HOUSTON, Texas – Never a team to deny its fans a dramatic comeback, the Houston Aeros staved off elimination Wednesday night when they beat the Manitoba Moose 5-4 in overtime and put the Western Conference Finals series at 3-1.
“They’ve always been a goal better than us in the whole series,” said Aeros coach Kevin Constantine after the game. “Finally we found a way to be a goal better than them. It was a great win.”
Aeros rookie goalie Anton Khudobin allowed several fairly soft goals during the course of regulation play, but the Aeros offence was up to the challenge. In particular, Matt Beaudoin sparkled, scoring two goals, including the game-winner, earning two pivotal assists, and racking up seven shots on goal.
Corey Locke scored the all-important opening goal of the game,=2 0tying the playoff scoring record for the Aeros with his 11th goal of the post-season, when he softly lobbed a John Lammers rebound over a sprawling Cory Schneider 1:26 into the first period. But Manitoba’s captain Mike Keane had an answer, scoring at 7:10 with a point-blank shot that went five-hole on Khudobin, and then less than two minutes later, scoring on a unassisted short-handed breakaway that beat Khudobin glove side.
“We had a really bad first period,” Constantine said. “I thought we gave them at least seven really high-quality scoring chances in the first and that’s way too much.”
The Moose went into the first intermission with a 2-1 lead but Robbie Earl used his blistering speed to create an odd-man rush into the Manitoba zone midway through the second and picked up the “toe” of a tic-tac-toe play from Lammers and Locke to knot the game up at two goals apiece.
Then just 25 seconds in the third period, Jason Krog scored his sixth goal of the playoffs on a sharp-angled shot from the bottom of the circle to put his Moose up 3-2. The Aeros came hard throughout the third, however, putting 11 shots on Schneider and being rewarded twice as Beaudoin picked up a backhand pass from Benoit Pouliot as he was skating onside from the bench, and blasted the puck past Schneider from the top of the circle.
Then Pouliot nabbed his second point of the night when he sent a puck behind the net, which Beaudoin picked up and put into the low slot for Tony Hrkac to sweep past Schneider.
Unphased, the Moose tied the game up at four-all with less than three minutes left when Khudobin found himself several feet out of his crease sprawling and trying to freeze the puck, but it was picked up by Manitoba’s Mario Bliznak who took it around the net and scored on the wrap-around, ultimately forcing an overtime period.
Unbeknownst to the coaching staff, Khudobin was injured sometime during the third period, but continued to play the remainder of the frame. As such, Constantine was forced to put Nolan Schaefer in goal for overtime.
“He did play the end of the third injured, something the coaching staff didn’t even really know about,” said Constantine. “So we had no choice but to put Schaefer in at the end of the game.” Constant ine said he didn’t know when the injury occurred, nor the extent of it, or how it will affect the goaltending decision coming on Friday.
However, Schaefer never saw a shot in the two minutes of overtime it took for Beaudoin become the hero for the Aeros and score the game-winner.
“I just went to the net and that’s where they want me to go,” said Beaudoin. “I think Corey (Locke) just fanned on his shot a little bit and then went straight to John (Lammers’) stick. He made a great pass and I just had to put in an open net.”
With the Aeros in a position where every game is do or die, players and coach alike say they are taking it in bite-sized pieces.
“We have to play period-by-period, shift-by-shift,” said Tony Hrkac, who has become a quiet leader during the Aeros playoff run. “We have to play every shift like it’s our last.”
Manitoba will try for a second chance at advancement on Friday night in Houston while it is the Aeros job to pack20their gear for another trip to Canada.
Contact heather.galindo@prohockeynews.com Catch all the playoffs at Intotheboards.net
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