HOUSTON, Texas – The Houston Aeros aren’t exactly planning a parade after breaking a 6-game losing skid with back-to-back wins this past weekend.
Still, they hope things are looking up after finding themselves at 4-5-1 in the division basement. There’s no question, it’s been a rocky beginning to the young season.
The Aeros started out the year on a high note with two wins in Oklahoma City. The Barons were projecting to be a dominant force in the division, and Aeros coach Mike Yeo says maybe they felt a little too good after those wins.
“We won a couple of games early in the season and next thing you know, I think we got a bit of a sense of, Hey, we’re really good,” Yeo said Sunday. And from there, the skid began. They were clearly a team in the process of finding themselves.
Game after game, whatever was deemed to have doomed them the game before was fixed, but then something else was broken. And the offense was always anemic, never scoring more than two goals in a game and getting shut out twice.
After a 3-2 loss to Lake Erie last Sunday, in which they gave up the first lead they’d had at home all season, Yeo said that in his eyes, individual mistakes and preparation were the problem, as well as too many turnovers.
“That’s maybe part of trying to learn our identity and figure out who we are and learn to bring that on a consistent basis,” Yeo said.
He added that for the amount of time the nucleus of the team had been together, “from Traverse City to training camp and practices in the regular season, the guys have a good understanding of what we’re trying to do now.”
The Aeros started this past weekend with a 5-2 loss at San Antonio on Friday, but Yeo said he felt good about the game.
“We had chances 26 to 15 in the game, and when you do that, you’re going to give yourself every chance to win.”
They followed up the loss with a 3-1 win over Texas in Cedar Park, and then a 4-2 win Sunday, their first victory on home ice.
“There’s a lot of things we can look at this weekend and just point to. It’s clearly evident that when we’re doing the right things, when the battle level is there, when our execution level is there, our focus is there, we’re a tough team to play against,” Yeo said after Sunday’s game. “But as soon as one of those categories drops for us, then we’re not the same team.”
A quick look around the team reveals a few notable items:
With no top-flight scoring, the points have come by committee. The scoring lead is a 5-way tie each with 5 points apiece, followed up by 4 players with 4 points apiece.
Among forwards, second year pro Carson McMillan has had a hot start with 5 points in 10 games, after earning only 8 points in 56 games last year.
Rookie goaltender Matt Hackett had a great start allowing only 2 goals across the first two games, but has since had an 8-goal and a 5-goal game, which have resulted in a bloated 3.36 GAA.
The Aeros sit second to last in the league on the power play, converting on just 3 of 51 opportunities and allowing 2 short-handed goals against. A solid penalty kill that has shut down all but 7 of 54 man-advantage situations.
Injuries for the Minnesota Wild have resulted in a bit of a call-up merry-go-round recently. Colton Gillies and Casey Wellman have both spent some time in St.Paul, while Matt Kassian was called up in place of Gillies, who was sent back to Houston Wednesday.
The Aeros have been playing mostly a 3-in-3 weekend-only schedule since the season started, so call-ups haven’t been an issue yet, but the schedule will begin getting more dense next week with games Friday and Saturday and then Monday and Tuesday in Abbotsford, BC.
Contact Heather.Galindo@prohockeynews.com
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