HOUSTON, Texas – The Houston Aeros have had a knack for timely comebacks all season and Wednesday night was no exception.
Down by two goals at home to the Peoria Rivermen with just five minutes remaining in the game, the Aeros scored two goals to take the game to overtime and then nabbed the winner 12 minutes into the extra frame, continuing to show that they’re a dangerous team when their back is against the wall.
The first period of the game was scoreless, but only with a lot of luck and missed opportunities by Peoria, as they out-shot the Aeros 12 to five.
Coach Kevin Constantine said he liked the team’s preparation for the game but thought the magnitude of the game slowed them at the start. “It’s almost like the tension of the whole thing kind of took our legs away,” said Constantine. “You could see it in our first two power plays. We were just sloppy.”
The Rivermen finally got on the board with just three minutes left in the second frame with a goal from Jeff Cowan and helpers from Da nny Richmond and Cam Paddock.
The teams battled scoreless through the rest of the second and over 12 minutes into the third. Then Peoria’s Steve Regier rushed the puck into the Aeros zone on a three-on-two and roofed a sharp-angled shot over Anton Khudobin’s glove for an unassisted goal.
With the Aeros down 2-0 and time running out, the “Comeback Kids” personality of the team emerged.
“[Something] our team’s been pretty good at all season, for whatever reason, different than any other teams I’ve been with, is the come-from-behind part,” said Constantine.
Indeed, at 15:43, Matt Beaudoin lit the fuse with a power play goal over the blocker of Manny Legace off a feed from Tony Hrkac. And then at 17:13, the Aeros got Legace and the Peoria defense scrambling with lots of traffic around the net, and Robbie Earl roofed a soft shot over Legace, who was down on the ice. Justin Falk and Krys Kolanos got the assists.
Finally, in a hard-fought overtime in which both teams had to kill several seconds of five-on-three penalty time against their teams, the Aeros took advantage of the man advantage when Maxim Noreau beat Legace with a shot from the top of the circle for the win.
Both teams showed a strong penalty kill in a tightly-called game with plenty of opportunities for both teams. Houston killed off all eight penalties they were assessed and Peoria killed eight of the ten attempts they gave up.
“That was the best they’ve penalty killed against us in a long time,” Constantine said. “They were really working hard on their penalty kill, and our power play really didn’t have a whole lot going the whole game. So to get one near the end, get the first one on the power, and then one in overtime was good.”
Yan Stastny and Tyson Strachan were both on the ice for Peoria after being returned to the team following the St. Louis Blues playoff ousting on Tuesday night.
For the Aeros, Kolanos was back in the line-up after being out sick Monday night, but the team has seen the last of Morten Madsen who will join the Danish National Team for the World Championships. Game six of the series is scheduled to take place in Peoria on Saturday, April 25th.
Contact heather.galindo@prohockeynewws.com
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