And the Winner is...

                         Carson McMillan with his OT goal to put Aeros up by 1 over Admirals tonight.

Celebration

DiSalvatore high Fiving

 The puck rebounds-Smith better look between his legs for it

It was the REAL AEROS, the team of Round One, yes, that team that swept Peoria off the pages of the AHL, that came out skating like chased by the devil (does he have the name Yeo, perhaps?), shooting furiously, attacking, fore checking and stealing pucks, snatching pucks from right in front of Hacketts net more times on rebounds, and keeping the Ads mostly inside their zone.

Despite the addition of  Ryan Ellis, the Ads just could not get to the Aeros net enough.. only 13 SoGs.
There was THAT one time early in the OT, that almost made my heart stop... but at the last second the puck was fished away and shot down the ice (was it Gillies?)- if it was he reacted so fast and saved his goalie!

I have to admire Jeremy Smith's truly heroic efforts to stop the Aeros Juggernaut of 33 SoGs - but it just wasn't enough. And I could tell he was mad at himself and/or ?? to allow McMillan to get the winning goal skating off as fast as he could:

Good Bye Jeremy, until the next time!

Aeros went on the board with two goals in the First,  a very effective G.O.P. line got the First goal less than 2 minutes into the game.
Followed at half point with the PP goal by O'Sullivan, Rau, Noreau (who I may add was with us -it  this evening) and the photos above show the aftermath of that goal (I missed Goal Nr. One - it just happened soo fast). 
Thuresson (that pesky Admiral) made it 2-1 and the period was over.



Rau 'laced up'

The second saw some scrimmages, some interlaced skates, some heavy hitting on Ortmeyer, some good and fast reactions by Bulmer, Gillies and Spurgeon and others.

And the evener goal by Johnson Aeros 2 - Ads 2... and so it went.

No goals by either side in the Third. 

But a fabulous play towards the end of that period by Earl.



Goal by Johnson-Ads catch up

Smith really went out of his net so many times it still amazes me that the Aeros were unable to utilize his absence and score.

Guess he was just too athletic and so quick...here are a few of his saves:



Goalie Bagnell helping out while Hackett chases pucks?



A Conga Line amyone?

Not it is not a puck -. just Jeremy Smith playing house in his net!

It's balloon, it;s a UFO ? it's just a puck gone sailing!

About 3 minutes into OT McMillan led the Aeros to victory with the help by Palmer and Noreau (as I said he was present again,  our Max was).

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