Moose down Aeros 5-2

WINNIPEG, Man – Both teams turned up the heat Saturday night in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals, but it was the Houston Aeros who were scorched 5-2 by the white-hot Manitoba Moose to put the series at 2-0 in favor of Manitoba. As disciplined as the Game 1 was a night earlier, Game 2 was chippy from the word go and didn’t stop until the final face-off. With seven roughing penalties throughout the game and three misconduct penalties in the closing five seconds, the teams reached a level of playoff intensity that was missing in the previous game.

Houston brought tremendous physicality, particularly considering the game was their third in four days, but major mental and defensive lapses and shaky goaltending landed the Aeros down 5-0 less than five minutes into the second period. Then, undisciplined play, particularly from the Aeros top scorers, kept them from getting solid footing on a comeback attempt. Benoit Pouliot had four minutes of stick penalties and Krys Kolanos took two for slashing and two for roughing, almost back-to-back in the third period. Corey Locke took two for roughing as well. But before that, the game started on an uptick for the visitors. Manitoba’s Alexandre Bolduc received a boarding call for running John Lammers at 1:08 in the first, putting the Aeros on the power play early. Later in the first, Houston’s Locke caught goalie Cory Schneider out of position for a great scoring chance, but as Locke was shoveling the puck in the open net, Schneider dove across the goal line and got his glove on the shot. From there, the tide began to turn, as Manitoba broke out with several odd-man rushes putting pressure on goalie Anton Khudobin. Manitoba’s leading scorer, Jason Krog, put a shot on goal that Aeros defenseman Paul Albers tipped past Khudobin to open the scoring at 11:00. Khudobin would allow two more goals in the first period, one three minutes later when Michael Grabner pounced on a rebound off a Jason Jaffray shot and put it past the sprawling goalie. Then late in the first, Raymond Sawada scored a power play goal to send the teams into the break at 3-0. Nolan Schaefer took over between the pipes for the Aeros when the second period commenced. Though he was arguably the Aeros most reliable goaltender for most of the season, he has been out since late March with a knee injury and has only seen game action in relief of Khudobin since his return. Schaefer’s rust was evident early as Manitoba scored on him twice in the first five minutes of the second period. Highly anticipated Vancouver Canucks draft pick Cody Hodgson nabbed his first pro goal on a shot from the top of the circle that appeared to deflect into the net off Aeros defenseman Clayton Stoner. Then Grabner scored his second goal of the night and third of the playoffs on a shot that squirted under Schaefer’s arm during Pouliot’s first penalty.
The Aeros attempted to mount a comeback when rookie defenseman J.P. Testwuide scored his first pro goal at 7:25 in the second on a play set up by Lammers and Marco Rosa that had Schneider scrambling in his crease. Then with 10 seconds left in the second period, Bryan Lundbohm dropped a pass back to Rosa, which he blasted top shelf over the glove of Schneider to earn the Aeros their second goal of the night. But from there the teams stayed at a stalemate, with Houston only getting five shots on goal in the third to Manitoba’s 11, thanks to Houston spending nearly half the period killing penalties. The teams will head to Houston Sunday and meet again in Texas for Game 3 on Monday night.
Contact heather.galindo@prohockeynews.com Catch all the playoffs at Intotheboards.net