Round 1, Game 6: I said I wasn't going to write

And I don't plan to write much. There's really only so much you can absorb when you're full of beer and watching at the bar. Other than alcohol. I absorbed some of that for sure.

But at least I skipped the margaritas and avoided making a jackass of myself. Oh, man. Me and tequila...

Anyway...

First off, the Aeros confirmed that Tony Hrkac was not a healthy scratch, and that he will be a game time decision on Monday.

Secondly, it was really nice meeting some of you at the Leaf tonight. Glad we could bring some internet that actually worked, so a few of us could huddle around my husband's computer and watch the game with relative fluidity.

Though I found there were some die-hard Aeros fans there who didn't know about the site. Next time I'll be prepared with business cards. Tell your friends, eh?

Third, shame the boys lost their f**king minds in the third period. Darn shame. Seemed to me that the ref missed a few tripping fouls against the Aeros, too, but I'm not one to blame the refs. You avoid that Penalty Box Parade and you have a chance tonight for sure, and that's the theme of the game, without a doubt.

Finally, our friend Josh ran the stats and found that the Aeros are 1-4 all time on my birthday, so I'm gonna suggest to the team that they try REALLY hard not to schedule games on my birthday anymore. I'm starting to feel cursed.

Barry Brust Has A Broken Foot

Okay, I missed this little tidbit in Russo from earlier in the week, so if you've seen it, you're better than me. But Barry Brust has a broken foot. Trust me, there is some efforting going on amongst the T3I staff to find out just how serious the break is, but there you have it. That's why he's not playing.

Once again, I apologize for missing that earlier this week when it came out. I'm assuming this means that he's out for however long the rest of the playoffs will be. But I still haven't seen anything regarding the status of Nolan Schaefer's injury.

Round 1, Game #6: Aeros vs. Peoria -- A Few Quick Thoughts

Unlike some previous games, the Aeros dominated the first two periods of play. And unlike some of the previous games, the Aeros got their asses beat in the third period. I know people are going to blame the officiating for the 2-1 loss, especially as seeing as how the Aeros served about 30 straight penalties in the third -- I exaggerate, it was probably about 25. But here's the thing, they were all stupid penalties.

At some point, the Aeros have to learn to adjust to the referee. They can handle the Jeff Smith-type refs easy because he doesn't call penalties. But when they have a guy who blows the whistle, they keep playing like it's Jeff Smith out on the ice. And the worst offenders were Benoit Pouliot and Corey Locke. And yes, I watched the game, and I saw Locke get knocked about at the end of the game with the result being no call, but with just about two minutes left in the game and your team down by a goal, you don't wait until the puck is heading in the other direction and you're nowhere near the puck to slash a guy in retaliation. So as much as it hurt the team, Corey Locke fully deserved those four minutes in the box. And that, of course, killed the Aeros chances for the night.

I've got no complaints with Anton Khudobin's play. I liked how the team worked and dominated in the first two periods. The team had chances, especially Krys Kolanos. And John Lammers nearly made a shot storming out of the penalty box in the third that would have tied the game. But that didn't happen.

Game Seven will be Monday night, and it's also in Peoria. And let's hope Kevin Constantine gives the boys a good shouting out, because they deserve it for that awful third period play. And hopefully, Jesse Schultz wasn't as injured as he looked while he limped off of the ice at the end of the game. And if he is, let's hope Mitch Love gets a little chance for some retribution.

Game Six Aeros Video Preview

Here's the Game Six Preview from Aeros.com. The star of the show is definitely Mitch Love who appears to have fun with his time holding the microphone. Heather's already linked to some other video, but if want more audio and video, you can find lots of it over there.

As it is, back when this series started, I predicted the Aeros would win in six. And this is Game Six, so I'm sticking with that pick. I don't know which Aeros team will show up tonight, but it would be nice to see them take it to Peoria from the very start and just dominate the game all of the way through. I did sense a confidence from the team when I was down in the locker room after Game Five, and though they've said the right things all year, they seemed to really believe it this time.

The big problem as I see it is that this team has just been so damn good with coming from behind, that I can see them letting Peoria jump out to the lead again while they wait to kick it into gear in the third. But they know they can score on Legace -- I think they're over their awe of that guy -- and I think a fully healthy Krys Kolanos can kick them into gear early.

I'm not worried about Anton Khudobin. Maybe I should be. But I've come to grips with Khudobin. He's not had a lot of AHL time this year, and he's been thrown into the fire. Does he have his faults? Yes. But the key to the game will be the play in front of Khudobin. If the defense is tight and keeps Peoria away from the goal and keep the ice clear, then I think Khudobin will be okay. And if the offense spends the whole game pressing and keeps Peoria backed up, I think that will help also.

I'm not predicting the score. But I'm sticking with my choice of the Aeros winning this thing in six games. And look for Kolanos to have a big game.

A few more pre-game snacks...

Kudos to Dave Eminien for his excellent coverage of the Rivermen. I like getting a sense of what the opposing team's mindset is, though really, it's hard to get much more than the standard cliches this time of year. This isn't over, be disciplined, etc.

Anyway, here's his write-up today. As well, here's Andrew's game preview for the Chron.

I'm told by the team that Khudobin and Climie are the only goalies traveling with the team currently, but that Brust and/or Schaefer could join the team on the road trip if it continues to game 7.

Crazy times, folks. Gotta love the playoffs.

Afternoon Delight: Throwing a link to Joe O'Donnell's Tour de SLICE, which is pretty interesting. I have yet to figure out how the goalies get dressed in such a small space. But then they aren't getting dressed out of a bag like I do, so maybe that's the trick.

Also, we learn that Paul Albers is the waffle master and that there's a never-ending supply of ice cream in the lounge. I could make a joke here but I won't.

Houston Aeros and AHL Playoff Updates (Now With A Clarified Stat)

As I'm sure we all know, the Aeros and Rivermen aren't the only teams playing in the AHL Calder Cup Playoffs. So I thought I would just give everybody a bit of an update over what is happening around the league.

But first, some information for Aeros/Rivermen Game Six.

The good news is that the Aeros are 7-3 when an opponent faces elimination, and they are 5-2 in such an instance when in the opponents building. The Aeros are also 5-1 in their playoff history when leading a series three games to two. (This needs to be clarified. The Aeros's aren't 5-1 in Game Six situations. They are 5-1 in series in which they have held the 3-2 lead. I'm sorry if I confused anybody.)

The come-from-behind win was the third time this season that Houston's done this against Peoria. And the victory was the first time in this playoff series in which the team that scored first didn't win the game. Coming into that game, and going back to the 2006 playoff matchup between these two teams, the team that had scored first had won eight straight games. So it looks like that streak is over. And despite the team's overtime record during this past regular season, the Aeros have now won six straight playoff games to go into overtime.

The Aeros have outscored Peoria 14-13 in the series, and as proof of how they've dominated the third period this series, they've outscored Peoria 8-5. Peoria, continues to outscore Houston in the first two periods. But to show how important scoring first is, the Aeros are 47-14 all-time in playoff action (26-6 in Calder Cup) when getting the first goal.

The Aeros leading scorers are Corey Locke (3-3=6) and Matt Beaudoin (1-5=6). All six of their points have come on the power play. Tony Hrkac, the old man, is tied for second in scoring with Krys Kolanos. Both are 1-4=5.

And in case you didn't read the link from Heather's post early yesterday, then you missed that the Rivermen will have a new backup to Manny Legace. The St. Louis Blues, who were eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs earlier this week, returned Ben Bishop to Peoria. Chris Holt will remain with the team, but he will be joining his fellow scratched teammates up in the stands.

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The Milwaukee Admirals will be the team facing the winner of the Aeros/Rivermen contest. The Admirals swept the Rockford IceHogs, winning 3-1, 3-1, 3-1, and 4-1. Milwaukee goalie Drew MacIntyre stopped 105 of 109 shots to move to 10-3 for his playoff career. He's got a career playoff average of 1.53 goals allowed and .947 save percentage. And for the season he was 34-15-4 with a 2.30 goals allowed average and .921 save percentage.

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The Manitoba Moose will be playing the Toronto Marlies in Game Six of their series. Manitoba leads the series three games to two. Manitoba goalie Cory Schneider stopped 58 of 61 Toronto shots in games four and five to help put Manitoba in the lead. Game Six is tonight is in Winnipeg, and the Moose have already sold 8100 tickets for the game and are opening the upper deck to the MTS Centre.

And if you missed the news, Manitoba coach Scott Arniel was named as the AHL's coach of the year.

The winner of the Manitoba/Toronto series will face the winner of the Grand Rapids/Hamilton series. The Griffins lead this series 3-2 with Game Six set for Grand Rapids on Sunday.

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Over in the other conference, Hershey destroyed Philadelphia, sweeping them in four games, and the Bears will now go up against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in a battle of Pennsylvania. Wilkes-Barre won it's series against Bridgeport in five games.

In the Hershey series, the Bears penalty kill held the Phantoms to 0-for-20 on the power play. The Phantoms had finished the season with the AHL's eighth-best power play, whereas Hershey finished with the league's worst penalty kill. So Hershey really turned it on in the playoffs. In the Wilkes-Barre series, the Penguins won all three of Bridgeport's home games, including two games that were played in Long Island due to a scheduling conflict with Bridgeport's arena.

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And in the Atlantic Division, the Providence Bruins, who dispatched the Portland Pirates in five games, are awaiting the victor of the Hartford/Worcester series which Worcester leads three games to two. Worcester, which like it's parent club San Jose Sharks, lost the first two games of the series, but Worcester has won the last three games in Hartford, fueled by the return of Brad Staubitz who was suspended for the first two games of the series. The Bruins series win was clinched by Peter Schaefer, the brother of Aeros goalie Nolan Schaefer, whose only goal of the series turned out to be the game-winning goal of Game Five against Portland.

Watching World Championship; Maple Leaf Pub tomorrow night

A couple of items:

First of all, if you're into checking out the IIHF World Championships in Switzerland, AeroFinn points us to some places online to watch and Fred figured out how to watch over the air. No tech support here, just giving a kick-start.

Apparently the games are showing in the US on Universal Sports, which almost nobody anywhere gets, but apparently it's on the over the air station 39.2. Last time I watched TV over the air, there were no decimals in the channel numbers, so I have no idea what that means or how to access it. All I know is my DirecTV ain't got it.

From AeroFinn:

For Olvecky: all the Slovakian games in here http://www.stv.sk/live/?3

And most other games(also SVK) through here:
http://www.myp2p.eu/competition.php?competitionid=&part=sports&discipline=icehockey

You can find several options through the latter, had to try a few before I got one working.

Starting times at 9:15am and 1:15pm Houston time.

Here's the schedule of games. I don't really understand it but maybe you do.

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Just a reminder that the game in Peoria Saturday night starts at 7:00 p.m.

Listen on the radio, pay $8 to watch on AHL Live, or head to the Maple Leaf Pub in beautiful midtown, and buy me and my beautiful new Clutterbuck jersey a birthday beer while we watch the boys take on Peoria. :)

More Fresh Meat: Carson McMillan signed by the Wild

Aeros fans got another glimpse at the potential future of the team today when the Wild signed 2007 7th round draft pick Carson McMillan to a 3-year entry level contract.

From the Wild:

McMillan, 20 (9/10/88), recorded career-highs with 31 goals, 41 assists, 72 points and 93 penalty minutes (PIM) in 68 games during his fourth season with the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League (WHL) in 2008-09. The 6-foot-1, 206-pound native of Brandon, Manitoba added seven game-winning goals, five power play tallies and four shorthanded goals helping lead Calgary to a 59-9-3-1 regular season record. He has tallied eight points (2-6=8) in 12 playoff games this season.

The Hitmen are undefeated in 12 playoff matches and will play either Kelowna or Vancouver in the WHL Championship series. The winner of the WHL Championship series will advance to the Memorial Cup.

Of course, Cody Almond, who was signed a couple of weeks ago and will also likely be an Aero next season, plays for Kelowna, so there could be a baby Aeros match-up in the WHL Championship. We'll have to keep an eye on that.

Anyway, looking forward to seeing both of these guys next season as they're coming out of juniors looking like pretty solid picks by the Wild. I've even seen McMillan compared to Clutterbuck a little bit, so that should be good for some fun if it's true.

What a difference a 3-goal comeback makes

Here's the latest from the Peoria Star Journal regarding the Peoria camp.

It's amazing to me how much the tone of this series has changed over its course. If you look back at the article in which Stastny is rather smug to today's piece... wow.

Of course, we know what the Aeros tend to do with momentum... *fizzle*. Hopefully knowing they can put this thing to bed tomorrow night, come home and get a few days to recuperate before Milwaukee, will be incentive to not wait until the last 5 minutes. Plus a fully healthy Kolanos should help. Seems that his energy level is contagious... when he's got his intensity turned to 11, so does the rest of the team, and vice versa. He's like the Pied Piper.

The other thought I have is that this team does tend to get their shit together better when the light at the end of the tunnel is brightest. Whether it's game 4 of a 4 in 5, or the last game of a long road trip, they have tended to come through with a win.

It makes sense that such a tendency would go hand in hand with their "comeback" personality, since both scenarios are all about digging deep and giving it everything when you really don't have a lot left to give. But as I said, this team does tend to play worse when they're carrying momentum from a previous game, so who knows?

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

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

I thought Bryan Lundbohm had another good game.

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

Here is a nice close up shot of Anton.

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

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

And the celebration after.

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

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

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

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

All Photos:Fred Trask