HOUSTON, Texas – The Houston Aeros shook up their line-up, including their netminder, and played their best game of the Western Conference finals Monday night, but it wasn’t enough against the dominant Manitoba Moose.
Michael Grabner scored twice for Manitoba in the 4-3 win, including the game winner, which put the Moose up 3-0 for the series. With the loss Houston now faces elimination in Wednesday’s rematch.
Aeros coach Kevin Constantine felt it was the team’s best effort of the series, but while there were fewer mistakes by his club, the mistakes were bigger and led to goals.
“I thought we played pretty hard. I wasn’t displeased with our effort,” said Constantine. “There’s part of our game we really liked. Our comeback, our effort… but they won and we’ll have to see what we can go do about it.”
The Aeros welcomed veteran defenseman Tomas Mojzis back from a lengthy injury, and both tough guys, Mitch Love and Matt Kassian, cracked the line-up together for the first time in the playoffs. But the biggest change was Nolan Schaefer starting in goal for the Aeros.
Anton Khudobin had been in goal for the team throughout the playoffs while Schaefer recovered from an knee injury. After losing (and getting the hook) in three of the previous four games, Constantine said he felt that was a sign that something needed to change between the pipes.
“Khudobin’s been great for us in the playoffs; Schaefer’s been great for us over two years,” said Constantine. “We’d only won one of our last five games and we decided to give Nolan a shot.”
It appeared to be a good decision, as Schaefer was solid but was beaten by a couple of great shots, such as Manitoba’s first goal at 13:47 in the first when Mario Bliznak took a shot that Mike Keane tipped in over Schaefer’s shoulder from the low slot.
The second Manitoba goal early in the second frame was due to a major defensive lapse on an Aeros power play when Alexandre Bolduc broke free and fired the puck five-hole on Schaefer, who was a split second late dropping to make the short-handed save.
Matt Beaudoin got the Aeros within one at 12:29 in the second when he tipped a Kolanos shot from the point past Cory Schneider on another power play opportunity. But less than two minutes later, Jason Krog skated the puck in to the Aeros zone, left a drop pass for Jason Jaffray who made a quick pass across the slot to Grabner, who banged the puck in backdoor on Schaefer to put the game at 3-1.
The Aeros came out firing on all cylinders in the third and were rewarded with two goals for the tie going into the second half of the third. Just a minute into the third, Corey Locke scored off a Marco Rosa pass he popped in over Schneider’s left pad. Then Danny Irmen tied it up with a short-handed goal off a breakaway that was again manufactured by Rosa, who had two points on the night.
But the win wasn’t meant to be for the home team as Grabner scored his second goal of the night by beating the Aeros defense and sending a fluttering shot over Schaefer’s shoulder. The puck hit the crossbar and went in.
Now it’s do or die for the Aeros Wednesday night, who have two more home games in their arsenal to try and stretch the series out.
Contact heather.galindo@prohockeynews.com
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