Recapping Lake Erie and Hamilton away WINS

So, y'all... the Aeros are pretty good.

Scary good.

Scary in the sense that it all seems too easy right now and teams that cruise from the start rarely seem to be cruising by the end. Maybe Hershey a couple of seasons ago. I dunno. Just sorta makes me nervous.

Now, if you follow us on Twitter, maybe you caught my live tweeting of the game in Cleveland against the Lake Erie Monsters Thursday night.

It was the last game of a 9 day trip where I went to a hockey game on 8 of those 9 days, and this game was the only bad one. Mainly because Lake Erie is just a really bad team and it hurts to watch them. And I say that with 2 live games at Quicken Loans Arena under my belt on this trip. I won't go into the gritty details because it'll just come across as mean, but take my word for it.

When I saw them play Syracuse the week before, they got lit up 7-0, with goalie Trevor Cann getting run after 6 goals. It was like watching an ECHL team play an AHL team.

It was so bad, I was actually disappointed the Aeros got scored on much at all when they played them last night. But Mr. C summed it up best: The Aeros got up 2 goals early and cruised the rest of the way.

There was urgency and beautiful hockey for stretches, but also occasional periods of lackadaisical play that burned them pretty much every time. Even with some really big saves by Hackett (The Kid just gets better and better), Lake Erie put 3 on the board.

DiSalvatore scored just seconds into the opening frame, then Ortmeyer got a nice one midway through the first. It was strong period, top to bottom, but they came out for the second with their B-game and the Monsters capitalized early to get within 1.

Warren Peters scored on the power play late in the 2nd to get some insurance and then the Aeros went up 4-1 early in the third with a goal from McIntyre, his 6th of the season.


From there, Lake Erie scored a couple of goals, but not without Taffe putting his mark on the game (for the second time, really, as he assisted on Peters' goal) with his 4th of the season to make the final 5-3.


The Aeros are just so easy, breezy with this system after playing it all last season and then really putting it through the ringer in the playoffs, I still just find it odd to watch an Aeros team succeed like this and make it look relatively easy. I mean, don't change a thing, boys, but still. It's an odd phenomenon this early in the season.

Tonight, I didn't watch so I can't speak to the effort level it took to beat the Hamilton Bulldogs 4-2, but knowing the Bulldogs, it wasn't the cake walk Lake Erie appeared to be.

Still, it was a strong first period, putting up 11 shots to the Bulldogs' 4. But no goals in the frame.

The Dogs scored first, early in the second, with the Aeros answering just a few minutes later on a power play goal from DiSalvatore.

From there, the Aeros scored 2 more unanswered goals (Fontaine from Bagnall and Reid; Peters from Taffe and Wellman [PP]) and the Bulldogs, in spite of an additional power play goal with a 2-man advantage late in the third, couldn't close the gap.

Palmer got his first of the year with an empty netter from Cody Almond, who made his season debut tonight after recovering from a back injury. The final was 4-2 for Houston.

Day off tomorrow as the boys head back to Houston. Then they're back at it Sunday against the Marlies, who are off to a hot start this season, leading the North Division. Now, I can't say whether that's because they're that good or because they've been playing Lake Erie so much.... but either way, it's a good litmus test for the Aeros.

Meanwhile, the boys in the bomber sweaters have 19 points, which leads the division, the conference and the league in points, and have a league leading 8-1-0-3 record. Darn those shootouts!

(Oh, and to recap a little news that may or may not have been posted here yet, Matt Kassian cleared waivers and is being assigned to Houston. Hide your rooster figurines.)

See you Sunday, gang.

Quick Roster Notes

Per Wild beat writer Michael Russo, the Wild have placed Matt Kassian on waivers with the intent of returning him to the Aeros. Also per Russo, Marco Scandella and Justin Falk were told they could move out of the team hotel and find some more permanent housing in the Twin Cities area, so it looks doubtful that we'll be seeing them with the Aeros this season.

Jordan Hendry blows town for la Suisse

As Chris Jerina first reported on a comment to this blog, Aeros defenseman Jordan Hendry is now a former Aeros defenseman. Hendry, who signed a one-way deal with the Aeros before the regular season, will play in the Swiss A league for HC Lugano. I don't recognize too many names on his new team, with the exception of former Aero and Calder Cup champion Hnat Domenichelli and Rob Niedermayer.

Swiss A is a place where all good AAA hockey player's dreams can come true. Candy grows on trees, most of the pretty women there shave, and the teams ride mounted unicorns to their games.

Ten games into his Aeros career, Hendry had but two helpers, but his +/- was an impressive plus 8.

That kind of experience will be hard to replace, so we'll have to see what Torchetti does with the lineup. The natural fit might be F/D Mike Hoffman. And it might be some other dman in the ECHL, and it might be no one.

In other news, expect Cody Almond to join the Aeros soon. He is healthy enough to play and will be, what Aeros fans hope, is a good addition to the roster. Also, Brett Bulmer was sent back to his junior team, and as far as I know, no Aeros player has been recalled to take his place just yet.

Not sure they need to at this point, but we'll try to keep you posted.

Aeros on the teevee (sorta)

Just a heads up that Drew Bagnall and Mike Hoffman will be on "Not Your Ordinary Sports Show" at http://www.THEBUSTV.com tonight from 7:30-10:30 hosted by Eric Winston (the Houston Texans' resident hockey fan).

Sounds like a pretty entertaining show and sorta ties in to Monday Night Football.

I'd watch, but I'm stuck here in Hamilton, ON with wifi in the lobby only and where I THOUGHT there was a Bulldogs game tonight (there's not, I mis-read the calendar). Bah.

I can attest, however, that the Sheraton here isn't too shabby (it's where the boys stay when they play the mean and nasty Bulldogs). Seen several Abbotsford players wandering around trying to stay entertained without actually day drinking at strip clubs. Not that hockey players do that. No, sir.

Also, sorry, ladies, no Krys Kolanos sightings (though he was just named AHL Player of the Week).

Off to Detroit tomorrow to catch up with the Wild. And then Thursday I'll be coming to you live from Lake Erie to tweet/report that away game.  I sincerely hope the Monsters I saw last Wednesday vs. Syracuse show up. They were godawful.

Talk to you Thursday!

A Win Is A Win Is A Win, No Matter How Ugly It Is

It's the night before Halloween. There was a scary looking guy dressed up in a clown costume behind the glass. And the Aeros (6-1-0-3, 15 points) put on a frightening display of hockey. But in the end, they got the come-from-behind 5-3 win over the visiting Charlotte Checkers (6-3-1-0, 12 points).

And that's all that matters. Right?

Both the Aeros and Checkers were playing their third games in three nights, and it clearly showed in a first when both teams played sloppy and choppy. It was the type of first period where, if you were attending your first game ever, you would look at a friend and ask why it was they said hockey was so great. The teams seemed to lack focus, and just weren't getting much done.

The Aeros did have the 1-0 lead after one, though, despite being outshot 13-5, thanks to Jeff Taffe rescuing a turnover on an Aeros power play and hitting the top bar from just under the blue line. But then came the second period. A period of hockey so ugly that one would be forgiven for thinking they were stuck inside a horror movie.

The Aeros actually grabbed the 2-1 lead at the 10:53 mark of Kris Foucault deflected a Justin Fontaine shot into the goal. And then things fell apart as, beginning with a Tyler Cuma roughing call at the 13:09 mark, the Aeros spent the rest of the period on either 5-on-4 or 5-on-3 penalty kills.

The Aeros weren't the victims of bad officiating either. Every one of the five straight penalties they received over the last seven minutes of the second period was deserved and earned. And head coach John Torchetti had no problem with the officiating.

"We're doing it," he said. "We've got a 2-1 lead. We throw a punch. There's no reason for that. Then we take a slashing penalty in the neutral zone. They can't score there. We have to be mentally tough. And I don't see that yet."

Torchetti wasn't happy with the team's mental approach, and he wasn't willing to let the fact that the team was playing the third game in three nights serve as an excuse.

"They [Charlotte] were playing three-in-three," he said. "They looked pretty good. There's no excuses. You can't give an excuse when you're playing four playoff games in five nights. They are, too. That's where we've got to be mentally prepared in our minds."

As has become the norm for this Aeros squad, they saved the best for the third period, if you classify the best as skating harder and making shots. They were still committing stupid penalties, and had to fight off one last 5x3 penalty kill late in the third. The good news was the stupidity also got to Charlotte, and at one point, both teams were skating three-on-three thanks to penalties.

With the threat of another overtime quick approaching, Casey Wellman flew down the ice and appeared to bang a shot off the post with 2:15 left in the game -- the goal light momentarily went off -- but the refs, who were in good position, immediately waived it off. And Carson McMillan never stopped skating. He forced a Charlotte turnover and then slipped the puck between the legs of Charlotte goalie Mike Murphy just five seconds after the Wellman shot to put the Aeros up 4-3 with 2:10 left in the game.

"I just tried to get a stick on puck and keep the puck in zone," McMillan said. "It popped out of my stick, and I just tried to put it on net, and it found a hole and I couldn't be happier."

David McIntyre sealed the win for the Aeros when he got the empty-netter to make it 5-3 with just 52 seconds left.

And so ends another weekend of Aeros hockey. As bad as they played in the two games here at Toyota Center, they were still able to come away with five out of a possible six points. The entire six points would have been nice, but a for team that's not playing it's best hockey, one still has to be happy to escape with points because, at the end of the season, points gained at the start of the season are just as important as points gained at any other time.

That doesn't mean Torchetti's happy. And that doesn't mean he's not expecting this team to improve.

"When this team matures and understands what it's balance will be -- they'll be a godo hockey team," he said. "Right now, I think we're playing okay, but we still haven't played 60 minutes."

The Aeros return to action at Toyota Center next Sunday afternoon when they face the Toronto Marlies. Before that, they'll play the Lake Erie Monsters in Cleveland on Thursday night and the Hamilton Bulldogs in Hamilton on Friday.

View From The Press Box: Barons 5 Aeros 4 (SO)

The Houston Aeros played a better hockey game than the Oklahoma City Barons tonight. For two-thirds of the game, the Aeros put on a clinic in puck possession, defense, and keeping the opposition backing up and playing out of position. Unfortunately for the Aeros, they failed to show up for the first period of action tonight, and that failure was enough for the Aeros to get the loss.

The Barons (5-2-0-1, 11 points) scored three times on nine shots in the first period with every point coming off of a turnover, especially the embarrassing second goal which came off a turnover in the Aeros (5-1-0-3, 13 points) offensive zone when they were on the power play. Matt Hackett, who started the night in goal, didn't stand much of a chance on any of the goals, and he was pulled after that first period.

"It just didn't bounce the right way for [Hackett]," head coach John Torchetti said afterwards. "Hack's been our backbone, and we owed it to him. Sometimes you have to win a game for your goalies, too, because they hold us in. Sometimes you don't deserve what you get there. He'll be back."

Dennis Endras came in to start the second, and except a goal he gave up while the Barons were on a 5x3 power play, he kept them off the board, and he kept them off the board while making some spectacular saves. But it wasn't all Endras. An entirely different Aeros team skated onto the ice for that second period, scoring three goals and crawling back into a game they should have been blown out of.

"It's the first period that we have to throw back on film," Torchetti said. "It's disappointing. Our go-to-guys just didn't play as hard in certain areas. Just keeping it simple. We had the puck on all of the first three goals. We've got to communicate a whole lot more. I've got to find a way to definitely get us going in the first period. I don't know what it is. So we'll see. The boys fought back."

The first period is something the Aeros have had a problem with the entire season so far. And watching the team skate the later periods, it's kind of puzzling as to why they're such slow starters. But as we were discussing in the press box, the Aeros, for the last five seasons, have had a problem with playing a complete period. And it bit them tonight as they had to come back from so far down, that they were gassed toward the end of the third period.

And they seem to have developed a mental block in the shootout. It appeared from the press box that they were envisioning a blocked shot before they even took the shot, and they just seemed hesitant to shoot, giving the Barons goalie plenty of time to react.

But in the end, the Aeros were able to pick up a point in a game where it appeared they were going to be blown out after just one period. And while a team always wants to pick up the win and the two points, getting at least a point after the way they played the first period tonight has to be considered some kind of victory. Even if it is like kissing your sister.

SOME MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:

I'm still learning the new guys, but Justin Fontaine and David McIntyre are really impressing me. I like watching Endras in the net -- he made a couple of saves tonight that would have left Ms. Conduct giggling with glee.

***********************************8

I'm still trying to figure out why the refs, in the third period, after blowing the whistle and saying no goal for the Barons, had to confer with the goal judge to see if the puck crossed the blue line, especially if their original ruling was that it wasn't a goal because the puck crossed the line after the whistle blew. What was the goal judge going to say? That yeah, it crossed after you blew the whistle?

Then again, this is the AHL, right?

Aeros Take Over For 3-1 Win

A few thoughts and comments on tonight's 3-1 Aeros win over the Grand Rapids Griffins.

1. This was the first game I've seen this year, so I spent most of it figuring out who the new guys were and trying to figure out which returning vets were wearing which new numbers. Still, on the third night of a three-in-three, I thought the team looked good, especially in the second and third periods.

2. The revelation of the game, for me, was Dennis Endras. He kept the Aeros in the game during a first period where it appeared that the Aeros were still playing in Charlotte. I know that Ms. Conduct was impressed as I heard her little cute goalie nice save giggle an awful lot. Coach John Torchetti gave credit for the win to Endras, saying that he thought he was the reason the Aeros were able to get the win.

3. How about those kids? Justin Fontaine gave the Aeros the lead, putting them up 1-0 about midway in the second period. And Kris Foucalt's first pro goal was a beauty in the third, putting the Aeros back up 2-1. And veteran Jed Ortmeyer helped make the goal possible with a fantastic centering pass. David McIntyre finished up the scoring.

4. Torchetti was not happy with the team's start to the game. And it sounds as if he wasn't too happy with some of the starts he's been seeing. He does like the team's attitude, and he noted the great conditioning the guys get into that allow them to control and dominate third periods.

5. He's still working on getting everybody to pick up the system, especially the kids. What he's trying to make them understand is that, the sooner they learn their roles, the sooner they make the NHL.

6. Talked to Endras a bit after the game. He was happy to get the win, and he admitted that playing three games in three nights is something he never had to do while playing in Germany.

7. The Aeros are now 4-1-0-2 (10 points) on the season. And they were able to get five out of a possible six points this weekend. The play wasn't perfect, but sometimes, especially this early in the season, it's not about perfection, but is more about getting the points.

8. This is my fifth season covering the team, and I've learned from coaches Constantine, Yeo, and now Torchetti, is that it takes 25 game to get a real read on a team. That lets the roster gel while hopefully, during that time, the guys come to understand the system. It was at about that time last year that Ortmeyer and Patrick O'Sullivan joined the team and the Aeros took off. Also at that time, remember, it looked like the San Antonio Rampage were easily the class of the AHL West, and we all remember what happened to them. Still, it is nice to see the team getting the wins.

Aeros escape with a point in 2-1 SO loss to Charlotte

Once again, a late -- and I do mean LATE -- rally saved Houston from a regulation loss tonight against the Checkers. Jon DiSalvatore scored with 41 seconds left in the third period (helpers from Ortmeyer and Wellman) to end Mike Murphy's 1-0 shutout and take the game to OT.

As extra minutes weren't enough to resolve the tie, the shootout went 5 round with no goals from any Aeros and only one against Hackett. But one was enough and Charlotte takes the bounce-back W to the bank.

The sugar frosted side of me is glad the Aeros took 3 out of 4 possible points away from the series. The nutritious shredded wheat side of me feels like these "skin of the teeth" wins are a prelude to an ugly slump. At least that was the pattern of this team last year, and it's a lot of the same dudes.

But I guess we'll see tomorrow what shows up at the Toyota Center against the Grand Rapids Griffins.

Hackett was very good tonight and came up with several big saves and deserves as much credit for that overtime point as DiSalvatore. Maybe more. Hard to ask much more of your goalie as he stopped 34 of 35 tonight.

That said, we'll get our first in-person look at Endras tomorrow, one would have to assume. So, you know I'm excited about that.

That's all I've got tonight. I have sexy Saturday night plans of watching Stars v. Kings and eating an ice cream sandwich.

Hasta banana!

Aeros stun Checkers with late comeback, win 3-2

Sorry, gang. Had company over last night and couldn't listen to the game. In fact, one of my friends who was over was looking at her iPhone and said, "Hey, the Aeros won 3-2!"

Oh, right! The Aeros!

And while it was a good evening, the game sounded like one that was worth seeing or at least hearing.

Here's the write-up from the Charlotte paper: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/10/22/2712826/checkers-crumble-in-final-10-minutes.html

Deflated Chubby. Awww.

Judging from a Charlotte-based friend's tweets, it was a pretty chippy affair, too.

But the gist is that the Checkers were up 2-0 on power play goals by Zach Boychuk, until the final 10 minutes of the game. Then Casey Wellman broke the seal with a power play goal of his own, and Checkers goalie Justin Peters was injured trying to make the save.

So Mike Murphy came in cold at 9:59 in the third and surrendered the tying goal just 9 seconds later to Dave McIntyre.

And then with 4 seconds left in the game, ya'boy Jeff Taffe scored his first of the season for the victory. Taffe led the team in shots on goal with 5.

Judging by the shot count, Charlotte came out strong, with 16 shots in the first period, but the Aeros finished stronger with 17 shots in the third. Final shots were 38-35 for Houston.

Penner got the scratch for Bagnall's return. Don't know if he's injured or a healthy scratch. Mike Bartlett also made his Aeros debut in McMillan's stead.

Back at it again tonight in Charlotte, before heading back to Houston Sunday morning for an afternoon game at the Toyota Center. Woof.

Carson McMillan Suspended

Just a quick note -- I probably shouldn't blog while at work -- that the AHL just announced a bunch of suspensions for this week. And number one on the list is Carson McMillan who has been suspended for four games, beginning this week, for an illegal check to the head he delivered during Saturday's game against the Rampage.