The Red Tide washed away Aeros

Despite large attendance at the game and the corresponding NOISE  Rockford wins 3-2 over Aeros.
The Icehogs skated as if it mattered not and they really have nothing to loose, sitting at the last spot in the West with just 55 points.
In the 1. no goals, lost of furious skating, no penalties.

At start of 2. Rockford scored (Taafe), then Klinkhammer (kinda appropriate lol).
Then on a PP, Casey Wellman scored a goal for Aeros and for quite a while in 2. and 3.
it seemed destined to be a lonely goal! 

Scuffle



Hackett rising from the red sea



Dangling legs and open ears ?

There was seldom a cohesive play!
Lots of scuffling-no penalties called for that:
Earl loosing pucks, passing it behind him directly onto the stick of Rockford player.
Pretty passing wasting PP minutes-sounds all to familiar!
Collisions with Icehog players send a few Aeros to the bench for Jody Green's tender care-thankfully nothing serious!
Most showed up for the autograph session, including the healthy (Fraser, Kalus) and injured (Cuma) scratches.

In the 3.Makarov made it 3-1 for Rockford.
Both teams had 3 on 5 PP chances, but only Gillies, with a puck from Buck, raced toward Toivonen and SCORED a shorthanded goal (5 on 3)! It really was an awesome thing to see. It happened so darn quick I could not catch it with my camera at all.
A real beauty of a goal! For that alone the afternoon was a winner!
Even if the AEROS lost by 1 point!

RED KNIGHT!

And in the last couple minutes Aeros poured it on, but could not prevail against Hannu Toivonen,
a RED knight for The Icehogs saving 36 of 38.
He just had a real good afternoon, saver after save!
He's real quicksilver, and so flexible.
Matt Hackett in net for Aeros with 18 of 21, a couple times he too, tried saves with everything... doing a reasonable Khudobin imitation..sprawling.
Revenge will be enacted, we hope, on Wednesday March 2.
In the West Aeros trail Admirals, followed by Texas, while OKC and Peoria are tied for 4, Rampage and Wolves tied in 5
all photos below by artandhockey..


Catch!




Ah, that feels good!




Ortmeyer faces 4 foes




If one can't beat Hannu, one just joins him in the net!




Twin Penaltie:Elbowing & Slashing



Puck behind the net?



A save  a la  Khudobin




Falk on defense




oops that went in: Taafe Klinkhammer goal,.




Hackett and the "lost" puck





 


Toivonen just falling on it





And about to fall on that one

A fist connects

En Guard

Wellman Goal

Hackett and the Barons

now that sounds like the title of a book, doesn't it? 



 O-cocoon  Fire Place.



And it sure seems like a book..

Hackett sporting another shut out game against the OKC Barons last evening in front of their home crowd.

And the O's were very much in evidence.

Kassian and Buck, Wellman, and others did their share as well.

As I posted earlier, the arrivals of the O's most certainly has an huge impact on the team. "They light up their fire"!

The future of the Aeros as  play off contenders is getting

rosier and rosier by the day!

Kinda makes one feel like singing.

And if one can't sing one CAN kick up one's heels!

And what makes it even rosier,

for the first time in ????  the AEROS +/- column sported all PLUSSES! 

Right! Good Job!

So now Rockford and Wolves having become the 'spoilers',

they both won over their opponents last night.

The Rampage drifting downward, the Stars rising slightly. 

And Aeros are surely emerging to spread their wings

                                             And that's all folks on this happy Sunday morning.

There is another game to come!

'Welman' back, Aeros

T'was the night of the come back.
Aeros leave Stars less brightly shining.
In the first period the Stars, by Wathier, slammed one past Anton Khudobin. Moaning by fans started,  quickly extinguished when Prosser with Buck and Scandella evened the sore. Later followed by a goal by DiSalvatore with O'Sullivan and Rau.


McMillan vs Tousignant



Kassian vs Gazdic



A fight broke out between

arch enemies MacMillan and Tousignant,

And shortly thereafter Kassian went fist to fist with Gazdic..and skated to the box pumping his victory fists! (remember Love?).

In the Second, Texas came back with a goal by Gazdic. 

Despite having 7 PP opportunities Aeros managed only 2 conversions into goals, in the 1. and  in OT, later more on that!

Missed that one, sorry guys!

Kinda seemed to me that the Aeros went flagging a bit in the second, they had 14 SOGs in 1. only 11 in  2. but ratcheted it back up with16 in 3.

While the Stars faded visibly from 13 to 6 with a brief flare of 17 in 2

Nevertheless it was an exciting game.

Both Goalies made good to great saves.

A defense was present.

And the offense was pushing.

And another fight broke up the rapid flow - Lukowich vs Noreau at the end of the 2.

And with  Aeros 3 :  Stars 3 we went into OT.

At only 29 seconds into OT, Casey Wellman, he of the Hat trick earlier in the season,

slammed home the winning puck..with a little help from O'Sullivan and Noreau.

And so the Aeros left the field victorious, as they have done several times vs the Stars!

Khudobin really heated up his saves...33 out of 36.

Bachmann was not far behind in save percentage.

HE stopped 39 of 43.

I guess, opponents have O'Sullivans number!

He seemed to be the prey of many a Star.

They squeezed him at the glass.They boxed him in!

And yet, he had 3 assists.

Looks to me the combo O'Sullivan, DiSalvatore,  now again Wellman, and/or Noreau is working  rather well. McMillan showed some talent in getting face offs, as did Rau.

So having Peters called up North did not really leave that big hole.

Kalus did a reasonable imitation of an avalanche "get out of my way or else" ,

As did DiSalvatore-battling for space in front, ready to score!

Buck is looking real good, he almost had a goal. He gained confidence in chasing after the puck,

passed well. He forechecked effectively as did Gillies. 

Earl did OK, not great, but OK as did Daoust. And others.

Anyway, it was a joy to behold an inspired-fired up (those 20 minutes or more seclusion after the last miseerable loss must have done it!) team of skaters and scorers. 

2 PP goals in one night for the Aeros, almost a miracle. 

Although the Stars also had one, with fewer PP opportunites, I may add!

3 Stars - natch all Aeros this time :

1. Wellman, 2. DiSalvatore, 3. O'Sullivan

A typical Anton save

Bachman in prayer?

Penalty Killers right?

Bachman is ready!

Wonder what Bucky is saying to Anton? Hmm?

 I think I know what the linesman is: "Enough with the chat, guys, let's play hockey"

The Stars caught an Earl ?

Hey Bach.. got that one in a clinch! He'll be no good now!

Aeros Goal Nr. 3

Somewhere in the bottom of the heap IS our goalie!

Kalus in motion

O'Sullivan in place

They have his Number - don't let him get away or he'll score again!



Wellman at the draw!



If you don't get out of my way, I'll kick you out of my way-gotta score!

Action behind Anton in 1.

Bachy, my how you can stretch, says Jordie!

Everything you can do I can do better..!

Ecstatic Fans

Ok, now you know how I did it! Am off to whoop it up!

Intermission feature-duck or catch a ball & get some golf!

                             And there you have a few photos of tonight's action, all by artandhockey

      Good Night y'all. Be sure to listen and watch Aeros in Oklahoma. And again, see you on Sunday.

Greatly anticipated

Bagnall sends puck flying over net :-)



Fredheim specialized in bodychecks : ) tonight!

Oh, hello Peters, welcome to my net!

Attentive fans look a bit...underwhelmed?

the 'decisive' game versus the Admirals, the 'other' First placed team, went somewhat flat for the hard core-die hard small number of fans tonight.



And the winners skate happily!



Not that the Aeros did not give battle.

They did.

O'Sullivan had 2 goals and 1 assist.
He also had 3 penalties.


Thurreson goal stuns Anton



Bucky's big grin

Thuresson got the first goal - a power goal at that - Anton looks like he just can't believe it! Mueller got the second.

But then O'Sullivan made it 2-1, also on a power play and the Aeros went to the locker room-maybe for some talking to?

Second period started out well. Aeros had 4 power play opportunities, but no puck went in :-).
With just a few seconds to spare Brandon Buck got a goal, making it 2-2.
And so we went into the third.
Hectic action going both ways, Aeros kept peppering Lindback (Lanky Lindy) -below



Peters in wait



O'Sullivan gets his second goal of the night and the crowd is happy. BUT seconds later, Palin gets another PP goal and the scoreboard is even again.
Never fear though, O'Sullivan gets goal Nr 3 and  then Peters Nr 4.

Peters snaps it in

But then the Admirals let rip...

Halischuck skates into net, if he can't shoot the puck, he shoots himself : -)

But never fear Halischuck scores once, he scores twice

A goal by Halischuk, the eager beaver (he sure.tries to make his goal with or without a puck). And then - horror upon horror he scores again and the end is

Anton's signature sprawl

Caught me a puck, here!

Skip to my Lou, perhaps?

Snapshots, all by artandhockey