Sweet Victory in Sugar Land - Newsflash

Yes, chers readers, I did go to the game by the Imperials vs Dallas Jr. Stars this afternoon.
But as my back started to act up (again) I left in the 2. intermission and ...
per TN, missed a whole lot of excitement - if you can call a seemingly bad injury to the scorer of 3 goals and being carried out on backboard,  followed by a fight, and a Dallas player being thrown out of game! Tja....I blame it all on the pesky PIB!
On the way home major traffic jam on 59! Should have stayed,  lol!

Apologize for the cloudy look of photos-those glass sections are rather banged up!

After the second period Imperials led by 1 (4-3). And managed to catch up in the Third to end 5-3. Sort of an evening after having lost to Dallas Jr. Stars the evening before.

Crowd favorite SUPERMAN dropped the puck clothed in a brand new signed Imperials away jersey! Imperials Head Coach Jarod Palmer (ex Aeros) - we are reminded of the Aeros by the banners on the wall :-)!

 looks benignly on from the far left side:

Imperials goalie Anderson (Nr. 1), seemed not quite up to snuff in the first, letting in 2 easy (for the Stars) goals. But he regrouped well;  and by the end had 22 saves.
Here he waits for the face off - ready to catch what may be coming at him!

 

The game was a bit hard to follow.

No program, and the opposing team only sported Numbers no names on their jerseys..

 

However, with a bit of research I am able to report:

 

Imperials scorers: E. Bordak 3 (apparently out with injury-unknown how bad), Vladykosvoskiy and Spooner each 1 goal, Vladykosvoskiy also 1 assist, the other assists went to Simon and Bordak A - 2 each.

I guess a goal is a a goal, in English or Russian LoL!

 

On the side of the, IMO, faster skating Dallas Jr. Stars the scoring players are: Ledyanshin (?), Huspen and Burns - each got one.

 

The Goalie (from Ravensbruck, Germany) Steffan Muller had 29 saves of 34 SOGs.

His mask proudly sports the German Red Gold Black flag if you look closely-in the lower part.

 

If one expected a fast and furious play... sorry, not quite.

But the somewhat sparse crowd roared its approval when Anderson made another good save!

What struck me:

the players, as well as referee Larson were about the same age (methinks-give or take a year or two).

Anyway, the Imperials acquitted themselves well this afternoon.

 

I leave you with this image:

Enemies looking deeply  into each others eyes :-)!



 





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?

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!

Aeros Eclipse Stars with a 3-1 win.. with an add on

In the West:
Peoria and Admirals are also tied with 55 points!
Aeros are now tied with Oklahoma City with 54 points!

Beaudoin

Rampage trails with 53 points after a big comeback tonight (meant to write that Beaudoin, after being out for weeks, came back on the ice AND scored one goal of the many - just for all those  loyal fans still following Beaudoin)  
Stars and Wolves tied with 52.
Icehogs with 43 points still firmly last!

Unbelievable how tight this race is!

And without further ado:

Mr Hockey drops first Puck





Let the game begin



 Stars goal first




BUT Hackett saves the rest



After the Wellman Goal










 

IMHO both goalies did well, with the bigger share of spectacular saves going to Hackett, back in his  Wundergoalie reincarnation.

It was quite an eventful game.

Stars gave chase, passed well. Pounded the net of Hackett. 

But Aeros were flying from one end of the rink to the other, skirmishing, stealing pucks and digging for it everywhere. Inserting and excerting themselves between the Black clad Stars. And catching up the Stars by shots on goal.

Stars' followers were few, their usual screamed 'STARS

 during the anthem sounded rather puny, for a change.



O'Sullivan and DiSalvatore after the empty netter



A bunch of Real Happy Campers

To some hot headed and fiery hearted fans, there was ONLY one fight, and one that was rather un- impressive, between Sawada of the Stars- clearly the winner - and Palmer of the Aeros.
And not much of slamming against the glass either.
So the fans' sound level seemed much reduced. But - ah well I shall NOT go there!

"Unexplained" is the fact that when ever I do NOT wear an Aeros Jersey, the guys win! 
Yes, really.
Of course I am NOT superstitious.
Not me, oh no!
But they do win when I wear one of my others!

And so they did, after 3 periods of fluid motions and 1 goal each.
I still can't wrap my eyes and mind around the saves by Hackett, using all he got. Eyes behind the head maybe? You all saw that one: Reaching back and plucking the puck out of the air-SAVED again!

Feet, legs, pads, body... all used to make save after save!


Actually I thought that empty netter was due earlier - but Bachman, hurriedly putting on the brakes to skate backwards to the net, and his defense guys did an admittedly super job getting the puck away from the net. Only to have one slapped into it, after all that exertion, by Di Salvatore from O'Sullivan just seconds after Bachman, again, scooted towards the bench in favor of 6th Star.

BTW for Beaudoin fans: he's back on ice, and he gets one of the goals tonight.

Not yet lights out

A Little Night music over San Antonio ? ;-)

Senators out for the count, Leclair did not stop the last one SIGH!
Predators loose, too, despite the spur of a Ward shorthanded goal. SIGH!
BUT one happy thought: Texas Stars (Former 'Soft Spot' ;-)got 2 goals in as many games after his return from injuries) are going the next round vs. either Wolves or Admirals... t'will be decided on Monday.
And on the Wild front:

Jarod Palmer has been signed to a one year contract (predicted by a previous post).Will he skate here?

And Casey Wellman also receives firm contract. As did Nate Prosser.