to chew on today.

Observations From The Morning Skate

I took you on a look into the numbers in the post below. But I thought I would share some of the info I got from this morning's skate.

As Heather already posted, Barry Brust and Nolan Schaefer are pretty much being counted out for the playoffs. I was a bit surprised to hear that from Kevin Constantine, as Schaefer has supposedly been on the brink of returning to action since the San Antonio series to end the season. But Constantine said that the rehab for his lower body injury isn't progressing as planned, and that no one is more frustrated by this than Schaefer. Barry Brust is battling a broken foot, and he's pretty much out for the length of the playoffs, but if something should happen, he's the closest one to a full recovery.

So that pretty much means that the Aeros will be going with Anton Khudobin for the rest of the playoffs. Constantine says he pulled Khudobin on Saturday night to basically give him a rest, and because he just had this feeling that the team wasn't going to pull off one of its comebacks.

"Anton had played pretty good, and he’d made some great saves early to keep us in the game," Constantine said. "It wasn’t a thing of Anton being bad, it was a thing of, well, he’s played every game for us, let’s give him a breather and let him come back."

Jesse Schultz, meanwhile, is skating, but not with the team. He's able to get on the ice and move around a bit, but he can't place too much pressure on the ankle and he obviously has difficulties with the sudden movements a hockey player has to make on his ankle. I didn't see Schultz while I was at Toyota Center this morning, so I couldn't check with him, but Constantine implied that it would pretty much take a miracle for Schultz to make it back for this series.

"He’s trying to work his way back," Constantine said of Schultz. "You never say never, but we just don’t feel at this point that he’s close to making his way back."

I can't really say much about Paul Albers's injury. I saw him on the ice with the rest of the team this morning, and he appeared to be fully participating in all of the drills. If he was in any kind of pain, it didn't show. Of course, he could end up being a game time decision.

The rookies, J.P. Testwuide and Marco Scandella, are getting playing time because of Albers injury. Testwuide had been working with the forwards in practice, so when Albers was injured, Constantine thought of putting him in at his natural position, but chose to stick with him at forward for because he brings a little added size up front and put Scandella in at Albers spot instead.

Constantine thinks the key to tonight's game is the team worrying less about what Milwaukee's doing, and concentrating more on making their plays. He was happy with their play last Thursday, but much less so with Saturday's play. So I look for the team to play more like Game One when they seemed more concerned with pressing the action and forcing Milwaukee to react to them, than like they were on Saturday, when they seemed to be more reactive to what was happening.

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I also took a little time to talk to the newest Aeros goalie, Matt Climie. Climie says that he is "ready, and I’m just waiting for the opportunity to go in and prove myself." He knows that his job at the moment is to sit on the bench and stay prepared for sudden action, and he says he's got a game plan for dealing with that.

"I just try to keep loose," he says. "I don’t place a lot of emphasis on preparing mentally. Where as a lot of guys spend two hours visualizing and thinking about making saves. I just try to stay loose and have fun with it. And then when there’s a chance to go in the net, I focus and regroup quickly because you get thrown in there, and it doesn’t take long to focus. I just try to make the saves."

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And for those of you who Kevin Constantine talking about the flipper play between periods on Saturday night, I got an explanation. And it's just as it sounds. One of the guys at the far end of the ice flips the puck high in the air toward the other side in hopes that one his teammates will be able to get under the puck and take it in for the goal.

Round 2, Game 2: Shut Down

Well... that was more like it. That kind of dominant shutting down of the Aeros offense and the blossoming of the Admirals powerful scoring is why I predicted Milwaukee in 5.

I don't blame Dimples for the loss, and while I would have liked to see him stop a couple of those that he didn't: a) it wouldn't have mattered anyway because the Aeros couldn't score and b) he did have several highlight-reel saves that could have easily put the Ads up by more than 3 by the end of things. It's a wash, in my mind. He played fine.

The real story of this game, however, was how effective the Ads were at keeping the Aeros scorers at bay. Locke had a fat goose egg for shots on goal. Kolanos only had two.

I'm not gonna go back and check this stat, but when Kolanos has more PIM than Shots on the scoresheet, that's a guaranteed loss for the Aeros. Not good.

Here's the thing: Unlike Milwaukee, most of our skilled forwards are not strong physical players who can power to the net. We have a bunch of danglers and dekers who tend to over-complicate their own paths to the net and get lots of turnovers.

The Aeros pretty well got bitch-slapped anytime they got in the slot or around the net and that kept MacIntyre's job really, really easy. I'm not sure it would take a full hand to count quality scoring chances for the Aeros.

So, the only way the boys are gonna stand up to the way the Ads are playing is to be willing to pay the price to go to the net. I saw Hrkac in the low-slot several times trying to create opportunities for his wingers and that was terrific. In fact, that's what ultimately worked on the Earl goal. The rest of the game, the slot was devoid of green sweaters.

The defensive pairing of Stoner and Rogers just got their lovely asses kicked tonight, both being on the ice for the first three Admirals goals. I know they're being paired against the best the Ads had to offer but they both need to be better.

Justin Falk, on the other hand, couldn't have been better. I know I rave about him all the time, but man, to think where he started the season, looking scared out of his mind when he had the puck, to now where he's consistently reading plays like a wily veteran and getting his stick in there, blocking shots, playing a simple but extremely effective game. It kinda blows my mind. Kid's got the goods. He and Lundbohm were the only + players on the night, and with that goal differential, I'm amazed anybody was above 0.

Pouliot's lucky he's so good on the PK or I'd have sat him by now if I were Constantine. He's incredibly unfocused and lazy with the puck. Ugly, thoughtless passes, that breakaway shot was a joke--he's got better moves than that, turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. Brutal stuff and he's back to playing in a way that, outside of the PK, is disruptive to the flow of the Aeros offensive efforts.

Meanwhile, I like Climie in goal. I'm not saying start him. I'm just saying, he's big and calm and right where he's supposed to be. Look out because he's likely the Texas Stars goalie next season. You figure he's learning the Aeros shooters like the back of his hand right now in practice, eh?

Alright, that's enough from me. Come on home, boys. Prove me wrong.

Round 1, Game #4 -- Aeros vs.Peoria -- Photos 2

Here are a couple of shots of Matt Climie, he's a big one at 6' 3".

Ms C. has been touting the play of Justin Falk. Here is a big hit on Peoria's Julian Talbot.
Here is the hug from Robbie Earl on the Hrkac goal. You can see Legace is already yelling at the ref.
As the Aeros celebrate, referee Frederick L'Ecuyer explains to Manny Legace that the goal is good.
Anton Khudobin comes across the crease hard to stop the shot of Steve Wagner on the Peoria power play.
Unfortunately, he didn't make a solid stop and Peoria ties the game at 2.
This one was a back breaker. On a shot that looked high and wide, Khudobin got a glove on the puck only to have it flop to the ice behind him and trickle in before he could locate it.
Jesse Schultz gives the shot everything he has, as he stretches out airborne, on the back end of a 2 man penalty. He beats Manny Legace to bring the Aeros back within one goal.

All Photos:Fred Trask

Let's Play Rotating Goalies...

Tom Lynn announced today that the club has been assigned goalie Matt Climie by the Dallas Stars. Ryan Munce, who has been backing up Anton Khudobin has been released from his PTO.

Climie played three games for the Dallas Stars this season where he went 2-1 with a 2.92 goals against average and a .894 save percentage. He played 42 regular season games for the ECHL Idaho Steelheads were he was 27-12-1 with a 2.30 GAA and a .915 save percentage. He was 0-4 for the Steelheads in the ECHL playoffs, allowing a 2.41 GAA with a .924 save percentage.

Reading between the lines, I think this means that we've seen the last of Barry Brust and Nolan Schaefer for the season, or at the minimum, for the rest of this round and the next round of the playoffs. Schaefer was supposed to have been ready to return to the team in time for the San Antonio series that ended the season, but the injury is taking time to heal. And Kevin Constantine had said that Brust's current injury was similar to the one he had earlier in the year that took him over a month to recover from.