In praise of the, almost, unknown goalie

Hoggan Goal

Cody Reichard.... yes, he did let in 2 goals by Hoggan one just.29 seconds into the first, and the second Hoggan goal a bit later. Rau and Petersen scored for the home team.
If Hoggan would have scored the 3. goal in the 3. for threGriffins... he'd a had a hat trick.
But he didn't.
He just had an assist to Billins. :-).
Maybe those sexy pads of McCollum did
discombolute the Aeros :-)?
Maybe other things on their mind did.
Griffs certainly went all out after last nights loss to the Rampage.
IMO the Aeros were taken aback by the immediacy of the Hoggan goal and had a hard time getting it together, even WITH the 2 goals by Rau and Petersen.

After the Rau goal..on a PP - McCollum prone-but not in admiration :-)

If not for Reichard stopping all 14 sogs by Grand Rapids in the second period, the team could have lost BIG. And I mean it. 

Rebound

The aggressive activity (at times IMO assisted by some NON-calls by Referee Darcy WHO .. ah, Burchell) could have resulted in lots more goals. Thanks to Reichard it didn't.

Griffins out skated the Aeros, hate to say this, but they did. They also seem to have played a more NHL like game.. rough but sneaky.

Did they already KNOW the referee and know what they could get away with - just a  feeling, no real reason for thinking this.

Pad safe.. just one of many tonight

Nr.12 beginning his sub-marining move!

Now the third period!
Well, what about that?
A blatant 'u-boating' of Reichard within the crease by (was it Nr. 12 Raedeke?) was nonchalantly ignored by Burchell.

BUG Brian Stewart studying? action on ice;-)

But he did call a penalty on some Aeros who retaliated - IMO justifiably, to the Griffs attacks on Reichard at other times. According to Better Half, that -'submarining' event int he 3. wasn't the only one, there was another earlier, which I did missed.
Gimme a break, 6 penalties on the Aeros and ONLY 3 on the Griffins!

Who'd believe that who were there tonight among the good crowd of 7600 plus.

Why - we are attracting bigger crowds lately? Due to aggressive marketing? Or the desire to see a game of HOUSTON Hockey before it ends? Who knows.
The crowd wasn't quiet as vocal as a size like tha
t ought to be! Qien Sabe!

BTW amongst them were some "visitors from space"- Aeronauts such as Cunningham (Left)

On the other hand, The Wild vs Dallas also lost.. 3-5 (Dallas made 3 PP goals).
Hackett in goal, Kuemper on the bench! According to Chris Breuer, who was there watching, he played decently considering the PP goals...
here a photo by Chris Breuer of Hackett at warm ups... thanks Chris!

Hackett in Dallas, photo credit Chris Breuer

Cody Reichard mans up at the game

and keeps the Rochester Americans in check through quickness, flexibility, glove catches and using his chest to deflect pucks - just to keep them from going into the net, except for 2 in the second period, and,alas, the third in the SO by Biega, which wins the game for Rochester 3-2.
Overall it was kind of nail biter game. And gained the team 1 point!
Reichard showed his mettle by stopping 27 of 29 SoGs. IMO he has real potential. He may need more practise facing 'shoot out foes'. Good JOB!

Even with a foe on top of him in his net, Reichard did make the save

Leggio, who has improved from last season for sure, stopped 38 of the 40 he was peppered with by an 'energizer bunny' team  in the first and second period. 
Rau with McMillan scored first.
Both teams held onto their 2 goals each on OT  but Rochester scored 3 vs the Aeros' 2 goal in SO. Leggio appeared (to me) to give advice to a Cody McCormick.. maybe how he saw Reichard react? But to no avail, McCormick did not score.
Despite the fact that Rochester sits in 1st place in their division with their penalty kill, Aeros' Phillips with Scandella and Granlund (again laying up for good shot) scored on one of their 4 PP.

Again, IMO, the Aeros' passing was good, the penalty kill much more effective, this speedy and rather physical game made tonight worth watching.

And a fight broke out ;-

Yes, I know they lost 2 to the 3 vs  Rochester BUT it was only in the SO the others gained the upper hand. Otherwise the pace of game was fast and furious with a total of 70 - yes - 70 sogs by both teams.
Granlund really seems to have iron lungs, he was out there so much - it seems he never took a break.

McMillan tried, oh how he tried, only to have the perfect pass from Granlund go stratospheric.

 He tried, McMillan did!

Save by Reichard

Here you are ref.. a puck!

Starting with helmet malfunction?

.

Rau and Larsson inplace at the right time, but no goal afterall.

in the 2nd.:More helmet problems?

Playing hard 'puck' and not taking any gaff from the "foe"-this was an Aeros team not much seen in the first months of the season. 

If they keep this up.....Calder Cup may not be just wishful  thinking after all :-)!

Now - if the referee would have done HIS job better.....

Unhappy, even mad Coach! ;-)

well it was obvious that coach Torchetti was NOT happy with Kosharsky in OT-above.

And the fans boooed rather loudly the ;'non-decision by Koharsky, as well.