Last Wednesday, the Houston Aeros lost a tough 1-0 game to the Lake Erie Monsters at Toyota Center. It was disappointing not only because of the loss, but because it dropped the team below the .500 mark on the young season.
Worse, the team appeared to be lost, drifting about in search of an identity.
Veteran Peter Zingoni took the loss hard, claiming that he and his fellow vets weren’t getting the job done. “I think as a whole, as a team, I think we’re trying to get a little too cute,” he said. “We’re turning the puck over too much on line rushes as well. Myself included.”
Zingoni put the blame on the team trying to be too cute. Trying to make the extra pass instead of taking the open shot.
“This is kind of the time when hockey sense is going to have to take over,” he said. “Our coaches do enough for us preparation-wise, and we practice these drills in practice everyday. It comes to a point where we’re really going to have to respond.”
The slumping Aeros spent the weekend in San Antonio, and it appears
that the players responded to Zingoni. While the team might not be out
if its collective funk, it did get two wins against the best team in
the division, defeating the San Antonio Rampage 3-2 in overtime on
Saturday night, and taking out the Rampage 2-0 on Sunday afternoon.
And as Zingoni wished, it was the veteran players who took the lead.
Danny Irmen scored two of the three goals on Saturday night as the
Aeros came back from a 2-0 deficit to score two goals in the final six
minutes of regulation action to send it to OT. Irmen got the first goal
when he tipped in a shot. And then Robbie Earl tied the game with
assists from Zingoni and fellow veteran Duncan Milroy. Then Irmen was
credited with the overtime goal that actually resulted from a San
Antonio player tipping the puck into his own goal. The game-winning
goal in Sunday’s game came by way of the recently returned veteran Andy
Hilbert.
Thus, what appeared to be quickly turning into a lost season just last
week is now one in which the Aeros, now 5-4-0-0 on the season, can
boast of having momentum.
And momentum is going to be what the team needs tonight as they host
the Hamilton Bulldogs at 7:05 at Toyota Center. The Bulldogs have yet
to lose a game in regulation this season, and enter tonight’s action
with a 6-0-1-1 record.
The Aeros, meanwhile, are going to have to handle the Bulldogs while
missing one of their key players. Number-one goalie Anton Khudobin is
currently up with the Minnesota Wild. It also appears that rookie Cody
Almond may be missing a lot of time as he deals with a broken wrist,
and Zingoni, who suffered through an injury-plagued season last year,
is also injured.
Wade Dubielewicz will get the start in goal for the Aeros, and it will
be kind of strange. For the most part, he’s been outplayed by Khudobin
this season. And Dubielewicz was signed to the team to be that guy who
got called up to Minnesota to play goal in case of injuries, not
Khudobin.
After tonight’s game, the Aeros go out on the road for the next three
games, playing Thursday and Friday night in Grand Rapids, Michigan
against the Griffins. They’ll then fly back to Texas where they’ll head
off to Austin for yet another game against the Texas Stars — along
with San Antonio, the Stars are the class of the division. The team
will then return home to play next Thursday night when they will take
on the Manitoba Moose.
This article appears in Oct 22-28, 2009.
