Long Strange Trip: Houston Aeros Goaltending Corps

If playoff success comes down to goaltending, the Houston Aeros seemingly have no business being two wins away from playing for the Calder Cup. But with the team riding the backs of two relatively unknown goalies, both of whom spent most of this season in the ECHL, that’s exactly where they find themselves.

The Aeros started the season with veterans Nolan Schaefer and Barry Brust sharing the no. 1 duties, but Brust suffered a foot fracture in late February and Schaefer hurt his knee in late March.

This left Anton Khudobin and a revolving door of 5 different back-up goalies, including Dallas Stars prospect Matt Climie, holding the goaltending reins as the team battled to get in the playoffs—and now fights to stay there.

Happy Birthday, Anton

Khudobin isn’t generally considered among the blue-chip goaltending prospects in the minors, but the 2004 7th round Minnesota Wild draft pick is a known quantity for the Houston coaches after several call-ups with the team. What’s more, he exceeded expectations in the final few games of the season where the team relied on him to secure a playoff berth.

The 23-year-old Kazakhstan native is a smaller goalie who relies on athleticism and quickness and is at times spectacular. His best game of the playoffs came on his birthday (May 7) in a shutout of the Milwaukee Admirals, after which, the home crowd sang Happy Birthday to him while he beamed back at them.

Khudobin looked to be the kind of raw, rookie revelation teams hope to reveal in their minor systems.

But then the Aeros found themselves losing 5 of Khudobin’s last 6 starts. With Schaefer  healthy enough to play, Khudobin had to watch from the bench as the Aeros racked up a third loss in the Western Conference Finals and put themselves one game from elimination.

Given Khudobin’s success in do-or-die games, including Game 7 in each of the first two rounds, the Aeros coaches made the decision to play him in Game 4. He stood tall and the team played well around him, but he suffered an injury in the third period, which ended in a tie.

The Aeros pulled out the win in overtime with Schaefer in goal, but this new injury left Houston coaches with two healthy goalies to choose from for Game 5:  Schaefer, whose timing they felt was off after being out for so long, and Climie, who had played 58 minutes across parts of four games allowing no goals, but hadn’t started a game and was working out with the taxi squad.

Matt Who?

The call from the coaches Friday after morning skate was that Climie was their guy. The decision got media attention in both Houston and Winnipeg. Who is this mystery goalie?

“It has been kind of a crazy season from my standpoint,” said Climie after Friday’s game. “I was in Dallas at the start of the year for a few exhibition games, and I dropped back down to the East Coast with (Dallas) not having an affiliate. So I played … a lot of hockey there, and I got to develop as a goaltender and kind of change my game into, I guess, more of a pro game.”

“And then at the end of the year I got called up to Dallas and got an opportunity to play three games in a week there. Obviously, it was just a dream come true…  It was a great experience in Dallas and I came out with two wins, then got sent back to Boise for playoffs.”

After spending the season leaping over the AHL, where he’ll likely play next season for the new Stars affiliate in Austin, TX, he finally got the call to help out in Houston.

“We didn’t feel like we were really throwing a complete rookie in there with that experience he had, especially the NHL experience,” said Constantine. “Having to go through that… all those things help settle your nerves a little bit.”

And for 59:38 Friday night, he was spectacular, making the routine saves look easy and the tough saves look like just another day at the office. But then the final 22 seconds happened.

The score was 3-1, and Manitoba had a two-man advantage, having pulled goalie Curtis Sanford and drawn a penalty. They scored in a goal mouth scramble to make it a one goal game.

And then in virtually the same manner, with just two seconds left on the clock, they scored again to push the game to overtime.

“That goal goes in and there’s nothing you can do about it,” said Climie. “I just had to regroup and make sure I gave my team a chance to win in overtime.”

Did he ever, stopping 17 shots in the first overtime period and one in the second before Houston scored the winner at 4:19.

On his all-time games list, “it’s definitely up there,” said Climie. “Anytime you’re in the playoffs and especially going into overtime, and it’s my first start in the American League playoffs, so obviously I’m going to remember this for a while. But I don’t want to get to high on this game, because the next game is that much bigger.”

Constantine said that while the coaches hadn’t discussed it, Climie’s play Friday night makes it difficult to not start him in Game 6 on Monday. In the meantime, Climie says he’s focused on re-hydrating after a long game.

“I was cramping pretty bad in the third period and overtime so maybe get those fluids, and maybe lay off the Bud Light tonight,” he laughed.

And until they’re drinking Bud Light from the Calder Cup, the Aeros appear intent on keeping their Cinderella playoff run going long after their chariots might have turned into pumpkins, were it not for the help of the mystery men between the pipes.

All photos courtesy of Fred Trask