HOUSTON, Texas – Coming off a phenomenal 07-08 season in which he backstopped the ECHL Texas Wildcatters to the top of the league and helped the Houston Aeros win the AHL award for fewest goals allowed, Anton Khudobin can’t be blamed for expecting a job in Houston this season.
But the Minnesota Wild signed incumbent goalie Barry Brust for two years over the summer, and with the other incumbent, Nolan Schaefer, heading into the final year of his contract with the team, the Aeros goalie cupboard was full.
Khudobin was given his choice of teams in the ECHL and he chose the Florida Everblades, where Wildcatters coach Malcom Cameron had relocated. Here, he racked up a respectable, but not spectacular, 2.71 GAA and 0.907 save percentage.
And then the injury bug bit the Aeros goalies hard in March. Brust acquired a stress fracture in his foot which kept him out for a month, and which he re-injured upon his return in April.
Then Schaefer went out with a lower body injury in late March, which he was forced to play with during Khudobin’s brief emergency call-up to the Wild (he did not dress) and made worse in the process.
“It’s definitely disappointing, because it’s the time of year when you want to be playing,” said Brust before Monday night’s deciding game. “It’s my favorite time of year to play, but it’s something I guess a lot of people have to go through at one point or another.”
Photo by Jason Villaneuva
And with that, Khudobin became The Goalie in Houston during the last heated days of the playoff chase, all the way through 7 tough games against Peoria, before advancing to the West Division finals Monday night.
The series was Khudobin’s first career AHL playoff action, and Brust feels the young netminder has done “an outstanding job.”
“What more can you ask of him really? We’re playing in game seven and I’m sure some people probably would have been surprised at that given who’s in their net,” Brust said, referring to NHL All-Star Manny Legace, who was waived to Peoria earlier in the season by the St. Louis Blues and was a powerful force behind the Riverman defense through the end of the season..
Khudobin admitted to some nerves in the first game of the series, which the Aeros lost 6-4. But he answered that performance with a 2-0 shutout in game 2 and allowed only one goal the third game.He faltered in game 4 allowing four goals, but only two goals in each of the final three games of the series.
“He’s obviously been very resilient,” said Brust. “He kind of struggled in game 4. But he bounced back, and I think he’s had a great series.”
Indeed, he has almost certainly gotten the attention of the Wild and Aeros team-builders who will decide where to slot him next season.And though his Everblades are still making their own way through the ECHL playoffs without him, it’s a reasonable conclusion that Khudobin has played in his last ECHL game.
Contact heather.galindo@prohockeynews.com
Photo by Jason Villaneuva
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