A superbowlday result for the Aeros on ICE

And so it was - in front of 7000 plus guests filling the upper bowl mostly.
Only to most dedicated Aeros fans and season ticket holders seemingly decided to attend?
The rest must have been somewhere preparing for the Super Bowl or ??
Well it was a lovely sunny day!

Hutton saves hugely

22 check to jowl with 22 :-)

Lonely place for Beaudoin

Booorrred?

SAVE by Kuemps

Newcomers O'Neill and  Dowell

Proof: Palmieri IS here ;-)!

Twin Duels.... ;-) fro the puck

That's the almost goal by Beaudoin...

Now to the impressions of the two teams and the refs (;-)!) - honored with the presence of2 referees the first period started off with lots of penalties which resulted in a PP goal for the visitors by Hayes, Clendening and goalie Hutton. Beach, Dahlbeck and Morin made it 2 for Rockford.
Medvec, Fontaine and Genoway put Aeros on the board with seconds to spare before 1. intermission. Strangely the goal by Bulmer  (3. period) looked like a twin to me as the Hayes goal :-)!

5 PP for each team ... but only Rockford managed to capitalize on it, once!
Looking at the teams record up to this game:
Rockford ( 6th) leads Aeros (8th) in PP by a measly 2, but out kills penalties by 9 - 20th vs .Aeros at 29th.

Several incidents of roughing broke out, one escalated into a fight between McMillan (remember the McMillan of old... always ready to tussle even facing suspension- well he was back in this game) and Mills.Both teams went at it equally 12 SoGs.

Amazingly, Rockford managed to increase the pressure on Kuemper (now in his 5th consecutive game, winning 4 and loosing 1 in the last few weeks - is Hackett perchance in the doghouse?) in the second to10, and even more so to 14 SoGs in the 3rd period.

Hayes Goal



Medvec pounced
 

THE final goal by McIntyre!

Tangle not Tango ;-)

However, Aeros defense revved up, offense even scored twice although their SoGs went to 8 and then 6 down from 12!
Goals by Bulmer, Dowell, Veilleux; McIntyre and Genoway bringing the game to 3-2 win for the home team.
BTW if Kuemps had played 840 minutes (actually played 821) he would be ranked 4th amongst AHL goalies. Hackett ranks 31.

Anyone present will have to admit that Rockford played well, skated fast, reacted quickly and passed more than adequately. After the 1. period the play intensified with Rockford being ahead. Even we could see them tiring out they still put real pressure (14 Sogs!!!) on Aeros and Kuemper.