Aeros find consistency in recent streak

HOUSTON, Texas – After 56 games in which they were plagued by inconsistency, it might be premature to argue that the Houston Aeros have finally found their stride. But the team’s latest four-game winning streak, mostly on the road and all in regulation, would certainly give the argument legs.
 
The Aeros racked up 21 goals over the last four games, compared to only eight in the prior four. Coach Kevin Constantine credits a number of factors for the scoring boom.
 
“It started in Chicago when we scored four in the third,” he said of the 6-3 victory over the Wolves in early February, during which the Aeros found some scoring depth, including an unassisted tally by enforcer Matt Kassian, his first of the season. “We’ve ridden a little bit of confidence from that.”

 
Some significant roster shuffling has also changed the complexion of the team.
 
Forward Benoit Pouliot, who had been with the Minnesota Wild since the beginning of the season, was reassigned to Houston in mid-January while veteran call-up Krys Kolanos remained behind, essentially taking Pouliot’s job.
 
“He’s highly, highly disappointed right now,” Constantine said shortly after the reassignment. “I hope he’s not here long, but while he’s here, I think he can really be a benefit to our team.”
 
And indeed, with eight points in 10 games, Constantine is pleased.
 
“There’s a tremendous growth in maturity in his approach to the game of hockey,” Constantine said after Sunday’s home victory, having had Pouliot back in his charge for a few weeks. “His focus on the game, his coachability in the game, his regiment and routine he’s going thru to get himself ready—it’s really been fun to watch [his progress].”
 
However, two weeks after Pouliot was sent to Houston, Kolanos got the hook in favor of Aeros winger Peter Olvecky, whom the Wild believed better fit the fourth-line checking role they were trying to fill. With 33 points in 27 games, Constantine feels Kolanos, in addition to Pouliot, adds a multidimensional scoring threat that the team had been lacking.
 
Another factor the coaching staff believes helped carry the momentum from one weekend to the next, was keeping the team in Minnesota to practice at the Xcel Energy Center, where the Wild train and play, between games in Midwestern cities.
 
Beyond dangling the NHL carrot to provide some motivation, Constantine said it was good just to get to stop for a few days and get some practice time in.
 
“That was really helpful to get some basics back in our game and I think it helped on both sides of the puck,” he said, adding that the offensive concepts put into place by assistant coach Troy Ward also seemed to be taking root, resulting in scoring from surprising places.
 
RW Matt Beaudoin, whom the team called up from Las Vegas in the ECHL in January, nabbed his first AHL hat trick, and the Aeros first hat trick of the season, in a 7-6 win over Iowa on Sunday.
 
Also, the Aeros fourth line, consisting of C Jason Ryznar, PIM leader Mitch Love, and enforcer Matt Kassian, has found a way to keep opponents in line while also threatening offensively by getting a surprising number of shots on goal for a checking line.
 
“There’s a high level of trust from the coaches in that line that they’re going to play on our page, they’re going to play very physical, they’re going to be very trustworthy defensively, they rarely get themselves in trouble,” said Constantine.
 
The line, a fan favorite, has only 11 points between its members, but six have come in the last four games.
 
“These guys are, in an unheralded way, an awful, awful big part of our team right now,” Constantine said. “Their stature and importance to the team just keeps growing all the time, and now tonight they chip in a goal.”
 
Goalies Nolan Schaefer and Barry Brust, who have been inconsistent of late, also benefitted from working with Wild goalie coach Bob Mason.
 
“I think they kind of rebuilt the foundation of their game a little bit up in Minnesota,” Constantine said. “And I think they’ll do a real good job for us down the stretch.” Indeed, Brust looked sharp at home Sunday, stopping 30 of 32 shots, after allowing 16 goals in the prior five starts.
 
Other noteworthy items:

• In late January, the Aeros and Toronto Marlies swapped left wingers as their parent clubs traded Wild prospect Ryan Hamilton for Maple Leafs prospect Robbie Earl. Earl has four points in 11 games since joining the Aeros.
• The injury bug is quiet at the moment, with only Morten Madsen and Danny Irmen both out of the line up for several weeks with high ankle sprains.
• The Aeros received an infusion of NHL-caliber talent on the blue line as Wild defenseman Kurtis Foster joined the team for a two-week conditioning stint. Foster is recovering from a broken femur and other leg injuries suffered in a collision last March during a game in San Jose. He has four assists just four games into his assignment and will likely play two more games with the Aeros before returning to Minnesota to try and crack the Wild roster.
• After a quiet January, Maxim Noreau has resumed his dominant scoring among defensemen in the AHL and is currently ranked 2^nd in goals and 13^th in total points, already putting up 8 points in the first half of February.
• All-Star winger Corey Locke continues his consistent production with 57 points in 53 games and is fifth in the AHL in points.
• Goalies Brust and Schaefer are 15^th and 18^th respectively in the AHL goalie rankings, based on GAA.
• The Aeros are currently third in the West Division, but a mere one point out of second and only three points out of sixth. All but one of the Aeros remaining 24 games is against a division foe.

 
Contact the author at heather.galindo@prohockeynews.com.