The Admirals almost blew a 3 goal third period lead, but Chet Pickard and the Admirals withstood the pressure in a bizarre third period, and defeated the Aeros 3-2 in Houston on Friday night.
The Aeros, trailing 3-1 with 7:32 left in the game pulled goaltender Wade Dubielewicz, and proceeded to control the play for the remainder of the game. A by-product of that extra pressure was a boarding penatly to Dave Scatchard two-and-a-half minutes later. Dubielewicz went back to the net for the power play, and the Aeros needed just 19 seconds to cash in and make it a one goal game.
Houston continued to control the play, and Dubielewicz went back to the bench with abot 1:20 left to play, but the Admirals were able to keep the puck out of the net.
The Admirals opened the scoring just 6:53 into the game, as Robert Dietrich took a slap shot from the top of the right circle that made its way through a screen in front of Aeros starting goalie Anton Khudobin, and beat him over his glove. Hugh Jessiman and Ben Guite with the assists on Dietrich's first goal of the year.
Forty-seven seconds later, Mark "Pudding" Santorelli scored his 4th goal of the year, and his 4th on the power play. Falling down in front of Khudobin, Santorelli got just enough on the shot to beat Khudobin, and it was the last shot the Aeros goaltender would face. Dubielewicz entered at the 7:52 mark of the 1st period.
After a scoreless 2nd period, Ryan Jones scored the game winning goal from the part of the ice that he's always hanging around -- the goal crease. Nolan Yonkman centered the puck from the right point, and the puck was deflected right to Jones, who was camped by the left goalpost. Just 1:05 into the 3rd, the Admirals had what seemed like a pretty safe three goal lead.
An awful turnover in the defensive zone led to the Aeros first goal, and zapped all the momentum away from Milwaukee. Along the near boards, Yonkman played the puck up to Chris Mueller, who then made a perfect pass in the middle of the defensive zone......to Aeros forward Petr Kalus. Kalus beat Pickard one-on-one, and the Aeros had some new life.
The power-play goal that pulled the Aeros within one came off a Chet Pickard rebound. After a left pad save, both Chad Rau and Wacey Rabbit were fighting for control of the puck just in front of the crease. Both sticks got a piece of the puck, but Rau got the better whack at it, and beat Pickard.
Yes, those two shots beat Pickard, but there were a whole bunch of saves that he did make that would not be considered routine. He stopped 22 of 24 shots on the night, and certainly made the case that he should make the next start on Sunday. Pickard made the big save at the big time, and frankly, I don't remember the last time I said/wrote/thought that about Mark Dekanich.
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NOTES:
- Ian MacKenzie was a scratch, after hurting himself in practice earlier this week. Jon Blum had missed some practice time this week, so we weren't sure if Lane was going to roll with Reid Cashman and 7 defensemen to be on the safe side, or if Chris Mueller would get the nod. Blum looked fine on the ice, and Mueller, well, looked like a rookie.
- The Aeros had some roster issues of their own, as they dressed only 17 skaters. Defenseman Clayton Stoner was not a scratch, but he didn't play due to an upper-body injury. Defensemen were playing forward too.
- Three more fights -- two from Yonkman in the first period, and one from Ryan Jones in the second. Jones had elbowed/roughed Maxim Noreau into the boards, and Peter Zingoni came to his defense. Jones ended up with 4 for roughing and 5 for fighting, and Zingoni ended up with 2 for instigating, 5 for fighting, and a misconduct. Jones held his own pretty well in the bout.
- The Aeros almost tied the game up on a fluky play in the final minutes. The puck was dumped in the Admirals zone, and hit a seam in the glass that popped the puck straight up in the air. It almost went in the net off of Pickard's back, but fortunately just landed on the top of the net.
- Here are the forward lines for most of the game:
Olvecky - O'Reilly - Scatchard
Jones - Spaling - Santorelli
Jessiman - Guite - Grant
Mueller - Rabbit - Van Guilder
- It's really impressive to see how far Robert Dietrich has come. While it was nice to see him get on the scoreboard tonight, his overall play so far has really been top notch. When one-on-one defending against a faster forward, his positioning and stickwork breaks up the play. He's making great decisions when to pinch in and when not to pinch in, and he's not making mistakes with the puck when bringing it up the ice (cough Franson cough). Real solid game from him tonight.
- That Jessiman-Guite-Grant is a grinding line that continues to find itself on the ice for goals. Very impressed.
- The three stars of the game were announced this way:
3rd Star: Mark Santorelli (1g, 1a)
2nd Star: Ryan Jones (1g, 1a....and the game winning goal)
1st Star: Peter Kalus (unassisted first goal for the Aeros giftwrapped by Chris Mueller).
The gamesheet has them listed in the opposite order....maybe the PA Announcer read it wrong?
- I understand that the Toyota Center video crew is now showing replays during all Aeros games, which is great. But I think they should maybe consider waiting for stoppages in play to show the instant replays. More people might see them. Just a thought.
So what happens now? Who do you want to see in net on Sunday, and who do you think will actually be in the net on Sunday? Discuss!