Once again ...

I saw "The Rape of Lucretia"!
Could it have been done any better I cannot fathom that ?
It was as stunning, if not more so, than earlier.
See blog on it of 2/2/12 below.
But you HAVE to go yourselves!
Music truly sublime and the message touchingly thought provoking.
And somehow so apropos in this time!
A rather elite kinda selection of words in the libretto did NOT detract from it at all. Especially as sung and enunciated so beautifully by the cast!
Yes, it is sung in English!!
But I have been to several sung in English and felt they were sung in some unidentifiable language ;-)!
So this was a real Ohrenschmaus of music and words! 
A snippet from the opera.... for your listening pleasure!

And a few others by Britten:

A Birthday Goal for McIntyre

A ballet by Hackett

McIntyre, in honor of his Birthday - no doubt, scored the First goal vs. the Monsters, almost single handedly..Broda's assist was added a bit later.
Then the Monstrous (8 over 6.3 ft tall guys) Monsters scored in rapid succession - three in the 1. 1 in the 2... while peppering Hackett with18 SoGs. But our 'third period' Aeros came bouncing back a bit with a PP goal by Genoway with Fontaine, Stretch at almost last minutes of the 2. And in the 3. two more goals by Taffe (maybe his dry spell is over now?), Reed (an other newcomer-for the 2nd time, methinks) and Rau, and Foucault with Stretch (he seems to work out rather well!) and Radja.

Mcintyre on defense

Coleman saves

Coleman a monster goalie at 6.5 and 215 pds and

Hacket at 6.2 but much thinner at 176 pds, seemed about equal in talent.

On Hackett 4 of 25. In the SO he stopped  all 4.

Aggression by Genoway

Fontaine Nr. 1 Star

On Coleman 4 of 34.  Coleman stopped 3 in SO but let in 2 by Fontaine and Stretch (again -he is 'stretching' towards a permanent position for the rest of the season, maybe?).

Something struck me tonight: 

most of the guys scoring points were under 6Ft... Rau, Fontaine, Genoway, Stretch for the Aeros and Mauldin, Mercier and Strong for the Monsters.

Mauldin tries again!

Force Foucault ;-)!

In the end after 4-4 in regulation - one was pushed in by Hackett-really! No goals in Ot and Aeros 'shot out' the Lake Erie Monster, to add points.

BTW

Wellman had an assist with the Whale!

And the Wild lost to Dallas in a Shoot out.. alas.

Aeros loose to OKC

So, the curse now seems to have taken hold over OTR games as well!
Sad surprise upon coming home to hear about another loss. Aeros lost to OKC 2-5.
Correct me if I am wrong, but Aeros have yet to get a win vs OKC?

For 2 periods Aeros did not manage one goal. In the third (maybe after a talking to in the locker room?) the "Third Period" Aeros went back out and managed 15 SOG with 2 goals by Broda (McIntyre and Fontaine) and DiSalvatore (Wellman and Radja), but too late. BTW all the call ups were back in action plus the newbie Fischer!(previous post).
Who even had one SOG!
OKC had 4 goals in hand and got another one (of two SOGs) in the third to firmly lock in the win.
And remain in first place with 61 points!
Hackett was in goal for Aeros.
Danis for OKC.

A NOT AT HOME WIN for AEROS

Whatever the coaches said to them after the last LOSS AT HOME, it worked!
A peppy Aeros (24 SoGs) won over an even more peppy Rampage (36 SoGs)with Broda (2 goals) as Star #1, Barlow (2 goals) Nr. 2 and Hacket with 33 saves Nr. 3 Star.

Barlow scores first when Hackett is out of position

That one is A SAVE

Heavy action in front of Grumet Morris

Broda open mouthed "Where did it go?"

Last goal (4th) for Aeros

The Pause that refreshes

A bench on its toes....final moments

Fast paced, few penalties and Aeros managed 2 PP goals  by Foucault, Prosser, Genoway and DiSalvatore, Rau and Taffe out of 4 oppos.
Broda with McIntyre gets 1. Aeros goal and
the last Aeros goal with McIntyre and Fontaine.
Enough said.
All photos by artandhockey in no specific order

Bagnal helps keep puck out of net

Barlow getting ready for his 2. goal!

Aeros 1:Rockford 4 - so the curse continues

The only positive thing  IMO of tonight's performance - if one can call it that - was that  Mike McKenzie got his first goal of the season to even the score after the Icehogs scored almost immediately.
You'd think, that the presence of a respectable crowd of over 7,000 would have fired up the Aeros!

But, other than Kuemper getting his award early on, Hackett stopping 28 of 31 (the last goal for Rockford being an empty netter - Hackett is absolved from that !)

Final last seconds

Another Goal for Icehogs

Battling for the Puck: Genoway vs Richards

 4 on Defense and yet...??

and the afore mentioned baptism of McKenzie with godparents Prosser and Kassian,
it was a depressing game.
Rockford skated, fought a seemingly discombobulated Aeros.
There was lots falling about.
Several lost and broken sticks.
Fortunately 2 'might have been' injuries weren't, as far as I could tell tell.
Both 'nose holding' skaters - one from each team - were back skating soon after!

 A conference re what?

And the Ref (singular) called ONLY 4 penalties - neither resulting in a PP for either side!

Richards pushing Genoway  away from the puck in front!

 Hackett saves that one

But fans, it WAS an at home game..
and the majority of those, as we are getting used to, are being lost.

AEROS WIN

 tonight at Home in OT in front of a larger crowd than usual. 
 Am a bit late in posting, had to borrow a computer.. mine crashed yesterday morning-nice x-mas present, :-)!
The Rampage's Caruso with Timmins, scored first in the Second period. And on a Hackett, once more wayyy out his position.
And that after he had  made a great save, on a regular SoG then immediately after he also caught a 'flying' rebound!
After two so-so, IMO, periods, the "Third Period Aeros" (with 10 sogs) came out, and Rau, Fontaine, DiSalvatore evened the score on a PP.
And kept the momentum going into OT with the winning goal by Taffe, Disalvatore, Fontaine.
Which came as Rallo sat for Slashing from the 3. into  OT.
So part of the thanks for that goal ought to go to Rallo.. not that his teammates will thank him, :-)!

a sprawl by Hackett=a save this time

Rau gettin ready... goal

after the Winning goal in OT



Celebration is finally due!



Some of the crowd.. looked bigger than quoted by AHL

In the goals:
Hackett, as expected and
Markstrom for the Rampage, also as expected.  Peters and Palmer are still WILD!
As much as I hate to say it, this game was not one of the most exciting ones.
But a win is a win and in front of the home crowd...FINALLY! 
Why??
 Better Half and I were NOT wearing Aeros jerseys.
Another fan went ahead and got popcorn even though the Aeros had yet to score which is when they usually get their popcorn ;-)!
Maybe Santa Claus brought some new ooompf to the skating! Lol.
Or maybe it was that Ortmeyer was back, even though he interfered with Markstrom and sat for it!
Just kidding, of course.  :-), :-)!!
Briefly, it appeared that Aeros PP has improved (2 goals/ 6 opportunities)
Also improved IMO penalty kill - 5 PP opportunities for the Rampage were safely killed by Aeros.
The three stars (in ascending order)
Caruso, Rau and Taffe.. all the scorers.
Markstrom, making 24 saves in regulation outsaved Hackett's 20 of 21, seemed to me the better goalie.

Markstrom saves a try to score by DiSalvatore, this time.

But then what do I know about goalies!

The longest shoot out - I can remember

Esposito Winning Goal

San Antonio's Esposito got the winning goal.

Now that the baddest news are past...I'll get to the rest of them.
Aeros defense was quite good, Hackett was too, he did stop 23 sogs during the regulation time,
and 10 of the 12 SO.

The  3 P.. goal

That SA's Kostka with Thomas and Cullen (!) got a short handed goal which put SA Rampage on the board first - was kind of a fluke. 
But Aeros evened the score soon with goals by the 3 P's (Penner, Peters, Palmer) -
a PP goal at that -lol; followed by another PP goal by Wellman, Hendry, Prosser.

That D + D equals G...
Or it does when you have a Dadonov with a Derlyuk attacking a surprised Hacket that's when you get a Goal (Nr. 2 for Rampage).
BTW Dadonov #14 was rather impressive, holding onto the puck, switching out the way of Aeros defenders to sneak around the goal and plant the puck on Hacketts' uncovered right flank. Now that happened in Period 2. But Fontaine (he IS good - that one) with Broda and MacIntyre made it Aeros 3- SA 2.
Also good was the twinset Penner (right) and Chenoway (left) skating towards SA Goalie Brian Foster (who for a Rookie did extremely well) - in a sorta pincer movement.
Passing the puck well amongst themselves, skating speedily and agilely...a good combo, IMO.

During another PP of the Aeros caused by an interference call on Cullen of SA - forced,  so it seemed to me rather on purpose by Chenoway, no goal was scored.
So there we have the rookie Chenoway, at 5"9 the littlest guy on the team, doing arabesques around the others. Niiice! very nice!

In the third we have no goals by Aeros nor SA despite 3 PP ( 2 for SA) 1 for Aeros.
And the game seemed in favor of Aeros, when at 13 min, Kearns with Repik made it 3-3.
And so it stayed though the 5 minute Over Time.
McMillan was the recipient of the newest penalty "illegal hit to the head" of Dadonov (#14) who took his time to rise from the ice...a case of embellishment (?) which was however NOT called.
And soon after he was back skating as furious as before.

Rallo Tries

Now the Shoot Out.. a total of 10 as per AHL sheet,. my notes said 11 shooters .. the Nrs 19 for Aeros, and 27 for SA, were on it!

Palmer Tries

Did I dream these? I dunno.
The Official AHL sheet said 10 shooters.
But here are the 2 photos I took!
Palmer and Rallo tried.
 I did NOT dream!

With Fontaine getting the lone goal for Aeros; and Cullen (here he is again) and Esposito the two for SA.

BUT SA Rampage won the shoot out..
a historic shoot out?

One down - 75 to go!

It seemed a bit deja vu... didn't it? 

When Nr. 17 Casey Wellman faced down Matt Climie Nr 33 in goal for Chicago,
Wellman got 2 goals on Climie - not quite a repeat of that other game.
But exciting enough to keep us on the edge of our seats ...will he make a Third goal and get another hat trick?
Now that would have started the season off with a real bang.
Nevertheless, the game progressed nicely.






Goal One

From a reasonable (10 SOG  by Aeros vs 5 by Wolves), but scoreless First by both teams, the Aeros went gungho in the second with 20 Shots on Goal vs 8 by Chicago, scoring 2 goals in rapid succession by Wellman 17 (Helpers Taffe 22, Penner 5 and then McMillan 27) - later 1 by Ortmeyer, prominently wearing 41 (must remember that number change from 22 to 41), with Peters 25 and Foucault 13 assisting.

Matt Hackett keeping Chicago scoreless through 2 periods....and getting us to believe in a shut out!



 Goal 3 -Fans Happy

But no, Chicago came howling back in the third with 12 SOG vs  Aeros with just 4..one of which however was goal Nr. 4 by DiSalvatore 14 with Foucault 13 and Taffe 22.

Chicago Goal-fans unhappy!

The lone Chicago goal came at about 4 minutes into 3rd. by Mancari with Doell and Polasek..

 And at least twice it looked to me as if Mancari could have slipped the puck into Aeros net again! Were it nor for Hackett stopping 24 of 25 SOG..
whose glove catching facility has immeasurably improved over the summer! 
And Climie had to eat the loss with 30 stops of 34 SOGs.
Team Chicago a bit disconcerted by Aeros efforts needed 2 periods to regroup!


Sauve couldn't save...Last Aeros Goal

Was the two Too many men on ice, and one Delay of game penalties for the Aeros just a sign of a newly gungho team spirit? All those new Aeros raring to go?

Whatever it was, Chicago was unable to use the 9 penalty opportunities,

while Houston made 2 of their 7 count.

Three Stars of the Game were all Aeros:

Casey Wellman Nr.1,

DiSalvatore Nr.2 and

Rookie Foucault Nr.13.

 Kris Foucault 13, and Nystrom 23 skated well and fast with a certain "turn on a dime" agility which looked so easy.

Peters on the Draw



Caught me a Puck!


Peters, Rau and McMillan did most of the face off honors.

Two melees...at one time

Ortmeyer helps stop the puck!

Prosser 15, Palmer 19 and Taffe 22 played a very solid game.

Rau had some nifty moves as did Wellman.

Joel Broda

Hendry 24 and Broda 56 appear to have taken on the Kassian mantle!

Genoway 39 was somewhat invisible.

Early on Cuma 61 took quite a while to right himself after a collision near the bench.



Team speed and passing, plus puck possession seemed rather improved - but it is early yet!

Over all this first regulation game of the season was up tempo and exciting to watch by almost 10,000 fans!

Bullfight favors Aeros..

let me just say this: it was a game to keep fans on edge of their seats.
Four goals by Houston - all in the second period..
Seemed to me like bang, bang, bang and bang..especially those two in tandem by MacMillan.
Followed in the Third by the 'icing on the cake' goal by Daoust.
I mean really, that Number 5 goal wasn' t needed to make this game a winner!
And the crowd of an almost unprecedented number - over 11000 - just roared.
And honked horns on the way home!
What a game.
One felt as if the 'Good Old Days of Howe' were back in Houston.

Anyway, I kept an eye out for 'soft spot' of olden days ;-),
but also kept watch for the 'invisible man' Penner.
What a surprise, he was very visible..see photos below.
And could he skate!  Man, could he skate!
And seemed to be in the right place more often than not!

And to the fans delight TWO fights broke out!
And more stuff went on.
What with misconducts and several being 'escorted' out from the game towards the end.

And a bitter end for the Rampage!
Even that stunning goal by 'soft spot' Mathieu Beaudoin in the Third,
couldn't make the Rampage feel much better!

Alas, the Aeros Powerplay went a bit...soft!
They had a 3-5 opportunity and they could not score.
But really they didn't need to.
Their goals were more then enough to get a big win!

The Rampage, who started out so superbly in the season, are on a downward slide.
It seeems to me, the decline started with the December games.
They just keep sliding!
And having Climie injured, that hurt.
Though Fallon did yeoman's work stopping 35 of the Aeros' onslaught of 40.
It just wasn't enough!

There was one instant when Hackett just lifted his glove
and, hey presto, the puck sailed right into it..
Well at least, it seemed that way to me..so just shut mouth already!

And now a few pictures by artandhockey,
videos, or at least one, will follow manana! 
It takes so darn long to upload into the blog - gotta have lots time to do it/
Perhaps while listening to Joe O'Donnell reporting from San Antonio!

Almond Kearns Fight

Traffic Jam in front of Hackett



 Beaudoin in the midst of  it



Face Off

DiSalvatore and Weston battling for the puck

 The Fritsch and Penner Duo

May and Palmer have at each other, too!

O'Sullivan - DiSalvatore Goal



MacMillan-Ortmeyer-Falk Goal Nr. 2



Daoust having a trial run ;-)!

O'Sullivan pinned down.

Duh, did you see where that puck went ? ;-)



A save by Hackett



Penner-Frisch line of  Defense

The Shadowing (Penner) of Hackett :-)?

Hackett: "Hey Hollweg  get outta way, you aren't made of glass"!

Collision on front of Fallon

A well placed stick makes a puck fly behind the net

Beaudoin Nr. 26 and  Stone Nr. 28 en guard at Fallon's net!

Nr. One Star MacMillan

That's what counts!