Referee or not, AEROS win 5-3

Yep, they did.. give us an early Christmas Present. Aeros win over Grand Rapids Griffins 5-3. "Dubie in goal for Aeros, with Fan (especially ONE) fave Barry Brust ("Brusty") 'fresh' from the Orange State as BuG;
Larsson for the Griffins.
Just found out Larsson was replaced by McCollum, but when that happened I have no idea, I don't think it was announced, at least I didn't hear it - may have been briefly. Later on was too busy watching game, to look at jersey numbers ;-)

Period One :

at 4:40 Rissmiller with Vigilante and Mursak put Griffins on the scoreboard.

at 13.46 Aeros evened score with a goal by "Ironman"Noreau assisted by Milroy and Irmen- BTW seeing Danny Irmen jump feet into the air to avoid stopping a puck, he'll be "Jumping Dan" from now on (LOL) ending the period with 1 goal and 11 SoG, Griffins 1 Goal and 9 SoG.

This period was also, IMO, rather noticeable by several calls NOT made on Griffins by Referee Chris Brown (Griffins tripped "The Scrapper" Daoust, and a bit later again tripped Daoust AND held him down on the ice for several seconds). But "Blind Brown" made NO call.

Period 2:

at 2:56 Aeros scored goal 2 by Hilbert with assists by "The Scrapper"Daoust and Falk. About 3 minutes later Milroy with Rogers and "Jumping Dan" made it 3 for the Aeros. And Testwuide received a legit penalty for holding, while The Griffins, again, got away with another tripping of Daoust plus a holding of Kassian -seemingly right in front of the referee. Fortunately Griffins could not convert the PP into a goal.

And at 19:06m DiSalvatore got goal # 3 unassisted! The period ended with Aeros 4 (19SoG) , Griffins 1 (16 SoG) and a brawl, for which Falk got a penalty for instigating, thanks to Referee Brown, even though a Griffin started the melee, AFTER the buzzer had already sounded .

Period 3:

Falk sitting in the sin bin, Pyett with Rissmiller and Delmore put Griffins up one goal during the power play, and at 5:32 McGrath with Pare and Lemieux made it Griffin 3 (with 21 SoG).

"Dubie" lost his stick during an onslaught of red/blue jerseys, stopped the puck with his chest, then grabbed Gunderson's stick and held off another shot.

Nylander sat for high sticking (FINALLY a penalty call on the Griffins) at 7:15 - PP for Aeros but no goal.

After a few more 'noncalls' (tippings-tripping, that should be tripping- or other Griffin malfeasances), Larsson was pulled and "Ironman " Noreau with Irmen scored an empty net goal with a few seconds to spare. AEROS 5 (24 SoG) Griffins 3 (27 SoG).

Three stars: 1: Milroy, 2: Di Salvatore and 3. Irmen.

Scratches for Aeros:

Gillies (may have an injury), Kalus and Zingoni.

Griffins had NO scratches.

Aeros had 2 PP (no goals), Griffins 1 PP (scored)

Personal observations: Griffins, despite " road trip lag", skated well, had some great passing and speed.

As I said, a VERY nice early Christmas present.

Maybe having sent 'backstage' to players, AND coaches, 'chocolate kisses ;-)' after the last game (loss to Texas Stars) - courtesy Better Half and I, plus the Boosterclubs' annual goodies bags helped rev up the Team for this Pre-Christmas winner! LOL. see you all December 26. for "Bikini" night.....Bah Humbug!

And in the spirit of the Season,we'll forgive you 'Brown'!

Y'all have a wonderful, serene Christmas in the arms of your loved ones!