The Morning Skate - Game 6 vs. Binghamton

It's been awhile since you've heard from me. Maybe more on why after the season is over, but please forgive me ahead of time as this post will be all over the map.

Today, while driving back from the morning skate, after seeing all the seats (every one of them) covered with white thundersticks, after talking to Mike Yeo, Nate Prosser and Jon DiSalvatore, I realized why I love covering playoff hockey so much. No matter the circumstances that surround the series, these guys, the players, coaches, front office, PR staff, even the league PR staff, are working hard toward one goal. And that is to make this a fun, memorable and successful event for everyone involved.

If you are a fan, you want to see hockey. Great, great playoff hockey.
If you are a coach, you want your players to play their game and give it their unrelenting best.
If you are a player, you want the guy next to you to do everything he can do FOR you.
If you are a reporter, you want good notes and for God sakes, no triple OT games.
If you sell tickets, you want to see the rink filled to the brim and know that Sunday you gave up was well worth it.
If you are in PR, you want everything to go just how you planned it; no surprises either way.

The Aeros are right; this is a special team. And no matter what happens tonight or Thursday, the will be able to still say that long after the trophy goes to a new team next Spring.

Win, and they make history ... it's been a very long time since a team rallied to win the last two games of the Calder Cup Finals. Lose, and you know what? Hats off to Robin Lehner, who quite frankly deserves the MVP of this series so far. In fact, you can make an argument that Lehner deserves that no matter what the Sens do, save for an 8-1 game in Game 7.

At the morning skate this morning, the Aeros were the same as usual. Up-beat, loose and they skated hard through a high-tempo practice with a lot of laughter, cheers and "alrights" ... it's fun that they don't take themselves too seriously. The team in 2009? Remember them? They were fun to watch, but for the most part, it was like going to a board meeting every time after the game.

Today, I loved watching that dump and chase drill, and I really like watching the faceoff exercise, where the center takes several draws in rapid succession. Even at the end, when Josh Tordjman was taking one-timers from Wiseman and Sydor, the team was still having fun as they were heading back to the locker.


(the faceoff drill)

When we were done with our interviews today, Colton Gilles, DiSalvatore, Earl and others were giving each other the business about day-to-day stuff and other things SO not associated with the biggest game of their lives.

It was just so nice to see that, and they all commented on the inspiring letters and pictures fans have sent in to have taped to the walls outside the dressing room. Every one of the players can't wait to get out there tonight, to see the fans with 10,000 thundersticks.


(pictures and letters, right outside the locker)

Brutally honest time ...

I am so nervous for them, and yet I still cannot wait for tonight. I am unbiased and will not cheer, but (deep down) I really do hope the Aeros force a Game 7 with a convincing win. I want to see how all of this comes together. I want to see this unique group of guys, who will never again all play together beyond Thursday night, do something so magical that you cannot go a day over the summer break without thinking about it.

When I get to the rink tonight, I want to hear the fans scream, and I want to hear that goal horn four, five or even six times. I want to see the guys hug each other at the end and skate over to rookie goalie Matt Hackett and tap his pads for a job well done. That is what I want to see. More importantly, that is what I want YOU to see.

I know all their hard work over the course of the season is well worth every second no matter what happens. But I want to see them rewarded for it, so we can do this all over again in 48 hours.


(There are two thundersticks on every seat)

Catching Up With JM Daoust

JM Daoust celebrates after scoring on Saturday night.

One of the key pieces of last season's Aeros team was Jean-Michel Daoust. Often times, it seemed, he was about the only piece of the team that seemed to be working as well as was needed. This season though, things just haven't seemed to work. He was often a healthy scratch, and when he played, things just didn't seem to happen.

He was placed on the Clear Day Roster, but it was clear that he wouldn't be seeing much, if any ice time, during the playoffs. And through the first two rounds, that was the case. He was out skating at every practice, and observations of him around the locker room after games seemed to reveal a guy who, though not playing, was having a good time, often serving as a kind of comic relief after some of those tough games the Aeros were playing against Milwaukee.

He first saw action toward the ends of the Hamilton series, becoming a key component to a fourth line that, through injuries and ineffectiveness to other lines, was seemingly changing personnel night after night. He's become a regular on the ice in this Binghamton series, and it was his hard work in front of the goal that earned the Aeros their only two goals in Saturday's 4-2 game five loss, in which Daoust found a way to score twice in the first period.

"You know that at one point, I knew that I would have to be in," Daoust said after practice yesterday. "When you go on a long run in the playoffs, there’s always injuries. Mainly what kept me motivated to keep working in practice and training and going to the gym was obviously my teammates. You saw them playing on the ice. They worked their backs off. I see them working, and doing that, and you don’t want to let them down if you go in. That was my main motivation."

And perhaps its that attitude, more than anything, that the team needs right now. The team easily got past Peoria, but the series with Milwaukee, Hamilton, and Binghamton have been more physically bruising and mentally draining than the other. And then you see Daoust, this short guy full of energy and with a huge smile and you know that he wants nothing more than to play hockey and make his teammates proud.

Tonight is game six, a do-or-die game for the Aeros. Another must-win in a season of must-wins. But Daoust has perhaps the best perspective for handling the game.

"It’s an important game, but it’s a hockey game," he said. "You don’t have to put too much pressure on yourself. You have to be ready and bring your best game. Obviously if you play well like that, we’ve got a good chance to win."

And then there's the most important thing of all. Something that several people have stated. The Aeros are playing hockey in June. In mid-December, when the Aeros were in that spiral that would carry them to seventh place, who out there thought this team would be playing hockey in June, two victories away from capturing the Calder Cup?

"It feels great [to play in hockey in June]," he said. "Especially in Houston, it’s so warm. It’s a fun feeling. We’re the remaining two teams in the league, and it’s always an accomplishment to get that far. So it’s obviously fun."

Obviously fun.

See everybody tonight.

Some Monday Afternoon Thoughts And Quotes

Sign taped to the glass at SLICE.

Headed up to SLICE for the Aeros skate/practice today, and everyone appeared to be in good spirits with no feel of impending doom and/or destruction. So that's a good thing. The guys are ready to play, they're confident in their ability to win the game, they're having fun playing in June, and Mike Yeo is still a little peeved about the officiating on Saturday night.

First things first...it appears that the only people reading/commenting on today's story in the mothership are the people from Binghamton. It's another take on the officiating, and I also state my firm belief that the officiating is not why the Aeros lost games four and five, but that the Aeros and how they played are the reason they lost games four and five, but when you have a coach supporting what you've been writing the whole postseason about the officiating, then of course you're going to lead with that, right? Anyway, click here and go read.

And some other things before getting to the heart of this post. To the commenter claiming there's some kind of conspiracy to keep Matt Kassian from playing and how the use of Pascal Morency is in clear violation of the Clear Day Roster rules, I thought I would try to offer up an explanation.

Each team is allowed a Clear Day Roster with a maximum of 22 players. These are the only players who can play in the playoffs, with a few caveats. Amateurs don't have to be part of the Clear Day Roster, and once their seasons end, they can join the team and play, as happened with Brett Bulmer. The other caveat is if there is an emergency situation, such as a call-up to the NHL, a suspension, or an injury.

With the injury to Cody Almond on Friday night, the Aeros Clear Day Roster consisted of 21 healthy players. Thus, it's an emergency situation and they can add a player to the roster. Thus, Pascal Morency, who was not on the Clear Day Roster can be added to the playing roster and play on Saturday night. With the injury to Jared Spurgeon on Saturday night, I would expect to see the Aeros adding Kris Fredheim to the roster, though I expect Jeff Penner to get Spurgeon's playing time.

So, I hope that satisfies though of you who have been asking about the use of Morency.

Now on with the notes from practice.

There were no real surprises. Cody Almond and Jared Spurgeon didn't skate, and it appeared that Pascal Morency and Jeff Penner were skating in their spots -- Morency with Daoust and McMillan as he did Saturday night, and Penner teamed up with Marco Scandella. Jed Ortmeyer did not skate, but is fine. Matt Kassian, Brandon Buck, and Kris Fredheim were also out skating with the regulars -- Buck took Ortmeyer's spot so the third line could get in some practice.

Mike Yeo spoke to the assembled media after the game, and I'm sure many of you have seen the video clips the Aeros posted, or the snippets that will be on TV tonight. But for those who didn't, well, I was there.

I asked if he was going to ask the guys to skate a bit more cautiously given the uneven officiating and how the penalties are being called. The question elicited this response, which I'll give in full:

"We have to watch our discipline for sure. We’re going to do that. Obviously those statements [on Saturday] are made to hopefully make other people take notice. Even when I went back and watched the game again, I stand by my words. I think that there were some things that should have been called in the third period when we were taking the play to them that weren’t called especially. But we can’t – that’s over and done with. Those statements were made to hopefully draw some attention to it, but for us, we can’t think about it any further. It’s all about tomorrow and making sure that we play disciplined, but at the same time, we can’t change our game. We have to be playing hard, and we have to be playing that aggressive style that we do."

So yes, he's still a bit bothered by the officiating, and no, he's not going to have the guys change their style of play, aside from asking them to be a bit more disciplined, thus no obvious tripping penalties please, Mr. Gillies.

The majority of the questions from me and my brethren to Yeo and the players were about how to approach a game six, and what it's like to play in such a game when you know a loss means the season is over.

"This is a game seven for us obviously, it’s only game six, but we’re approaching it with that mentality," Yeo said. "We’ve been pretty strong in those games. When we’ve been faced with our back against the wall situations, when we’ve come out, we’ve had strong performances. We’re real excited about getting in front of our home crowd and doing everything we can to keep this series going."

Warren Peters faced a similar situation last year with the Texas Stars, but he thinks what he dealt with last year is irrelevant to anything. He instead offered up the following.

"We definitely haven’t made it easy on ourselves, not that you plan on doing that. The conference finals was a lot more stressful than maybe it needed to be, but again, that’s in the past. [Binghamton] deserve some credit in making it 3-2 and getting a win on home ice, which was big for them, obviously. They did a good job in getting that done. Now it’s our turn to respond.

[SNIP]

"We’ve had our backs against the wall a couple of times in the playoffs, and we’ve responded well. I expect the same thing from our team and the guys in our room because we’ve been doing it the whole second half of the season for sure."

Everybody seems to be focusing on how they handled the game seven situations in Milwaukee and here against Hamilton, and applying that approach to tomorrow's game six. That makes some sense, and it gives the team a semblance of confidence in that they know that, with their backs against the wall, facing a win or go home situation, they've responded by putting together a good game and getting the win. Yet tomorrow is somewhat different in that this is a game six, they've got to win this game just to get to a game seven.

Now Mike Yeo did face a somewhat similar situation as an assistant with the Pittsburgh Penguins when they won the Stanley Cup, and he sees some similarities to those Penguins and these Aeros.

"I think the biggest thing is, the similarity between that and this is that our group has confidence. I think that if you look at a series as a whole, and the way things have panned out, then we’re down 3-2 but it could easily be a different series with a couple of bounces here or there. I think that for the most part we’ve out-chanced them, we’ve out-shot them, and for the better part of most games we’ve been, I believe, the better team.

"We had that same mentality [with Pittsburgh] in 09 when we were faced with having to win both games and one of those was being game seven on the road where we get to both at home. But I know that that team, this team, both believe in themselves. And we believe in ourselves, and that doesn’t necessarily guarantee us anything, but certainly it makes things a lot more possible for us."

The Aero with the longest tenure with the club is defenseman Max Noreau, who joined the club early during Kevin Constantine's first season at the helm four seasons ago. And yes, this game does mean a bit more to him because of his time here.

"I think it means a lot to me because of that run we had two years ago. We lost in the semi-finals. We were so close, but didn’t quite get it done. Now we’re in the finals, and we’re down 3-2. It’d be nice to get it done this time. I have a lot of belief in this team. Everyone does. We had a great meeting today, great practice. Seemed pretty upbeat. Nobody’s really down. We’re coming home. We have great fans; they’ve been really good to us in the playoffs this year. We’ve just got to stick with it and get the two wins this week."

And then Noreau came out with the really important stuff. It's the stuff we hear from the team a lot, and have heard from the team a lot when they're down, and though it's rather cliched and simplistic, it has worked for the team. They've got to forget about everything and just follow the process.

"We had a big talk about that today," he said. "The main focus was, focus on the process, and focus on the little details you have to do, whether it’s getting a puck deep or getting a shot on net. Don’t focus on whether you’re going to score the goal or block that shot or whether you’re going to win the game for us. Just focus on the details. Do the right thing every time you’re out there. And if you focus on that process, the result at the end, we’re going to get the win. It’ll take care of itself."

Without any doubt this has been a physical series which has seen the Aeros lose Cody Almond and Jared Spurgeon to injury. Noreau thinks this could be part of the Senators plan, but he noted that it's been tried before, and that those other teams that tried it failed.

"I think they’re a pretty skilled team, but I think that at home they definitely upped their intensity," he said. "Whether it was because of their fans or they just completely changed because they thought that that would work, they came at us definitely a lot harder the past three games. But I think we’re by far the most physical team of the two, we’ve just got to get back to doing that.

"It’s been a grind for us, a couple of game sevens, Milwaukee was a pretty physical team. So was Hamilton. And mentally it’s been tough for us, too. We were up three-nothing and [Hamilton] came back, so I think we’ve learned a lot in the past month or two. We’ve got to put all of that together and bring it together tomorrow."

And despite the importance of tomorrow's game, Noreau had a great perspective: it's June and the Aeros are one of the very few hockey teams still playing.

"It’s pretty special," he said. "To know that it’s only us and maybe the two NHL teams left, you might be only the last four teams left playing the in the world. It’s a pretty good feeling. We’re pretty fortunate. We’re pretty lucky. We feel lucky to be here. But at the same time, I think we deserve to be here. We worked really hard this year, and all the guys poured their hearts out. It’s do-or-die. We’ve got two games, but two games away from the Calder Cup. That’s how you’ve got to look at it. It’s a pretty big honor."

I've talked to JM Daoust a bit, and I'll throw that up in a post for tomorrow, as he's always a fun guy to talk to. But before I end, the guys offered up their thoughts on what they're expecting from the fans tomorrow night.

"Just what they’ve been doing is fantastic," Yeo said. "We’re hoping for a great turnout. Binghamton was well-represented. When we get back home, we’re playing in front of our home crowd. I know that they’re going to be loud; I know that they’re going to be into the game, and they’re going to crank up the energy level for our guys. We’re hoping that it’s a big crowd and ready to come out and cheer us on, hopefully setting us up for a game seven here."

Warren Peters was a bit more precise: "We hope that they’re loud. We came from a chaotic building, and we’d like ours to be as loud and as noisy as possible"

And then there's Noreau who once again put things in a proper perspective. No matter what the crowd is like, it's still up to the Aeros to do their job out on the ice.

"Just some enthusiasm, some energy, but the bottom line is it’s our livelihood right now," he said. "It’s do-or-die tomorrow and whether the fans are upbeat or not, we’ve got to go out and produce. I know the fans are going to show up. They’ve been there the whole playoff run. They’ve been unbelievable. It’s up to us. It’s going to start in our room and it’s going to finish on the ice."

Some Game Five Photos and Additional Notes

For those of you who decided not to give your hard-earned bucks to AHL Live so that it could fail for you again, I thought I would share some photos from the game. But first, a few notes.

1. You'll be pleased to note that some Binghamton fans consider the Aeros to be the dirtiest team they've played this year. Good for them, because if that's what they think, they wouldn't have been able to handle some of the teams the Aeros have handled this year. And I'm sure that if you ask many of the Aeros fans, they're not going to want to say too many nice things about the Senators style of play.

2. There was a comment below on Pascal Morency and the Clear Day Roster. And no, Morency was not on the Clear Day Roster. But AHL rules allow players not on the Clear Day Roster to play in the playoffs in case of an emergency situation, such as the injury to Cody Almond. Morency has been with the team since the playoffs started, and he's been skating with the Black Aces.

3. If Jared Spurgeon can't play on Tuesday, I'd expect his replacement to be Jeff Penner, who played during the Peroia series because of the injury to Marco Scandella. I haven't heard any updates on Almond or Spurgeon. I'll go out to to the skate tomorrow to see if I can get any information, but I doubt I'll get anything definitive.

4. Now for the photos....


This is Jared Spurgeon on the ice as Jody Green works on him. And it was at this point that the arena was screaming out taunts at Matt Hackett.


This is a photo of the Binghamton mascot being lowered from the arena rafters. The picture doesn't do the absurdity of this event justice because the mascot primarily just hangs there as he's lowered -- I got him moving his arms -- and it kind of looks like he's being lynched.


Here is JM Daoust getting the first goal of the game for the Aeros. He just did his standard hang around the net and be a pest thing.


Here's Daoust's second goal. You can't really see it in this photo, but I thought Robbie Earl deserved an assist because just before this it was like Earl and the goalie were wearing the same uniform, so smothered and screened did Earl have him.


And here's Hackett making a heroic effort to stop a shot. He can't quite stop it though, as Binghamton scores its third goal.

Notes, Quotes & Observations from Game Five, Houston v. Binghamton: Or The Someone's Going To Get Fined Edition

If the Aeros would have played in game four like they played game five tonight, then it's quite possible the Aeros would be the Calder Cup champs right now. Instead, they're down 3-2 and coming back to Houston tonight on what has to be a rather depressing charter flight.

The Aeros dominated the action in every single period of the game, outshooting, outhustling, and outplaying the Senators in just about every aspect possible. Yet tonight, playing an outstanding game, the Aeros still lost by the score of 4-2. But along with losing the game, they possibly lost Jared Spurgeon for the rest of the series with a hit that saw him prone on the ice for several minutes while trainer Jody Green worked on him.

Corey Locke put the Senators up at the 9:19 mark of the first when the Senators took advantage of, you guessed it, a turnover. Jean-Michel Daoust tied the game at 11:08 when he scored on a wraparound, but at 12:17, Binghamton went back up awhen Erik Condra got free on a breakaway. But Daoust came through again, punching the puck past Robin Lehner at the 19:54 mark of the first period.

The Aeros would not score again, though they had numerous chances. But the Aeros fell victim to some questionable officiating as well as their own stupidity, and when they fell behind 3-2 on a Zach Smith power play goal with nine seconds left in the second period, it was obvious the Aeros were going to lose.

So now the Aeros return to Houston down 3-2 and having possily lost two key players, Cody Almond and Jared Spurgeon, to injuries for the rest of the series. But it's doubtful the Aeros are going to play any more stinkers like they did in game four. The question though is whether the Aeros are going to be able to take this to a game seven. And that's a question we'll get the answer to on Tuesday night.

Now on to fun the stuff, notes, quotes, and observations.

1. The AHL, as I discovered today, likes to throw fits when you criticize the competence of the officiating. So I'm not going to slam the officials. I actually thought they called a better game tonight than last night. But just because I was a bit more happy with the zebras doesn't mean that the Aeros were happy with the officiating.

Mike Yeo's generally a pretty levelheaded guy, and he doesn't generally make statements that can be seen as criticisms of other teams or of officiating. But someone removed his filter tonight.

"If you didn’t ask me about [the officiating], I was going to ask you if you wanted to ask me about it," he said. "But certainly we took some penalties we shouldn’t have taken. But at the same time, I think that some were either called that shouldn’t have been called, or I think that there were some penalties that should have been called that were not called.

"The one thing that you ask is don’t just manage the game. As soon as it’s 4-2 in power plays you know that they’re going to call one. At the same time, we’re dominating puck possession time, and I think that, minus last game, we’ve dominated puck possession time in the entire series, yet they have 21 power plays to our 17. And we’re not known as being an undisciplined team. That’s not because we’re being undisciplined, they’re doing the same stuff after the whistle that we’re doing, both teams are doing that stuff. But the play between the whistles, when you’re actually playing, when you have the puck that many times, your team should be on the power play more than it should be short-handed."

But wait, there's more. Here's what he had to say being asked about Jared Spurgeon's injury in the second period.

"That’s one we’ll have to watch again and see if that was worthy of a call. If we lose a defensemen there, that’s tough. Same thing with Prosser in the third period when a guy leaves his feet. If it’s a penalty it’s a penalty. Doesn’t matter the situation, call it."

2. Jared Spurgeon's injury looked rather ugly to me, worse than Cody Almond's last night. I didn't see the hit. But even after he was down along the board it appeared that one of the Senators kept going at him. He lay on his stomach for awhile, then was able to turn over on his back, which is how he stayed for awhile while Jody Green worked on him. He eventually stood and was essentially pulled off the ice by Green and one of his teammates as he didn't really skate and really appeared to be favoring his left leg.

And of course, it was at the time of this injury, when the injury was obvious because the trainer was out on the ice and looking him over, that the Binghamton fans chose to start shouting out their taunts at Matt Hackett. A real classy move. We noted this on twitter, and we were informed that "hey, we clapped when he went off the ice."

3. The officiating isn't the reason the Aeros lost this game. They lost for the old familiar reasons. Turnovers and good goal tending from the opposition. Who knows what can be done about the turnovers? That just seems to be the team's modus operandi. And for the most part, Yeo was happy with the team's play, being really upset only about Binghamton's final goal.

"I was [happy with our play] up until about seven minutes left in the game, and then their fourth goal is a result of us forcing a play and not paying attention to detail the right way," he said. "We gave them that one. Otherwise, I think you could see five-on-five, we play that way and they feel pretty confident ourselves.'

4. DiSalvatore is confident in the team's ability to win this series. Especially if they keep playing the way they played tonight.

"Absolutely. Absolutely," he said when asked if they could win the Cup. "We’re extremely confident right now. More so now that we put forth a good effort again. After we felt like we kind of let go a little bit in game four. What we did tonight was just another affirmation that if we put forth a good effort, we dominate. We felt like the balance was more to our favor as far as chances were going tonight. So we feel like if we do that, we’re going to have a 70-30 game as far as game six is concerned. We have the utmost confidence that we can bring this thing home."

5. The stars of this game were the fourth line of J.M Daoust, Pascal Morency, and Carson McMillan. Daoust first saw playoff action toward the end of the Hamilton series, and Morency saw his first action of the playoffs. But together with McMillan they set the tone of the play, controlled the action, and made pests of themselves.

"Those guys are a tough line to play against," Yeo said. "They’re looking for every opportunity to finish every check. They’re going to force you to go back – they’re d-men to go back – that’s the type of game that we play. That’s the type of game that we want to play. Over and over and over again. They pay attention to detail, and when it’s time to defend, they defend the right way. But when they get the puck, it’s a matter of how quick can we get to the defensive zone and how many times can we make their D go back and force them to play in their own zone.

"When they get to the offensive zone, I like the way that they manage the puck. I like the way that they get the cycle game going. Again, they don’t have a mentality where I’m going to turn every touch into the goal. Because of that, they end up getting a lot of scoring chances. They manage the puck well. They force their team to defend, and that’s when you end up getting the good chances."

6. The Cody Almond injury forced some line shuffling. Casey Wellman was moved back to the first line with Chad Rau joining Robbie Earl and Jarod Palmer on the second line. The third line stayed intact, and then there were Daoust, McMillan, and Morency.

Yeo was adamant after the game that the shuffling was totally due to Almond's injury, and would not have come about because of the game four result.

"It was a direct result of Cody’s injury," he said. "Last game – we knew last game what it was, we didn’t show up, plain and simple. So we were comfortable with the lines we had, and we were going to give those guys a chance to respond. Cody couldn’t go, and when you’re looking for answers you go back to previous experiences and those guys had played together before and they’d done a nice job together, so we put those guys out."

7. The fourth line was outstanding tonight. There's no question about that. And while the overall effort was there, some of the Aeros still appeared to have a bit of an off-night. Yeo was asked his thoughts on Jed Ortmeyer and Patrick O'Sullivan and whether he could get more out of them than what he's been getting.

"You know what? Those guys have gotten us here. I’m not going to sit here and point fingers at anybody because those guys have gotten us to this opportunity. All our focus is on is winning the next game because if we do that, we’re playing in a game seven.

"And those guys again, not only their on-ice contributions, but when you’re dealing with young kids like we have year, their leadership, the way they help them prepare, the way they help them deal with the ups and downs, our leadership group and our core group has been phenomenal up to this point."

8. And unlike in Hamilton, where the Aeros had the series lead, this time, they're time they're the team fighting to stay alive. But DiSalvatore said that doesn't matter.

"At the end of the day, it’s still, you’re playing for your lives," he said. "We’ve put in two situations where we’ve played for our lives before, so we know how to handle that situation. What it comes down to is all of the preparation we put forth the entire year, that all comes to the forefront right now. We close our eyes, we see, we visualize what our game is, and we go out there and do it. That’s all we’ve got to worry about. We’ve got to manage our emotions, and we’ve just got to go out there and do what we’ve been doing all year."

9. I saw on Twitter today the Aeros have already sold over 7,000 tickets for game six. That's great news because there's nothing like a packed and loud arena for hockey. But one thing, let's keep things in check. I wasn't at game two, but I heard that a beer was tossed on the ice at one point. Let's not do that, especially not after the Binghamton fans littered their ice with trash after game three. And folks, this shouldn't need to be said, but if there's an injured opposing player on the ice, don't taunt. Be respectful.

10. And I've got a message from Jon DiSalvatore for those of you who will be turning up at Toyota Center: "Bring it! Bring it as loud and as crazy as you can bring it. We’re excited to get home and play for them. They’ve been great all year, and we expect them to be a huge boost for us coming home."

That's it from Binghamton. I've got a 7:50 a.m. flight out of Philadelphia, which means that I need to leave Binghamton in about two hours if I want to get there in time to deal with the rental return and the security line hassles. So everybody get some sleep while I deal with the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and I'll see everybody on Tuesday night at Toyota Center for game six.

View From The Pressbox: Senators Take 3-2 Series Lead

That was a painful game to watch tonight. Not because the effort wasn't there tonight, but painful because the Aeros got the 4-2 loss while losing another player, Jared Spurgeon, to injury, painful because of some boneheaded penalties, and painful because of the officiating.

Jean-Michel Daoust was the star of the game tonight, scoring both Aeros goals, and doing so in the fashion he did last season, by being pest in front of the goalie. Daoust's linemate, Pascal Morency, playing for the first time since March, also excelled, forcing action. In fact, if the whole team had played like the fourth line, the Aeros might have pulled this game out.

The first line didn't have the best of games -- though much better than last night -- but they were also messed up a bit with Casey Wellman being put back in that mix thanks to last night's injury to Cody Almond. Chad Rau was dropped by to the second line, and their chemistry seemed a bit off. The third line did what the third line usually does, but most of the really stupid penalties came from that line.

Speaking of penalties, Mike Yeo is usually kind of vanilla when it comes to commenting on officiating, but he wasn't happy tonight, and he said so.

[I'll have those later quotes later tonight.]

In the end, the Aeros probably have no one but themselves to blame for the defeat. The third goal, the game-winning goal, came with nine seconds left in the second period and was on a power play that had been necessitated by a Colton Gillies penalty. Matt Hackett did everything he could stop to puck, but sometimes, there's just nothing that could be done. If the hotel internet connection were better, I'd post the photo showing Hackett's efforts. And the other goals came off of that Aeros speciality known as turnovers.

All in all, a much better game for the Aeros, but still a loss, a loss which finds the Aeros returning home down 3-2 in the series. Frankly, I'm glad I'm not with Heather on the flight home because I think that's going to be one painful charter -- according to Joe O'Donnell, they're supposed to arrive at Hobby around 2:30 in the morning should any of you want to drive out and greet them.

And I'll be back later with the notes, quotes, and observations.

Notes, Quotes & Observations from Game Four, Houston v. Binghamton

The Houston Aeros lost game four of the Calder Cup Finals tonight to the Binghamton Senators by the score of 3-0. But that score doesn't even begin to indicate how much the Senators dominated this game. They outshot the Aeros 37-21, and most of the Aeros shots weren't even that great. The Senators kept possession of the puck and kept in the Aeros zone for about the first four minutes of the game.

The first goal of the game was one that looked like Matt Hackett should have been able to stop, coming off a really slow to develop wraparound. But it's hard to pin this loss on Hackett as he did everything he could to keep the Aeros in the game, especially seeing as Binghamton came out on the attack and peppered him with 18 shots in the first period.

The Senators won this game because they wanted this game. They played this game like it was game seven. The Aeros seemed to play like it was game five of the regular season. But who knows, maybe if they would have played with the same effort during the game as they did in getting into that stupid scrum/fight at the end of the game they might have been able to at least make the game close. But alas, it just wasn't meant to be.

1. We're all familiar with the story by now since it's a story we've seen throughout the last month of the regular season and during the playoffs. The Aeros get the ultimate goal within their reach, then all they care about is that goal which results in them forgetting everything that made it possible for them to get where they are. What's more aggravating than anything else is that the Aeros recognize this, too. Mike Yeo knows about it. The players know about it.

Jed Ortmeyer said on Monday that he thought the guys had learned a lesson from the Hamilton series about what happens when they get away from their game. But it appears that, if they did learn the lesson, they forgot all about it tonight.

2. "We weren’t ready to match their desperation level," Mike Yeo said. "It’s tough – it’s like your sinking in quick sand when that happens. You dig a little bit deeper and you sink a little bit more."

The Senators wanted this game. They knew they had to win. The Aeros played like it was game four against Hamilton.

3. They paraded Kurt Klienendorst, Robin Lehner, Cody Bass, and Corey Locke out to the press room tonight and didn't bother to bring any Aeros along. And frankly, I'm not in the mood for transcribing everything they said.

Klienendorst said that he hadn't been frustrated by his team's play, and neither was his team. He felt, and the team felt, that they were all capable of much better play than what they'd had so far in the series, and that tonight was what they expected. They're all expecting a much better Aeros team out on the ice tomorrow, and they're all expecting a much better effort from the Aeros.

4. My recorder malfunctioned when it got to Lehner, so this note I have might not be his exact quote, but he speaks truth: "If you don't play desperate, you're not going to win the game."

Like I said, that might not be exact, but it's close. And you could tell the difference tonight. The Senators were desperate to get the win tonight -- they didn't want to go down 3-1 -- and the Aeros, well, they weren't desperate.

5. Mike Yeo admitted to slamming a few things around after the game. And while he didn't name names, he was not very happy with the play/effort level of some of his players. Personally, I think the only guy that gave out a good effort tonight was Hackett.

"There’s some things we talked about [during intermissions]," Yeo said. "There were some moments where we saw our game kind of getting there, and I don’t think that we had full contributions from everybody tonight. And that’s going to be tough when you’re playing against a team – we had a lot of guys who had below average games, and if you have one guy that has a below average game right now, the odds of you winning the game have just gone down by quite a bit, and we had a number of guys.

"The one thing that you always find is that it’s tough to recover, it’s tough to have – to not be ready, or not have a great first period and then all of a sudden flip the switch. It doesn’t happen. I think that we’re not too far in the process to learn. We’re not too far in the process to learn from our opposition, and what we’re facing, and even ourselves and what we have to bring going into a game."

Emphasis mine.

6. Yeo's not too worried about playing the back-to-back. The Aeros should be used to this anyway since the AHL had them playing three-in-threes seemingly every weekend. But Yeo said that no guy should be tired when it comes to the Calder Cup.

"If you want to sit here right now and look at it that way, yeah you can, but this time of the year, I don’t know," he said. "The adrenaline’s got to kick in. I’m already excited for the game tomorrow. Our players should be excited for the game tomorrow. You know, it stinks. It stinks to lose. I don’t think there’s anybody who hates to lose more than I do. And I had my moment where I went and I slammed a couple of things. Even as I sit here right now, what an opportunity. We’ve got a best of three for the Calder Cup. Two good teams going at it. I don’t know how you could get tired right now. You’ve got to get excited, you’ve got to get fired up. When you have that approach, I think that energizes you. There’ll be plenty of time to be tired."

And besides, he said in another shot at his players, a back-to-back shouldn't be a problem because "I think that we saved a little energy tonight."

7. I've got to give it to the Binghamton fans, the "You can't Hack It" chant was funny. However, they did the Wave, so what credibility they gained from the chant was lost with that.

8. Yeo didn't think the crowd had much of an affect on the Aeros. He did, however, think the crowd helped out the Senators, especially after that first goal. The building was loud, and Corey Locke spoke afterwards about how great the Binghamton fans were. And the crowd tonight was way more into this game than the crowds I saw in Peoria and Milwaukee.

9. The game ended with a big scuffle after the buzzer in which the Aeros just seemed to lose their cool and got into with the Senators down by where the Senators exit the ice to get to their locker room. Justin Falk, Warren Peters, and Nate Prosser were each hit with two minute roughing penalties and 10 minute game misconducts for persisting a fight. Eric Gryba, Mike Hoffman, and Cody Bass were nailed with the same penalties.

And the reason for this, beyond just the Aeros losing their cool, was the once again god-awful absolute crappy officiating of Terry Koharski and Ghislain Hebert. These guys never had control of the game and missed many obvious penalties committed by both teams while making up, from nowhere, a four minute double minor high-stick on Justin Falk in the second period. But hey, at least Koharski didn't screw up any goal calls tonight.

Seriously, if any of you suits with the AHL are reading this, could you answer me this: are the officials you've been assigning to these games really the best you have because, if they are, I fear for the future and the integrity of the AHL and NHL officiating. I know that the AHL is a developmental league, but that doesn't mean developmentally-challenged officals should be continuously assigned to the league's most important games.

I hope I don't sound like a homer because I've seen these guys, especially Koharski, miss way too many calls this playoffs, and just not calls against the Aeros. Hamilton and Milwaukee have just as much right to be angry with this guy as the Aeros, and I don't think Binghamton should be too happy with him, either.

10. Cody Almond left the game about midway in the third period after being hit on what probably would have been a penalty in the regular season. It looked like his leg was injured because he sure skated slow and seemed to be favoring one of his legs -- sorry, I don't remember which one.

Yeo didn't know his status after the game as he was still being checked out by the medical staff, but we're hearing rumors that he left the arena on crutches, so that doesn't sound good. Hopefully we can find out something more at the arena in the morning.

11. I'm trying not to go into full on negative mode here, like Heather, so it should be noted that Heather's prediction of the Senators winning in five is wrong. Second, we've been watching the Aeros do this throughout the playoffs. They'll throw out a stinker of a game then recover. The question is how long that recovery will take. They switched it on-and-off several times against Milwaukee. They were demolished by Hamilton in game four, then spent the next two games trying recovering before getting it all together in game seven.

But unlike with Hamilton, the Aeros don't have a 3-0 lead with which to play. And I think the Senators are better than the Bulldogs and the Admirals. Hopefully Jed Ortemeyer will knock some heads together and get the guys back on track -- I say Ortmeyer because the guys have made it pretty clear that he's their spiritual leader in the locker room.

12. On a positive, non-hockey note. I made a pilgrimage to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown today -- it's about an hour-and-a-half drive from Binghamton. It was my first time, and I really got a kick touring the Hall and the town. My favorite part was something that I knew, but had forgotten. A friend of mine, Ria Cortesio, was the last female umpire in professional baseball, making it up to AA-ball about four years ago before hitting the glass ceiling. I was walking through the Diamond Dreams: Women In Baseball exhibits when I came up on one of her umpire masks.

While I knew her mask was there, she had told me several years ago, I had forgotten, and you have no idea what a kick it is to be walking through a shrine of great players from the sport I love the most and seeing that my friend has been acknowledged. If only the guys running MLB would have been more open minded because she should have made the majors -- I know for a fact that she's a better umpire than Angel Hernandez can ever dream of being.

That's it for tonight. The Aeros and Senators return to action on Saturday night, same bat time, same bat channel -- sorry about that for those of you stuck with AHL Live. And if the Aeros are going to win the Cup, then they're going to need a much, much better effort on the ice. They're going to need to play like it's game seven.

A View From The Press Box: Aeros Embarrassed By Senators

Well that was ugly. Binghamton came out and kicked the Aeros collective asses by the score of 3-0, and if not for the play of Matt Hackett, it might have been worse. Much worse.

I'll be back later with some quotes and observations and a rant about the officiating, but there's one reason why the Aeros lost tonight: the Senators wanted this game much, much more than the Aeros wanted this game.

I think we're all pretty accustomed to this by now. The Aeros get that glimpse of the ultimate prize, then fall apart. And fall apart tonight the team did. Mike Yeo was asked after the game if there was any facet of the team's game with which he was pleased. His answer was a simple no. This was a complete breakdown of effort and composure.

The two teams go up against each other again tomorrow night with the series tied at 2-2 and coming back to Houston next week. The question being whether the series will be 3-2 Houston or 3-2 Binghamton.

That's it for now. I'll be back later, but you can use this to post to make whatever comments you so desire.

Aeros win a sqeaker to take series lead (updated)

Close your eyes and imagine the oldest, grittiest, loudest, most intimate hockey arena you can think of. Beer and blood and taunting and fights in the hallways and more beer.

That's where the Aeros played tonight. And like the honey badger, who suffers a hundred stings to reach in there and get what he wants from the beehive, the Aeros just carried on playing their game to get the 2-1 win and take the series lead.

An early goal by the Aeros, where DiSalvatore jammed a rebound over Lehner's leg pad (bad goal) took a little of the air out of the building, but not much. Still early and these BSens can score like crazy, right?

The first period was fairly even, but in the second, the Aeros found their stride and took it to Binghamton pretty hard, putting 11 shots to Bingo's 5. Prosser scored the second goal, punching the puck in during a wild scramble in Lehner's crease about midway through the period.

Things got crazy in the third, as Bingo scored early in the period on a power play. Hackett argued that it was tipped in with a high stick. It was most certainly tipped in but I didn't see tip itself, but I heard it and it was obvious Hackett was expecting it to go somewhere else entirely.

The irony, at least to me, is that the Aeros worked a ton on executing tip-ins today (not defending them) at morning skate. Oh well. The hockey gods are funny like that.

Hackett was VERY good in this game though and had terrific visual attachment to the puck and didn't worry about saves looking pretty. He just got whatever he could in front of everything. Really big game for that kid and one to be proud of.

Later in the third, with the game 2-1, the BSens had their own mad scramble on the net and the puck hit the crossbar and down to the goal line, bouncing around a bit. Hackett covered it and I guess it looked like it crossed the line as he covered it, or maybe he knocked it across or something.

Anyway, Koho was pretty much standing on the back of the net watching this play transpire and emphatically waved no goal. I don't think anyone had a better view, so it's sort of hard to argue. Everyone I've talked to said, "Ehhhhh, it LOOKED over... but I didn't have a great view."  So *shrug* who knows without replay in this league.

The final minute was absolutely bananas. They pulled Lehner with a minute left, at one point he had to go back in net, but mostly he was out and that was the longest minute ever. Lots of crazy scrambles around the Aeros net, but somehow they were keeping it out. At one point, one of the Aeros was laying across the goal line to keep it out. Didn't think that was legal but they got away with it.

It was seriously insane and exciting. Just glad it worked out like it did. It was a phenomenal effort by the Aeros for the entire 60 minutes. I'm exhausted just thinking about how hard they worked out there.

I've been a little concerned about O'Sullivan lately, but he was back tonight and maybe better than ever. He was fantastic with the puck, but even more so, he made some seriously unbelievable defensive plays that saved a lot of bacon.

All the guys do that stuff, but when you have a guy with hands and ability like Sully, sometimes those guys get a pass. But he's not taking it.

The games are getting chippier for sure. They're developing quite a little dislike for each other out there. And props to the Aeros for not reacting to it and getting into penalty trouble.

Because there's a ton of media up here, the press conferences go quite long and, at least for one night, I'm opting for sleep instead of the bar. So, once I figure out how to upload audio to this darn page, I'll just leave it at that for you to enjoy.

Meanwhile, let's just get this posted so you have someplace to comment for now....

Okay, here's the audio. Only way I could figure out to get it going was to make it a YouTube movie. Had to pick a picture. Didn't have any of Kleinendorst, sooooo.... Brusty it is. 

Rest, Relaxation, and Inspiration: The Aeros Prep For Game Three

While Heather was prepping for her journey to Binghamton on Monday, I headed up to SLICE to get in a few last interviews with some players before they got on the bus to the airport. What I saw was a team in good spirits and that was confident of their ability to handle the Senators.

I've got a piece over at the mothership today on the road the Aeros traveled get to this match up against the Sens, and the importance of Jed Ortmeyer in how that all happened along with some player appreciation for the crowds at Toyota Center throughout the season, especially last weekend.

But as always, there's not enough space to go with all of the material that I got. So...

I asked Jon DiSalvatore about how the team had evolved from the one that was in seventh place and dropping in late-December to the one we have today. In the Press, I quote him talking about a meeting the team had where they talked about writing their story for the season, and how they wanted that story to go. But because of space, I didn't put in the rest of the quote, where he talks about the roles that Jed Ortmeyer, Patrick O'Sullivan, and Matt Hackett played in getting the Aeros to where they are right now.

"Along with that [meeting] came some key pieces to our puzzle, too," he said. "And over the next week we added Jed Ortmeyer who has proven to be one of the most valuable guys to our team as far as what he brings in leadership ability, and just the type of player he is. The type of player that he is, guys can just look at and know he brings it every night. And of course Patrick O’Sullivan. And I think once he came, he added so much to our offense, where our offense jumped up a whole point, I believe. Our power play started to get better. And those are all key things. And you take that along with younger guys maturing, and taking on responsibility, and giving our goaltender the opportunity by a trade to take on the number one position."

I then asked Ortmeyer his thoughts about the credit the guys have been giving him for the Aeros turnaround. And it's credit that he didn't really think he deserved.

"I don’t know if I deserve that," he said. "The talent was here. Just having a little bit more accountability and bringing in a little more depth with Sully and myself, that helped push guys a little bit further. Being around the young guys, it’s fun for us, when they ask us questions about guys we played with and stories from some of the guys that are in the hall of fame now. I think it’s exciting, and I think that’s what pro hockey is. We’re able to pass down things that we’ve experienced that hopefully they’ll be able to pass down some stuff when they get to our age."

The guys were in good spirits on Monday, and one of the reasons for that dealt with them finally being able to get some days off. It wasn't so much the time off they needed because of physical issues, but needing the time off for a mental break after playing two tough seven game series with almost no time off between series.

"Going back-to-back seven game series, and kind of jumping from one series to the next, and the mental ground that takes place in going through some of those games, and then getting yourself ready for the biggest series of them all, it was important for us to get some rest," DiSalvatore said. "I think more so – I think guys physically feel that they just needed the rest, but mentally I think it’s going to turn out to be more beneficial than anything else. Just to kind of take a break and get away from it for a couple of days. Guys are always constantly thinking about it, but just to kind get of way from it, get rid of the feeling, the sting of the loss. And just get away from the rink and just kind of decompress a little bit is going to prove to really benefit us as we go refocus for the next couple of days."

Both DiSalvatore and Ortmeyer said pretty much the same thing when asked about Binghamton. A good team with speed and offense weapons and good goalies. But both were equally adamant about one thing. The team has to concentrate on its game. On making sure they do all of the little things, on focusing on their individual shifts and focusing only on those things they can control. And I'll go with this quote from Ortmeyer which I used in the Press story, because it really gets to the heart of the matter.

"We need to take a lesson from the Hamilton series," he said. "We got away from our game that we had success from, and it almost came back to bite us. They took us right down to the end. Game one [against Binghamton] we played the way we wanted to play, and we were able to get the win, and in game two, we started off not playing our style of game. We were fortunate that Hack made some big saves and kept us in the game."

I'll leave it to Heather for now. I'm sure she'll get something up here nice and quick after the game tonight, and as much as she hates transcribing interviews, I'm sure she'll make the effort to get some for the post. I, meanwhile, have an early flight to Philly tomorrow with a three hour-plus drive to Binghamton to look forward to, but I'll be there for games four and five where hopefully there will be a lot of good news.

P.S.: Before I go, I've got a message from DiSalvatore and Ortmeyer for the fans who have been coming out to Toyota Center, especially this past weekend.

"It was incredible," DiSalvatore said. "As much as we want to go and win the series in Binghamton – that’s the ultimate goal – we would love to do it in front of our crowd as well. They have been fantastic. The way they turned out all season, I really feel we were one of the top attendance teams in the league."

Then Ortmeyer followed up: "It’s great. It’s a great arena. The acoustics are great. It’s loud. It’s an NHL-style arena when you get that many fans in there. It’s exciting. It definitely gives you a little extra boost of energy. I think the fans have started – they’re coming out at the end of the season. It’s an exciting time of year. Who wouldn’t want to be around for a playoff run, especially in the finals? We’re happy that the fans have come out to support us, and we’re looking for more support down the road."