HOUSTON, Texas – Either team might have been reasonably counted out at various times tonight, as Houston tried to clinch round 2 from the Milwaukee Admirals. The Aeros were down 3-0 early in the second and coming apart at the seams. Then they rallied with four unanswered goals to go up 4-3 and were dominating puck possession. But Chris Mueller scored with 5 minutes left in regulation, and for the first time in 11 straight overtime playoff games, the Aeros fell, 5-4, to send the series to game 7. The offensive roller coaster started surging forward when Milwaukee’s Ryan Ellis opened the scoring on a power play early in the first period, beating Matt Hackett glove side with a shot from the point through traffic. Milwaukee buried Houston a little deeper late in the first with a goal from Gabriel Bourque that Hackett caught under his left leg pad, but then unknowingly kicked into the net. The second period started much like the first, with a Milwaukee power play goal from Roman Josi, his first of the playoffs, just 3:24 into the frame. The Aeros started to show signs of frustration after going down 3-0, with Hackett even getting a roughing penalty after being interfered with by Josi at 5:06 in the second. Aeros coach Mike Yeo called a timeout to try and get his team to regroup. It appeared to have worked, as the fog lifted for the visiting Aeros and soon after, Jarod Palmer worked the puck into the Milwaukee zone and scored his third goal of the playoffs to get the Aeros on the board. Just 47 seconds later, Max Noreau ripped one past Jeremy Smith’s earn to bring the Aeros within one. Then, three minutes later, while on a power play, Jon DiSalvatore tapped in a pass from Patrick O’Sullivan, who dangled his way through several defenders to find space to make the pass. The go-ahead goal came midway through the third, as O’Sullivan racked up his third point of the night after dishing a loose puck past a sprawling Smith. With the Aeros ahead and controlling possession tightly, it looked like the teams might avoid their third overtime in three games. But with just 5 minutes left in regulation, Chris Mueller put the puck past Hackett to tie it up, and the teams headed to overtime. What is thought to be the longest overtime playoff win streak in AHL history ended just 1:01 into the extra session as Kelsey Wilson put a redirected puck under Hackett to end the game and stave off elimination. The teams meet for game 7 Tuesday night in Milwaukee.
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