PETER ZINGONI Born: April 28, 1981 (age 29)
Bridgeport, CT
5 ft 10
190 lb
Center
Shoots: Left
Career Transactions: Selected by Columbus in the eighth round (231st overall) in 2000 NHL entry draft…Joined the Aeros as a free agent last season…Returns to the Aeros on a AHL contract this season.
I remember speaking to Peter Zingoni in training camp last season. The Aeros were going to be a chance for him to set right some misconceptions that had arisen about him as a result on an injury-plagued 2008-09 season with the Norfolk Admirals in which he had only 14 points (7-7=14). The primary misconceptions being that he could no longer score and that he could no longer stay healthy.
Unfortunately for Zingoni, his 2009-10 season with the Aeros was much like his previous season with the Admirals as he suffered through a series of injuries that allowed him to hit the ice in 47 games and limited his scoring once again (8-6=14). I spoke to him again later in the season, when he was once again sitting out a game because of injury, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more frustrated player – no, Heather, not even Barry when he was dealing with his multiple injuries.
Zingoni was frustrated because of the injuries. He was frustrated because he wanted to be playing hockey. He was frustrated because he felt he was letting everybody down. He was frustrated because he knew that the team, which was battered by injuries all season, would be better if he were on the ice.
Zingoni comes into this season off of two injury-plagued seasons that have worn on him, without a doubt. And he’s having to learn another new system and he’s having to deal with another new coach. But he still has talent, he still has skill, and if he can stay healthy, he should be able to help this Aeros team.
We've decided to do some postseason items on the team. And I volunteered to do the Aeros awards for the season just played. So after consulting with the rest of the T3I crew, here are the winners for the T3I Houston Aeros Awards.
TEAM MVP: Max Noreau. There's a reason that Noreau made the second team All-AHL Team. He's that good. He tied for second on the team in points (18 goals-34 assists=52 points). He was named to the AHL All Star team. He was the team's most consistent offensive threat, even from the blue line. And he anchored a defense that was often full of holes due to injuries in Houston and Minnesota.
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Chad Rau. Cody Almond was the big name coming into the season, and he showed flashes of brilliance, between injuries, call ups to Minnesota, and inconsistent play. But Rau played in all but one game, was one of the team's leading scorers (19 goals-19 assists=38 points), and never appeared to be out of his element. He didn't make stupid mistakes.
GOALIE OF THE YEAR: Anton Khudobin. It was a tough year for Aeros goalies. There was the inconsistent defense. The almost nightly inability of the offense to score goals. The need to be perfect every night. Khudobin kept the team in contention the first part of the year. His record might only have been 14-19-4, but he was bombarded by shots every night, from nearly every angle. He was able to get four shutouts, and despite it all, allowed only 91 goals in 40 games.
DEFENSEMAN OF THE YEAR: Max Noreau. Brandon Rogers spent way too much time having to play forward. Clayton Stoner went to Minnesota and never came back. That left Noreau as the veteran of the bunch, and he ended up virtually leading the team's offensive attack -- what little there was of it -- from the blue line.
FORWARD OF THE YEAR: Jon DiSalvatore. DiSalvatore was not only the team's captain, but he was one of the team's leading scorer, finishing with 52 points after getting 21 goals, 31 assists, and a team high 11 power play goals. DiSalvatore didn't have a lot to work with as Kevin Constantine constantly shifted lines because of injuries, call-ups, and ineffectiveness. Yet DiSalvatore was always a constant.
THE SURPRISE OF THE YEAR: Jean-Michel Daoust. Neither of us press types knew anything about Daoust when he made the team -- and I admit to enjoying listening to the Toyota PA types change the pronunciation of his name from game-to-game. But damn, this guy played some hockey. He was the team's leading scorer (21 goals-34 assists=55 points), and I don't think anyone played with more effort or determination. I can't help but think that if the whole team would have played with the want of Daoust, this team would have found a way to make the playoffs.
BIGGEST LOST (PLAYER WISE): Andy Hilbert. Hilbert missed most of the season due to concussion issues. And without him, the offense just couldn't click. DiSalvatore was left alone as the team's go-to offensive option. It's hard to play the what-if game, but one can't help but wonder if things would have been different if Hilbert had been available the entire season.
WORST LUCK: Wade Dubielewicz. I can't think of one guy who had worst luck this season than Dubie. Who can forget opening night, against Manitoba, when the puck bounced high off of the glass behind the net, hit Dubie in the back, then bounced into the net for a goal. Then there was the Rockford game on January 10 that the Aeros lost 2-1 after Rockford's Mike Brennan took a shot in OT that was going to be wide of the net, very wide of the net, only it hit the knob of Dubie's stick and went into the net to win the game for Rockford.
WORST LUCK NOT INVOLVING WADE DUBIELEWICZ (TIE): Peter Zingoni and Barry Brust. Zingoni came to the team after an injury-filled 2008-09 season. He came out hot, then got injured. Nobody worked harder to get back, then he got hurt again. And he came back, and got hurt again. Then there's the strange case of Barry Brust. Andrew and Heather know more details, but the brass in Minnesota didn't seem to like him. Then he got injured in camp. He got stuck in purgatory in Florida, and when he got his chance in Houston, he got injured -- first an ugly leg slash, then injuring his foot again.
WACKIEST MOMENTS (TIE): A puck hits Dubie on the back and bounces into the goal. A puck hits the knob of Dubie's stick and bounces into the goal -- a shot that would have gone way wide. But the true wackiest moment was any game in which Dubielewicz was sitting on the bench. If you didn't see Coach Dubie on the bench during a game, then you missed out. He banged the boards. He shouted out instructions at the goalies, and the players. He encouraged his teammates. I think he got a bigger workout on the bench than he did when playing.
(That said, and as an aside, Wade was a very good guy to deal with in the locker room for us. He never shied away from answering questions. He always spoke his mind. He never threw anybody under the bus.)
WACKIEST MOMENT NOT INVOLVING WADE DUBIELEWICZ: It was tough watching Barry Brust suffer that leg slash against Peoria. But without it, there would have never been that moment when Jeff Crawford came skating out to goal as the first intermission came to a close. We didn't know the condition of Brust at the moment, so the entire press row thought that Crawford was going to have to play the rest of the game. What made the moment was watching all of the scouts on press row, and there were still a lot of scouts following the team on February 3rd, and they were scrambling through every sheet of paper on the tables trying to get any scrap of info on Crawford.
MOST INSPIRATIONAL MOMENT: With the scouts scrambling to find out info on Crawford, the Peoria coach agreed to give the Aeros a few extra minutes, and as the clock ticked to zero, Barry Brust, who had suffered a deep slash of his thigh in the first period. He got about 30 stitches during the intermission, did a few butterflies to show he was capable of making the blocks and making the moves, then skated out to the ice and got the win, stopping 25 of the 26 shots he saw that night.
BEST ARENA ADDITION: Let's hear for the brass up in Minnesota for getting replays for every game played at Toyota Center, no matter when the game was played. In the past, we've been stuck with replays just on Friday and Saturday. But this year, we had them every game. So thank you.
WORST NON-TEAM DEVELOPMENT: For some reason, the number of Lady Dynamics dropped, and dropped, throughout the season. And I liked watching the Lady Dynamics. But I want to give my thanks to those young ladies who stuck it out for the whole season. Thank you.
BEST READERS: This is for the readers of T3I. Thanks for sticking with us all season. I apologize for not being around as much as last season, but hopefully the T3I supplied you with all of the information about the team that you needed, and wanted. Thanks for reading. We appreciate it.
BIGGEST T3I LOSS: Fred, we missed you this season. It wasn't the same without you around. I'm sorry I couldn't do more to help out.
My apologies for taking so long to wrap up this weekend’s games. I cover more than just the Aeros -- thus my absence the past several weeks -- and there’s been breaking news with the Houston Cougars I’ve been having to deal with. Plus, I’m once again unemployed from my primary profession, and I’ve been trying to hunt up some work. So, that aside…
It’s been about a month since I’ve seen the Aeros play in person. The last game I remember seeing was the game where the news leaked out that Tony Hrkac was returning. So yes, it’s been awhile. But besides the Aeros dropping to the bottom of the standings, nothing much has changed. The effort’s still there. The guys still seem to give a damn. But despite the return of Andy Hilbert over the weekend, they still can’t find a way to get the puck in the damn net; the stupid penalties are still prevalent at unnecessary times -- Brandon, really, did you have to pull a Matt Foy on Sunday? And the goalies, no matter the criticism they’re getting from unnamed people, are doing their best to keep the team in games, but the goalies this year just aren’t able to do a repeat of the Nolan Schaefer/Barry Brust season of 2007-2008.
There were two winnable games over the weekend, but nothing the Aeros did seem to work. Well, I do think Kevin Constantine throwing out a starting line on Sunday of Matt Kassian, Robbie Earl, and Carson McMillan brought a different energy to the team. But the team lost 3-1 on Saturday and 2-1 in overtime on Sunday to the Milwaukee Admirals to drop even further back in last place.
Anton Khudobin got the start on Saturday, and he put up a good effort on Saturday, only to find himself, once again, sabotaged by his defense and lack of offense. And Wade Dubielewicz found himself victimized in overtime by a shot that hit the pipe and bounced in.
“It’s tough,” Dubielewicz said after the loss. “We’re a young group, we’re working hard. It’s really discouraging right now. We’ve got to find away -- whether it’s a big game out of a goalie or a big game out of player -- we’ve got to find a way to get out of this little funk we’re in and try to get some wins together. You never know what’s going to happen to other teams. But right now we’re backed into a pretty tough corner. Something special’s got to happen for us. Somebody’s got to do something special for us to get out of it.”
Dubielewicz said it was his hope, before the game, that he would be the one to provide that special game. He wanted to give his teammates the win, but he just couldn’t do it. And if ever a game was the epitome of the Aeros season, perhaps Sunday was that example. The Aeros outshot Milwaukee. They even had some great shot attempts, but there was some good Milwaukee goaltending to stop some of the shots, then there were two third period shots that clanked off the pipes, but instead of bouncing in, as the Milwaukee shot did on OT, they bounced out.
“There’s no quitting here,” Dubielewicz said. “And I’m proud of that. But at the same time, this is professional hockey, and we have to make plays, and we have to make saves, and we have to score goals. If you don’t do that, you’re not going to be around hockey for a long time. It’s really disappointing on that level because there’s a lot of character in this room. I think with a break or two we could be a different story.”
A break or two. That’s the been the team’s story the entire season. A break or two. And that break or two is something that they have yet to get. With just 11 games remaining in the season, the 29-30-7-4 Aeros should probably just forget about getting that break, unless, that is, you count as a break the opportunity to go home and erase this once-promising season from their minds.
SOME MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:
Andy Hilbert returned to action this weekend for the first time in months. The Aeros season was probably doomed to failure by Hilbert’s concussion, and the injuries to Peter Zingoni, because they were probably the guys with the best set of offensive skills on a team that desperately needed offensive skills. And while they missed large parts of the season, and guys like Nathan Smith spent time in Minnesota, the Aeros were just never able to put together a sustained offensive effort. But Kevin Constantine doesn’t want to use that as a crunch for what happened this season.
“You try to look at the fact that everybody goes through injuries,” he said Saturday night. “You try not to rely on the injury totals, or call-ups, to dictate -- if you look at guys called up through over the last three years, we haven’t really been a team that’s been completely dependent on certain injuries and call-ups. Other guys have managed to win.”
And Constantine has a point. Then you look at other things. For instance, Krys Kolanos was generally the guy called up to the Wild last season. And Kolanos’s trips up didn’t help the team. Then again, Kolanos wasn’t the team’s only offensive weapon last season. Corey Locke was putting up big numbers. So was Jesse Schultz. Marco Rosa put up good numbers. Things might have been different last season if Kolanos were to have been up with the Wild and Locke and Schultz were injured and unable to play for most of the season, but that didn’t happen.
And the team before that didn’t have much in the way of offensive talent, either. But Schaefer and Brust were both putting together incredible seasons that were beyond special, and which are not the type of numbers generally put up by a tandem because. And the primary guy who spent most of that season in Minnesota was Erik Reitz.
I appreciate what Constantine’s trying to get at. He’s not trying to use an excuse to explain away the season. But Zingoni and Hilbert were supposed to be key members of the offense, and with their extended absences, nobody on the front line has stepped up to take their place on a consistent basis. Max Noreau has tried from the blue line. And no one can discount the effort and hustle of Jean-Michel Daoust.
Well, you get my point by now, I hope.
*************** Okay, I know I’ve been away for awhile, but what happened to all of the Lady Dynamics? I saw five at each of the games, the same five. What happened to the rest? Did they bail on the team, or something?
*************** My Beatles selection tonight is dedicated to the goalies, Anton Khudobin, Wade Dubielewicz, and Barry Brust. Too often this season, it seems that they’ve had the weight of the world on their shoulders as they’ve tried to single-handedly carry the Aeros to victory. Thus, I bring you the final melody of side two of Abbey Road (the greatest album ever recorded), which just happens to feature the only drum solo ever performed by Ringo Starr as the drummer of The Beatles. So here’s “Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End.”
Sorry, I've got no comforting words after this one. The final score might have been 7-2, but trust me, it wasn't that close. Barry Brust didn't appear to have his best game tonight, but then again, his defense didn't appear to have its best game either as both he and Wade Dubielewicz, who played the last part of the third period, were both hit repeatedly by odd-man rushes and breakaways.
Kevin Constantine wasn't in the best of moods afterwards. He was disappointed by his team's non-thinking on the ice. He was very displeased about how the team played a chance at a potential 5-3 power play into being on the penalty kill. The defense wasn't good. The offense didn't take advantage of their chances. There's just nothing good to say.
Peter Zingoni left the game in the first with a lower body injury. Constantine played only three centers in the second period, then he moved Brandon Rogers up front in the third.
The Aeros needed this win tonight -- they just about need a win every time they play. And they looked awful. Not sure of what else there is to say. So I'm out going to wrap it up. Let's hope tomorrow night leaves us with a better result.
Apologies, again, for the short post. I've got to get up at 5:00 a.m. for the temp job -- I'm should get about 65 hours this week and I have decided that sleep is overrated. Hopefully Heather or Andrew can add some more words of wisdom than I'm capable of at the moment.
The Houston Aeros are a team premised on smart play, execution, and energy. When one of those elements doesn’t fall into place, the Aeros lose. When two of those elements don’t fall into place, it’s a recipe for disaster. Yet despite some very stupid play by some who should know better, and some poor execution, the Aeros found some much needed energy to get back into the game.
Yet in the end, as 5672 people who witnessed the game at Toyota Center will tell you, the Houston Aeros still lost to the Milwaukee Admirals 3-2 to fall to 10-10-0-0 on the season.
The Aeros were shorthanded to start the night as just before game time Clayton Stoner discovered that he couldn’t play because of an upper back injury. Nathan Smith had been called up to Minnesota earlier in the day, and the Aeros made the call to the Florida Everblades to get Brandon Buck. And Buck arrived at Toyota Center at 6:30, just in time to suit up and hit the pregame skate.
For the first fifty-five minutes of the game the Aeros played stupid hockey and didn’t execute. About the only thing the Aeros were good at was fighting -- I didn’t think Colton Gillies had that in him when he took out Nolan Yonkman in the first period. Matt Kassian also came out with kind of a draw against Yonkman in the first. But the fighting hurt the team, more than it helped. Especially Peter Zingoni who ended up serving 17 minutes of penalty time in the second and third period after a fight with Ryan Jones.
Anton Khudobin was pulled early in the first after giving up two goals (one on a power play) on only four shots, and Wade Dubielewicz did what he could to keep the team in the game. But he gave up a goal in the third which made the Aeros up hill battle that much harder.
“We worked hard,” Kevin Constantine said. “We’re a four-line probably, more than anybody in hockey. We just roll people because we like to keep fresh and play with lots of energy. That’s why we play 12 forwards. So in a game like this, guys playing every third shift -- on some teams, that might be fairly normal, but on this team, it isn’t. So that’s probably the first time guys ever had to log that much ice time with that little rest in between. They kept going. We kept working. That was good.”
That was good. But not good enough. Especially with the early stupid play and the poor execution that found the Aeros, like usual, having several excellent opportunities at the end to knot the game yet not being able to pull it off.
These two teams battle again on Sunday afternoon. Who knows, maybe they’ll have a full roster. Maybe they won’t. That’s just how the puck bounces.
SOME MISCELLANEOUS GAME NOTES:
The Aeros didn’t know until close until game time whether Brandon Buck would be able to make it to Toyota Center in time. Constantine told us after the game that Nathan Smith didn’t get the call until 10:30 Friday morning to report to Minnesota. The Aeros were then left trying to find a player that was in position to pack a bag and get to an airport where he could then catch a flight that could get him to Houston in time for tonight’s game. And Buck didn’t get to the arena until 6:30.
No Buck would have left Houston with 17 players able to suit up. Until Clayton Stoner got injured which would have left the Aeros with 16 players. Luckily, Buck did arrive, and he played a decent game for a guy playing under those circumstances. And Zingoni’s penalty time didn’t help as it left the Aeros with only 16 skaters for most of the second period and the first part of the third period.
“There’s a couple of things you’ve got to think about,” Constantine said. “We were down one with Clayton not being able to go. And then we had a couple of fights, and then we had a guy [Zingoni] who got 17 minutes in penalties. So not only was it a game we started without a body, we had lots of penalties that kept guys in the penalty box instead of on our bench.”
So the fact the Aeros were actually able to make a game of it says a little something about the character of the team.
“Guys were tired,” Constantine said. Yet they found a way to perform.
“It’s been one of the things we’ve been focusing on all year,” Chad Rau said. “A hard working team. Especially when things aren’t going your way you have to make sure you are working hard and going as hard as you can.”
***************** Constantine said afterwards that he thought that Clayton Stoner should be able to play on Sunday. But when asked if the team was going to try and bring someone else in just in case, his response was that we would have to talk to the bosses.
***************** Once again the Aeros had to play defensemen up front. It’s not the best of circumstances, but Brandon Rogers seemed to make it work. I thought it was Jamie Fraser playing up front, too, but Andrew says it was Jaime Sifers. Whoever it was, the defenseman up front did their jobs.
***************** According to the AHL stat sheet, the actual three stars of the game, as opposed to what Steve Vidal announced, were 3) Petr Kalus, 2) Ryan Jones, and 1) Mike Santorelli.
**************** In case you didn't notice, Peoria demolished San Antonio night. As part of the demolition, former Aeros fan favorite Mitch Love got his first goal of the gameseason.
**************** And seeing the day that Brandon Buck, and the team endured, getting to Houston, I can think of nothing better than The Beatles with "A Hard Day's Night."
In case you missed it, Barry Brust and Peter Zingoni did a little ACTING yesterday! (in honor of Al Montoya's return to Houston? Nah, but we like the timing anyway)
I thought I would use another post to discuss something that Andrew raised in his View From the Press Box below. And that involves Jon DiSalvatore talking about some of the veterans preparing to call a team meeting to discuss the team.
“Right now is a great time for us to learn,” he said of the team’s winning streak. “We are winning. It’s a great time to educate yourself. There’s a lot of things we feel we can do a lot better. There’s a group of us that’s going to address the team and get this thing going. We think we can play better. That [Hamilton] was a great team tonight. It was a great win, but we think we can do better.”
Peter Zingoni said much the same thing last week when he said that he and his fellow veterans had to start playing up to their potential.
Colton Gillies, one of the youngsters, noted this also when he talked about how great the team’s penalty kill was last night. In praising the penalty kill, he noted that there were a lot of guys who were well rested after the second period because they didn’t play much, so it was up to those guys to step up in the third period and help out those who had gotten the job done in the second period.
I know many of you are really fond of last year’s team. I am, too. There were some really great guys on that team that I hate not seeing in the locker room every night. But I like what I’m hearing in this locker room after the games. The character and the attitude reminds me of the team two years ago. Erik Reitz was the veteran on that team, and he had the respect of his teammates, and he wasn’t afraid to take the lead.
It wasn’t that he was overly vocal. It was just that he knew there was a job that needed doing, and he was the guy to do it. He said several times that season that Kevin Constantine's system was a proven one that worked, and that if the players just trusted in that system, then they would win. I don’t really recall anyone assuming that role last year. It wasn’t that last year’s team was a team of factions, it was just that, for the most part, I don’t really remember them being an unified force until around the playoffs and the arrival of Tony Hrkac.
But what I’m hearing from Zingoni and DiSalvatore reminds me of what Reitz was like in the locker room. The individuals on this team might not be as gifted as several of last year’s players, but as a group, they can win. That’s the feeling that I’m getting from Zingoni and DiSalvatore and Gillies and Irmen.
DiSalvatore’s been in the middle of the action most of the season, but until last night, he’s had trouble getting the puck into the net. But he understands the team, the talent, and Constantine’s system. And he understands that he keeps doing what he’s got to do, then things are going to work out.
“The type of team that we have -- we’re a four line team right now -- and it’s no time to get frustrated,” he said. “Yeah, I want to participate, I want to produce, but I’ve got to stick with it and just believe in the system of the team and do my thing and just plug away and they’re going to come. And it came tonight. Which is great. If it doesn’t come tomorrow night, or whatever it is, I just stick with the plan.”
And if I can go off on a tangent, I’d like to point out that this reminds me a lot of what I’m hearing from Houston Cougars head coach Kevin Sumlin and his players. I cover the Cougars for the Press, so I’m at the games, and I talk to the coach and the players. And what Sumlin and the players stress every week is that it’s nice to win the game. And they win the games by staying in the system and trusting each other. Cougar QB Case Keenum has had his name mentioned when discussing the Heisman Trophy, but last week, against SMU, Keenum cut back on the number of passes he throws in a game because SMU had set its defense to stop the pass, so Keenum started handing the ball off to his running backs because he trusted them to do what was needed for the win. And Sumlin stresses time and time again that the guys have yet to play their best game.
That’s what I’m hearing from this locker room. The players are learning to trust each other, and they’re learning to work within the system. They’ve won games, but they’re not happy about the wins because they haven’t played their best game.
I talked to Danny Irmen for a bit after the game for a piece I’m doing for the mothership next week. And Irmen likes this team.
“I think the sky’s the limit,” he said. “There’s a lot of character on this team. A lot of talent. A lot of hard work. And that’s what you need. And great goaltending. We’re just going to take it one game at a time here, and hopefully we make a little run here throughout the year and into the playoffs.”
I’m not sure about the sky’s the limit thing. And I would feel a whole lot better with a healthy Barry Brust and Nolan Schaefer back in the net. But I think this is a good team that is on it’s way to becoming better. Now Andrew might disagree with me, and he might think I’ve totally misunderstood what DiSalvatore was getting out -- and Zingoni -- and he’s probably right. But I think the right attitude is there. I can tell that they care, and care deeply. I think the talent, while not great, is good. They’re probably going to be a frustrating team to watch throughout the year, just like last season’s team, and the team before that.
But give this team a chance. I think that, if you do, you’ll find that you actually like them.
“We’re supposed to be an energy team…” center Peter Zingoni said after tonight’s 1-0 Houston Aeros loss to the Lake Erie Monsters before a friends and family special at Toyota Center. “And I don’t think we’re doing that.”
The Monsters were the team playing the back-to-back tonight, but they appeared to be the fresher team as the Aeros often seemed to be a step behind the Monsters. Head coach Kevin Constantine was happy with his team’s effort, just feeling that they’ve got to execute. Zingoni wasn’t as happy.
“I think as a whole, as a team, I think we’re trying to get a little too cute,” he said. “We’re turning the puck over too much on line rushes as well. Myself included.”
That the Aeros stayed in the game was a credit to, once again, Anton Khudobin who stopped 33 of 34 shots on the night. The game’s lone goal came at the 12:59 mark of the first period as Chris Durno stuffed the puck past Khudobin. In years past, Khudobin might have floundered after the goal, but he seems to have gained confidence during the playoffs, and he appeared to get stronger as the game went on and as more and more pressure was put on his shoulders to keep the team in the game.
“I thought he was real good,” Constantine said of Khudobin. “As we started pressing, as the game wore on and we started pressing, we started to give up a little bit going the other way…Anton did everything he could to keep giving us an opportunity in the game.”
But despite Khudobin giving the team the opportunity, the players couldn’t execute, couldn’t capitalize. And that’s becoming a disturbing trend early in this season as the team loses out on points in home games, getting just four out of possible ten points in this home stand.
“These points are going to come back to haunt us at the end of the year,” Zingoni said after it was all over. And while it’s still too early to hit any kind of panic button, perhaps it is time the team started showing a little urgency out on the ice.
The loss dropped the team’s record on the season to 3-4-0-0 (6 points). It also dropped to them to fifth place in the division. The Aeros return to action this weekend as they take on the San Antonio Rampage this weekend in San Antonio before returning home to face Hamilton next Tuesday night.
SOME MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:
We spoke to Peter Zingoni a bit after the game, and he’s frustrated. He thinks this is a veteran team and that he and his fellow veterans have to start taking some responsibility and start producing.
“It’s time for us to really execute on the ice,” he said.
Part of the problem is that maybe the guys are thinking too much.
“I think we’re trying to do too much -- I don’t know really,” he said about the lack of execution on the ice. “It’s a lot of things. I’ve been watching a lot of video, a lot of personal video, a lot of team video. It looks like a lot of times we’re getting sometimes a little -- maybe sometimes -- a little too cute through the middle and trying to make that last past. Our first goal is to get a shot on net and just crash the rebounds.”
“This is kind of the time when hockey sense is going to have to take over,” he said. “Our coaches do enough for us preparation wise, and we practice these drills in practice everyday. It comes to a point where we’re really going to have to respond.”
Kevin Constantine didn’t necessarily agree with the “too cute” portion. But he does think the team needs to execute.
“I couldn’t say that we’re too cute with the puck,” he said. “I would say that we had some pretty golden scoring opportunities that just didn’t go in. We’ve got to get results there. Guys have to finish the job.”
**************** Defenseman Jaime Sifers made his debut in an Aeros uniform tonight, but left at about midway through the third period after taking a stick to his mouth. Constantine wasn’t sure about just how serious injury was, but stated that it was bad enough that he couldn’t return to the game.
**************** Lake Erie’s lone goal was the first power play goal allowed by the Aeros this season. Before tonight, the team’s penalty kill had killed 25 power plays.
Speaking of penalties, the Monsters were called for six on the night. Three of the penalties were to Phil Dupuis who pulled it off by getting the first penalty in each of the three periods.
**************** Knowing Kevin Constantine, he’s going to read this paragraph and deliberately set out to prove me wrong this weekend, but it appears that he has decided on Khudobin as his number one goalie. Khudobin is now 2-2-0-0 3-2-0-0 for the season, but except for last Saturday’s loss to Texas, Khudobin has been solid in goal and has done everything possible to keep his team in game.
And as Kevin has proven in the past with Nolan Schaefer and Barry Brust, when a goalie gets hot, he’ll stick with that goalie. Of course, like I said, I can just see him doing something different this weekend just to mess with my head.
**************** For tonight's video, how about The Beatles with "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" because, after all, life does goes on.
I've got a kind of state of the season report on the team posted over at the mothership. You can, for the moment, expect more of that kind of material over at the Press as generally do one post a week over there on hockey, and the game recap stories there are kind of dated as my Houston Cougars material is considered to be primary, and also because the Press generally doesn't post stuff on the weekends and game recaps are kind of useless two or three days down the road.
I would, however, ask that you go read the Press post as a) it's how I get my press pass, so clicking, reading, and leaving comments there lets the bosses know that you're interested, and b) I think it's a halfway interesting post on a team that's still searching for it's identity.
You'll read about the second period problems, the unsettled goalie situation, and my thoughts on the team's best line, which is the third line of Peter Zingoni, Carson McMillan, and Cody Almond. I didn't mention the Craig Weller trade because I actually wrote this Sunday night, and I didn't know, at the time, who the Wild was going to send to Houston to take his place. I'm not surprised it's Jaime Sifers as I think it was intended that he would start the season here anyway.
Oh well. I hope you guys make it to to game tomorrow night.
It was midway through the second period, and 6557 fans inside of Toyota Center were watching the San Antonio Rampage take the 2-1 lead on the Houston Aeros. Then Rampage goalie Al Montoya got whistled at 9:46 for a tripping penalty, followed less than a minute later by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
That’s when the hockey game turned into a soccer game as just seconds later Craig Weller was pushed from behind by one of the Rampage. Weller appeared to brush Montoya, and Montoya, doing his best soccer player impersonation, dove face down to the ice, not moving for nearly a minute or so. But unlike in soccer, Montoya wasn’t carried out on a stretcher so as he could come running out minutes later. Montoya had to stand and retake his position in the ice.
That turned out to be a good thing as a rattled Montoya gave up a goal at 11:19 of the second while the Aeros were on the 5-on-3 power play. Max Noreau fired a shot from up around the blue line. Montoya appeared to stop the shot, but Jon DiSalvatore picked up the rebound, fired the puck to Peter Zingoni on the other side of the net, and Zingoni buried the puck to tie the score.
The Aeros coasted from there.
Newcomer Ryan Gunderson scored his first AHL goal at 53 seconds of the third to put the Aeros up 3-2. And after that, it was garbage time as the Aeros dominated the play.
“We started to discover as the game went that if we keep moving our feet, if we keep moving hard, they’re going to draw penalties,” DiSalvatore said afterwards. “And they’re going to put us at an advantage for the game, and that’s something we tried to continue to do throughout the game.”
Duncan Milroy scored a second power play goal at 9:17 of the third as he stuffed in the rebound of a DiSalvatore shot to make it 4-2, then Milroy ended the scoring at 18:56 when, with Montoya pulled and the net empty, Milroy was tripped at center ice but was able to aim the puck toward the San Antonio net where it settled to make the final score 5-2.
“The game definitely had momentum swings,” head coach Kevin Constantine said. “We were okay in the first and got a goal. Then they scored two quick, and that was a huge momentum swing for them. Then we got a little of it back on the power play at the end of the second. That was a key goal. It looked like one of those games where the first goal in the third might be pretty important, and Gunderson’s shot was really important.”
As for Gunderson, he was more happy about the win than he was on actually scoring the goal, saying that “I don’t really focus on it too much.”
So while Gunderson might have put the game-winning point up on the board, it was Al Montoya who probably played the biggest role in tonight’s victory. The win makes the Aeros 3-2-0-0 (6 points) on the season. They return to play on Saturday night when they take on the Texas Stars for the third time in this young season. This also means the probable return in goal of Matt Climie who was stellar in a losing effort for the Stars last week as the Aeros got the 2-1 shootout win.
SOME MISCELLANEOUS GAME NOTES:
The unheralded star of the night was Aeros goalie Anton Khudobin. Khudobin got beat for what appeared to be an easy goal in the second to tie the game, then gave up another tough goal just 11 seconds later to put San Antonio up 2-1. In the past, this kind of thing appeared to rattle Khudobin, but tonight, he was solid and San Antonio didn’t appear to come close to getting the puck past him.
And while this was the team’s third win this season, it was also Khudobin’s. And this fact doesn’t appear to have escaped the attention of Kevin Constantine.
“We started out the year and gave the benefit of the doubt to [Wade] Dubieliewicz just as an older goalie,” Constantine said. “They both got two games each of the first weekends. Once you kind of get through that, there’s got to be a performance factor in your decision making, and Anton had just won the first two games. We just decided that we’ve been real fair up to now, and gave everybody a chance, and now we have to factor in that Anton won and he deserved the right to play this game.”
And while saying that the goalie decision will still be a game-to-game thing, I wouldn’t be surprised if Khudobin got the start against Texas. Constantine is the type who likes to play his hot goalie, and Khudobin at the moment, is that hot goalie. But as Nolan Schaefer and Barry Brust can probably attest, once Khudobin starts to cool off, don’t be surprised to see Dubieliewicz back in the net.
***************** The line of Cody Almond/Carson McMillan/Peter Zingoni just continues to really impress me. The line didn’t get any points tonight, but once again, they contributed some of the hardest hits and always appeared to be causing some kind of action at the San Antonio goal.
I spoke with Zingoni before the season, and he spoke of the energy and passion that he brings to the game, and watching him on the ice with the two kids, it appears that he’s delivering on that promise. He also appears to be delivering on his promise to deliver in the goal scoring department as tonight’s goal was his third goal in five games. Zingoni missed most of last season with an injury, and he appears to very much want to put that behind him. Zingoni was also one of the players that GM Jim Mill was most excited about bringing to the team, and at this point, it looks like Mill knew what he was doing.
***************** Danny Irmen’s goal at 14:10 of the first period was a beauty. Petr Kalus fired a shot toward the goal from on high which Montoya was able to block. But Irmen was in great position and appeared to fly over Montoya’s back to get to the puck and stick it in the net before Montoya could recover.
Irmen’s one of the really good guys in the locker room, and it’s always nice to see him have a good game.
***************** Was it just me, or was the nonstop Michael Jackson music during the game just kind of creepy? None of it they played really seemed to fit a hockey setting. You would expect to hear "Beat It" or "Bad" or something like that to try to fire up the crowd, but no. That didn't happen. Maybe it's just me and my feeling that Jackson isn't really a guy who should be saluted. Anyway, it just seemed kind of strange.
I did like, however, Joe O'Donnell quizzing the players on Michael Jackson. And I really liked the dance the Lady Dynamics did to the Michael Jackson medley during the second intermission. And maybe it's just me, but please, could the team please make more use of the Dynamics.
Please?
***************** Maybe Al Montoya was swept up in the Michael Jackson fervor which had nothing but Michael Jackson music being played during the game. So perhaps he just wanted to turn the game into a Thriller of some kind, or maybe he was just trying to Beat It himself. Whatever it was, Montoya just had an awful couple of minutes there in the second period.
The penalties were bad enough, but then there was the dive that would make a soccer play proud. On press row, it reminded us of Jon Lovitz’s Master Thespian character that he used to do on Saturday Night Live back in the 80s. For you youngsters, Lovitz would play an awful actor who was really hamming it up for the audience, then at the end of the skit, he would shout out “ACTING!”
That was going to be my video for tonight, Lovitz doing his Master Thespian, but unfortunately, NBC and Saturday Night Live, who can seem to make every god awful Kristen Wiig skit available on the net have chosen not to offer up any of those Lovitz skits. So you’re going to have to be content with Lovitz doing a version of the character -- without the “ACTING!” tag -- on this Subway commercial.
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.
********************* 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.
***************** 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.
***************** 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.
For those who are interested, I've got a story on new Aero center Peter Zingoni posted over at that the mothership. From talking to him, I think he's somebody you guys are really going to like. And he says some very nice things about Kevin Constantine and Constantine's coaching style -- he likes playing for a coach who holds players responsible for their actions on the ice, and he likes the way Constantine uses video.
Also, for those of you who have seen the hard copy of this week's Houston Press which is the so-called Best of Houston issue, I just want it known that I had nothing, repeat NOTHING to do with it. I had nothing to do with the naming of Best Aero. If I had written it, I would have chosen Krys Kolanos. But I guess the viewpoint of the guy who actually covers the team and sees every game doesn't really matter anything when it comes to Best ofs.
That said, please go over and read the Zingoni post. It lets the mothership know you guys appreciate the coverage which means I get to keep writing about them. And leave some comments over there if you want, as well.
PETER ZINGONI
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