One of the reasons the Minnesota Wild decided to part ways with then Aeros Head Coach Kevin Constantine was the fact he had missed the playoffs and deprived the organization’s young players from playing in big games. The Wild partially own the Aeros so that hurt the organization in the pocketbook as well, so Minnesota decided to go in a different direction and brought Mike Yeo into the fold. So far that looks like a terrific move, as Yeo has guided the Aeros to the Calder Cup finals in his first season. Perhaps it was bad timing for Constantine, as Yeo has been helped by some nice additions to is roster as Minnesota has begun to tap into a new talent pool as it has plucked a few quality undrafted players from the college ranks. Constantine was more or less resigned to try to win with whoever the Wild’s scouting staff then led by Tommy Thompson drafted, and when you have as many busts as Thompson did its safe to say that Constantine didn’t have much to work with. Either way, the Aeros have found a way to win games even if they do not have a go-to scoring element.
The Aeros Calder Cup Final opponent, the Binghamton Senators are trying to be a bright spot for an organization that endured an absolutely miserable 2010-11 season. Like the Aeros, the ‘baby’ Sens have used college free agency to add a lot of components that have been crucial to their success. No player has been so impactful to Binghamton’s post-season surge than former Golden Gopher sniper Ryan Potulny who has been on fire as of late. So will the Aeros be able to shut down the high powered ‘baby’ Sens attack?
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Houston Aeros
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #16 Patrick O’Sullivan ~ 4G 11A = 15pts
2. #22 Jed Ortmeyer ~ 4G 7A = 11pts
3. #26 Maxim Noreau ~ 2G 9A = 11pts
4. #18 Colton Gillies ~ 7G 3A = 10pts
5. #17 Robbie Earl ~ 5G 5A = 10pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #18 Colton Gillies ~ 22 PIM’s
2. #26 Maxim Noreau ~ 19 PIM’s
3. #17 Robbie Earl ~ 18 PIM’s
Top Goaltender:
1. #31 Matthew Hackett (12-6) 2.56GAA .898%SP 1 SO
Vs.
Binghamton Senators
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #22 Ryan Potulny ~ 14G 11A = 25pts
2. #28 Ryan Keller ~ 8G 14A = 22pts
3. #26 Kaspars Daugavins ~ 10G 7A = 17pts
4. #18 Zack Smith ~ 6G 11A = 17pts
5. #61 Andre Benoit ~ 3G 11A = 14pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #18 Zack Smith ~ 18 PIM’s
2. #15 Colin Greening ~ 13 PIM’s
3. #19 Jim O’Brien ~ 12 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #40 Robin Lehner (10-2) 2.41GAA .932%SP 2 SO
2. #33 Barry Brust (2-3) 3.45GAA .889%SP
2010-11 Calder Cup Finals Schedule
Game 1 – Friday, May 27 – @ Houston, 7:35 (CST)
Game 2 – Saturday, May 28 – @ Houston, 7:35 (CST)
Game 3 – Wednesday, June 1 – @ Binghamton, 6:05 (CST)
Game 4 – Friday, June 3 – @ Binghamton, 6:05 (CST)
Game 5 – Saturday, June 4 – @ Binghamton, 6:05 (CST)
Game 6 – Tuesday, June 7 – @ Houston, 7:05 (CST)
Game 7 – Thursday, June 9 – @ Houston, 7:05 (CST)
*- If necessary
The Houston Aeros carry home-ice advantage, which it must take full advantage of if it is going to manage to stave off the powerful Binghamton offensive attack. Led by trio of big scorers like Potulny, Latvian scoring stud Kaspars Daugavins, and former University of New Hampshire scoring machine Bobby Butler the Senators have the ability to blitz an opponent with goals as they overwhelmed the Charlotte Checkers in a 4-game sweep. It’s scary to think that this year’s leading scorer in the AHL, former Houston Aero Corey Locke has had pretty mundane post-season ths far. The ‘baby’ Sens are not all finesse and flashy scoring; they have grit too in Zack Smith and Cody Bass. With this mix of finesse and grit, the often forgotten story is that the ‘baby’ Sens goaltender Robin Lehner has not played like a kid who represented his team at the World Junior Championships this winter. He’s been rock solid with 2 shutouts to his credit.
Houston will again try to counter the high powered attack with a scoring by committee approach. The Aeros have a nice balance that makes it nearly impossible to match lines. Robbie Earl, Patrick O’Sullivan, Jon DiSalvatore, Chad Rau and rather surprisingly Colton Gillies have led the way offensively. Gillies, has had a tremendous post-season since returning from a late-season stint with the Wild being assertive in the offensive zone as well as creating havoc on the forecheck. The Aeros have used its plethora of grit led by veteran Jed Ortmeyer along with Jarod Palmer, Cody Almond, Warren Peters and Carson McMillan love to dish out the punishment and they will have to do that to slow down the ‘baby’ Sens. Casey Wellman is starting to show signs he is heating up and he has the speed and skill to make things happen.
Defensively the Aeros have an advantage in mobility and physicality. Former Denver University star Patrick Wiercioch and 6’5″ Jared Cowen getting his first taste of pro hockey. Hopefully that is an area that the Aeros can expose. The Aeros’ blueline has a nice blend of mobility in Justin Falk, Marco Scandella, Nate Prosser, Maxim Noreau and Jared Spurgeon as well as toughness in Drew Bagnall who loves to put the hammer down in the defensive zone. The Aeros’ blueline will have their work cut out for them with the ‘baby’ Sens depth of potent scorers. They must work to sweep away the rebounds from in front of Matt Hackett‘s crease and clear out the forwards that will no doubt attempt to screen the rookie netminder.
PREDICTION: Aeros win in 6 games.
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