Santa and Christkindl must've read my letter and granted my first two wishes: it was a bit warmer, and
the Aeros won this afternoon.
4 (with 28 SoG) to 1 (21 SoG) over the Rockford Icehogs, a team I remember well, and not too fondly, from 2 years ago. These Icehogs were on a par with these Aeros in speed and skating abilities, and almost even in shots on goal, and no goals during power plays.
Brief recap: scratches AEROS: Kalus, Lannon, Zingoni.
Period one:Aeros come out eager for kill: Goal number one at approx 2:30 min. by The Scrapper Daoust with assist of Rau=Wow and young Gunderson, who is turning into quite an asset.
Period two: Rockford scores at about 8:23 to even the numbers: Brophey, Bicknell and Klinkhammer. At 14:27 DiSalvatore, helped by Gunderson and Daoust put Aeros one ahead :2 Aeros vs 1 Rockford, that was a goal during the 4th power play opportunities the Aeros had. Second Period ended with Aeros 2 goals (21 SoG) Rockford 1 goal (14 SoG)
Period Three: Aeros added a goal by "Ironman" Noreau with help of Earl a just little over 2 minutes into the Third. And so it stayed until at 27 seconds to go and after Rockford pulled its Goalie, a veteran Cloutier for a 6th attacker, Irmen scored an unassisted empty net gaol, putting the Aeros ahead to end game with 4 goals in regulation time.
Personal observations:
Rockford and Aeros almost equal in speed and playing capabilities, relative good puck passes by both teams.
Powerplays AEROS: 5, only one resulted in a goal; Rockford had 5 pp opportunities.
Goalies: "Dubie" for Aeros, with 20 saves; Cloutier for Rockford, with 24 saves.
Penalties:
Penalties:
Aeros: Kassian: tripping, Irmen: hooking, Earl: holding, Almond: crosschecking, and Stoner (which seems to have become routine for Stoner to sit in the box) in the 3.:crosschecking.
Rockford: Greentree: hooking, Boyle: hooking, MAcArthur:tripping, Keith: holding and Petiot for interference, all minors. "Dubie" had several good to excellent 'defenders' in front of him helping him keep Icehogs in check.
Some scuffles, but nothing major to result in any penalties for either team.
Gillies, very aggressive skater, once even took on Cloutier behind his own goal, but could not hold onto the puck to smash it into the 'untended' net. Falk had a broken/lost stick. Stickless, he kept up defense using his "not too small" body for some time, effectively.
Gillies, Daoust, Rau seem to be the fastest skaters this afternoon.Rogers and Milroy showed respectable spunk, and Noreau (Ironman), for a defense guy, was rather 'offensive' and scored - LOL.
Rau+Wow 'wowed' with a spectacular save 'en rodillas' (as the saying goes in la corrida) - on his knees, deflecting the puck to his team mates.
Almond seemed more 'there', if I may say so. Gillies, as far as I could see, (and others), had a weird, but effective way of stopping pucks: by throwing themselves on the ice full length!
Is that a new coaching approach?
Well, it seems to work..so whatever works, let them have at it!
Three Stars: All Aeros: 1: Jean Michel Daoust, the Scrapper, 2. Jon DiSalvatore, 3. Ryan Gunderson
Still in my LA KINGS purple, silver and black jersey.I scooted over to the Buddies Christmas party.. pretending to be 'The Queen of Night' with laryngitis ;-). .And, well it was a conversation piece, but hey, IF it brings more watchers to games, not at all a bad thing! Aeros win or lose..it IS good entertainment. The champagne flowed, food vanished as if attacked by locusts, and good fun was had by all.
Fortunately ONLY one ice-breaker kinda game was played.
Singers had to wear a twinkle twinkle Santa Hat, with a piece of paper naming a part in an opera stuck to it(and unseen by them), had to ask other guests questions to find out which character they were representing.
It went quite fast and served well to bring buddies together. Having fun was the goal and THAT, my dears, was achieved easily!
MERRY CHRISTMAS - jovencitos y chiquitas, boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen ;-).
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