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

Will the real Aeros please skate up...

What we saw tonight, when Aeros banked the 'Heat of Abbotsford' 4-1, looked like the REAL Aeros. Which have been not exactly present at the home ice over part of the season.
Was it the energy of the Sunshine Kid in goal?
Was it the addition of so many newcomers?
Or the absence of some 'old' familiar faces?
Kassian gone, Genoway gone, Zucker, Coyle and Brodin gone Wild?
Matt Hackett being a "Knight of the soulful countenance"on the bench at the Wild?

Connelly Nr. 1 *

Aeros Goal Connelly, Mara and Rau

Well, whatever it was it sure made for an power packed (Aeros got 2 PP!! both by newly returned to the line Brian Connelly), aggressive and 'wild' game.

With just 14 seconds to go Heat's Testwuide (not the former Aeros) and Lamb got the sole goal for Abbotsford and robbed Kuemper of a shut out.

Ruegsegger Nr. 26

Get outta my sight, Nr. 26!

Kuemper had a very light 1.period (Heat managed only 5 sogs, then the pace heated up with a barrage of 16 in the 2. and finally 14..Kuemper stopped 23 of 24!

And what stops he made, despite some pesky Heat guy (Nr. 26) who kept himself real close to Kuemps. He also sat once for goaltender interference, although Kuemper did 'embrace' Ruegs with his stick, but got away with it... refs did not 'see' that and so no call on Kuemps for hooking:-).  Because that's what it was - looked to me (alas no photo taken of that move;-)!.
With 12 assorted penalties called, the game was certainly hectic.

Aliu on his way off  the ice

What a safe by Kuemps!!

Aliu.. twice unsportsmanlike conduct, also received a game misconduct and was not seen on the ice after that. Krys Kolanos sat for him.

And another one

Seemed to me the Aeros penalty kill talents went a notch higher,
using 5 power play to score 2 goals also showed improvement.



All in all a very exciting game...and the 5 fights or roughhousing had fans screaming and jumping! Yea.. old fashioned hockey for a change.

The short striptease on the heat bench by Nr. 2 did not distract Aeros at all ;-)

 And a healthy Cuma did what he is supposed to, defend!

Cuma on station

Kolanos - Nr. 8 (it seemed to me) skated so smoothly it looked much slower.
He was not much on the ice during the first, but much more in the 3.
Did the coach save him for last ditch efforts?
maybe it worked, afterall Testwuide did get a goal in the last seconds;-)

Barry Brust keeping an eye on the rebound?

 BB and defense !

Regretfully (for BB's ardent fans) Brust did not shine tonight, he let in 4 of just 24 sogs the Aeros threw at him,  even though his defenders were there and trying hard.

Nr. 2 * Kuemps..

Mara Nr. 3 * with 2 assists