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