HOUSTON, Texas – All season, the Houston Aeros have been a team that’s done everything the hard way. Rather than carrying the momentum from a gut-check win Saturday night, they came out Monday night in game four against the Peoria Rivermen with little of the urgency shown in the previous two games.
For their efforts, they went home the losers in a 4-3 match and the series is back to tied at two wins apiece.
Coach Kevin Constantine felt the Aeros’ bad start was the difference in the game, saying, “we thought Peoria wouldn’t want their backs to the wall, and they’d come out real hard, and they did. We weren’t anywhere near good enough at the start.”
Then discipline problems further inflamed the Aeros’ woes.
“The power play and penalty kill are a big factor in some games. They were in game one and they were here,” Constantine said. “We’ve talked about how we have to play the game really hard and draw our fair share of penalties, and how we have to stay disciplined on the other end , and that’ll continue to be an important part of the series.”
Both teams earned two power play goals but Houston gave Peoria two extra opportunities.
Cam Paddock put the first goal on the board for Peoria midway through the first, and then the Aeros tied it with a goal from Tony Hrkac five minutes into the second. Tomas Mojzis got the go-ahead goal a couple of minutes later on Steve Regier’s second penalty of the night.
But late in the second, Maxim Noreau and Corey Locke served back to back cross-checking penalties. Peoria’s Steve Wagner scored on the first penalty off a back-door feed from Jori Lehtera. Then Nicholas Drazenovic scored on Locke’s penalty just 44 seconds later.
Just five minutes into the third, Trent Whitfield put Peoria two goals ahead with a shot from the point and Constantine shut goalie Anton Khudobin down for the night. Dallas Stars prospect Matt Climie, who was called in Monday morning to provide a more reliable back-up option for Khudobin, played a scoreless 12:28 before being pulled for the extra attacker.
“(Khudobin) had two good games for us,” Constantine said. “He just didn’t look like he had20his game tonight.”
As for the health of his two injured goalies, Constantine said it appears Barry Brust is nowhere near healthy, and Nolan Schaefer is rehabbing and considered day-to-day.
Jesse Schultz scored a final, dramatic goal past Manny Legace as he got his stick on a rebound from a Matt Beaudoin and shot as he was falling to the ice, but the Aeros were unable to get another one past the all-star goalie to tie it up in the last-minute flurry.
The Aeros were also playing without the goal scoring services of Krys Kolanos, who was out with flu-like symptoms, and Peter Olvecky, who left Houston to join the Slovakian national team for the World Championships. Peoria was without Yan Stastny, who was recalled to the St. Louis Blues on Sunday.
The Aeros have one more home game on Wednesday night and then the series will return to Peoria Saturday. Contact heather.galindo@prohockeynews.com
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