Trombley rejoins Thunder, might face Aeros tonight

      The Thunder will be without forward Sasha Lakovic for the remainder of the Houston series and perhaps longer if Las Vegas advances to the second round.
      But Las Vegas won't be short on toughness. Rhett Trombley rejoined the team after a stint in Syracuse of the American Hockey League.
      Trombley was dealt to Syracuse on March 19 for Alexander Semak on the condition that he would return to Las Vegas when Syracuse was eliminated from the playoffs. Syracuse was swept in three games by Rochester, getting eliminated Wednesday.
      Trombley arrived in Las Vegas Thursday. Thunder coach Chris McSorley said Trombley might take Andre Bashkirov's spot in the lineup for tonight's 7:05 Game 3 against the Houston Aeros at the Thomas & Mack Center. Houston holds a 2-0 lead in the best-of-5 series.
      In 10 regular-season games for the Crunch, Trombley did not have any points and accumulated 30 penalty minutes. He was minus-3. He dressed for one playoff game and was held scoreless, picking up a minor.
      -- NO COMEBACKS -- History would suggest the Thunder will have difficulty winning tonight's game. Four times in its first three seasons, the Thunder faced a game in which it had to win or be eliminated and compiled a 1-3 record.
      In the 1993-94 season, Las Vegas was eliminated in Game 5 of a best-of-7 series against San Diego.
      The next season, it faced two such games. In Game 5 of a best-of-5 against Atlanta, the Thunder won, advancing to face Milwaukee. But trailing 3-1 in that series, Las Vegas was blanked, 3-0.
      And last season, the Thunder lost Game 6 of a best-of-7 series to Utah.
      -- NO STYLE CHANGE -- Many hockey teams play an offensive style at home and adopt a conservative road style. But not Houston.
      Aeros coach Dave Tippett said he wants his team to play the same defensive-oriented system, regardless of venue.
      "My belief is that each team has a style that suits it, and it should play that style regardless," Tippett said. "We're going to play the same game there that we play here."
      -- VIPER WINS -- The Thunder was shut out in the voting for the Longman Trophy, awarded annually to the International Hockey League's Rookie of the Year. The Detroit Vipers' Sergei Samsonov won the award Thursday.
      Neither of the Thunder's top candidates, Bast and Sergei Yerkovich, received votes in the balloting by the league's coaches.