Do not count out the Aeros

After the loss to OKC and of Brodin and Granlund, the team rallied and came back with 3 goal in the third in short succession, driving the game into OT and SO. Hackett in goal. The scorers were (seems a bit repetitious, doesn't it but we'll take it fans, right?):

Doffing helmet to you Aeros :-)!

McIntyre with Fontaine, Kampfer; Genoway with Phillips, Fontaine (on PP); Broda and Phillips. And Phillips (Nr. 1 *) won the team the 4-3 win over OKC .. feels good- like a bit of revenge over the team that sidelined the 2 up and coming Euro Talents the night before.  :-)!
Hackett stops the SO's by OKC's most talented scorers with 27 in regulation and OT and 4 in SO.

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.

Winners everywhere

While the Aeros recorded their first at home win over the Texas Stars WITH Hackett in goal (more on that below), I was delighted to find out that three of IMO best singers won the Concert Of Arias (Eleanor McCollum Competition) last night.

A truly impressive line up of 9 finalists sang their hearts out in front of a full house and 3 judges (Tenor Griffey, Maestro Summers and HGO Managing Director Leech).
The slate included singers from as far away as Russia, South Wales, Canada and China.

Prize ($ 10,000) plus Audience choice award went to the 22 years old soprano

Andrea Carroll,
HGOs Assoc. Music Drirector Eric Melear was the accompanying pianist for all!

2. prize to Welch born Natalya Romaniw  (24) and

3. prize to Bass Chen Peixin (30) from Beijing.
Carroll sang with purity and an extraordinary expressive voice from Mascagni and Massenet.. proving her familiarity with Italian and French works.
Romaniw sang from Mozart and Gounod with flexible strength and a depth that showed off her big voiced soprano.
Chen, a huge bass, with room to spare, and great stage presence wowed most by his choice of Verdi and even more so Rossini, showcasing his grasp of comedy.

After hearing all 9, my Nr. 1 too,  was Carroll, but followed by Chen as Nr. 2.
Carolyne Sproule (23), a mezzo with, to me at least, interesting vocal shading in her Strauss, and a very impressive presentation of an aria from Julius Caesar by Handel, would have been my Nr. 3.
And Romaniw I had definitely pegged as the audience choice.
I got three right, just not in the final order, lol.

Now to the three goals last night: Wellman - a single handed goal in the 2., Genoway (Fontaine ,Wellman) on a power play, and Broda (Fontaine) in the 3 on the empty net!
Sure looks like a very lucky night for the Aeros.
And yet, a sad ending to this has to be reported: Wellman was traded by the Wild to the New York Rangers! 
They also re-assigned Rau to Houston.
And re-signed C.J.Stretch to the a PTO. Poor guy having to pack and unpack his satchel in such a short period!
Now they'll play in Houston Saturday Lake Erie, AND Sunday..at HIGH NOON Milwaukee-not to conflict with the Super Bowl Parties awaiting football fans LOL.

Another 'On The Road' Win for Aeros

So.. they did it again. An OTR win versus Peoria. 2-1
And a newbie named Mike Radja - below scoring a 'flying goal' and his stats

2007-08 U. of New Hampshire H-Eas 36 19 24 43 32
2007-08 Syracuse Crunch AHL 2 0 3 3 0 -- -- -- -- --
2008-09 Fresno Falcons ECHL 8 7 6 13 4 -- -- --
Regular Season Playoffs
Season Team Lge GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2002-03 Waterloo Black Hawks USHL 56 17 16 33 45 6 0 2 2 4
2003-04 Waterloo Black Hawks USHL 55 17 23 40 4 12 4 5 9 35
2004-05 U. of New Hampshire H-Eas 42 8 12 20 28
2005-06 U. of New Hampshire H-Eas 38 8 9 17 26
2006-07 U. of New Hampshire H-Eas 33 19 18 37 12  -- --
2008-09 Rockford IceHogs AHL 57 11 12 23 20 1 0 0 0 0
2009-10 TPS Turku SM-li 25 6 3 9 12 -- -- -- -- --
2009-10 Syracuse Crunch AHL 31 7 7 14 12 -- -- -- -- --
2009-10 Bridgeport Sound Tigers AHL 17 5 5 10 6 5 0 1 1 4
2010-11 Augsburg Panthers DEL 49 11 8 19 26 -- -- -- -- --
2011-12 Elmira Jackals* ECHL 32 17 17 34 20
2011-12 Binghamton Senators* AHL 3 0 1 1 2
2011-12 Peoria Rivermen* AHL 2 0 0 0 0
2011-12 Houston Aeros AHL 1 0 1 1
  
helped with the Broda (again) goal. Where Kassian got the second helper!
And the first goal was by Fontaine, Di Salvatore and Penner on a PP.
All came in the First Period.
Sunshine Kid Kuemper is getting more assured in the net.
And another Spur of the moment BUG was sitting on the bench.

AND Gillies, if clearing waivers this morning, will be seen again with the Aeros.

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!

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!

Aeros Comings and GOINGS

Joel Broda and

 artandhockey photo

Peter Zingoni  Nr. 10 in the photo - Aeros vs Stars 12/4 (he of the long injury.. missed 25 games this season alone, plus the ones he missed off and on last season-maybe California water and air will speed his recovery?) gave been assigned to Bakersfield Condors to join another reassigned Aeros, Josh Tordjman....

Personally, we have felt this move was too long in coming.

So at last, two spots on the team have opened up to keep good young talent...
Mc Bride for one, a returning (if so) Spurgeon will fill them most ably.

GO AEROS

Now, I do need to see more of the late signed Bryce Lampman.... but so far he has not made much of an impression. Could he be another transfer or just not renewal of his PTO?

Update before going up North (east)

Joel Broda, Center, signed for 3 years to entry level contract by Wild.

What is an entry level contract:

"Players between the ages of 18 and 21 must sign "entry-level" contracts for their first three NHL seasons. Those aged 22-23 are entry-level players for two years, those aged 24 for a single year.
Entry-level players are subject to maximum salaries and bonuses.

The maximum entry-level salary will rise to $925,000 per year by the time the current collective agreement expires in 2011".

Really, it is so necessary to 'hang' on pronouncements of Russo and The Third Intermission regarding "Dimples" Khudobin's hockey future.

(Do you remember THAT year?)...and much more.

I guess I will have to wait till next week to read MORE!