Fireworks in the Southwest-Aeros have a win!

Yes, it's true.
The night sky somewhere over Meyerland Plaza was filled with bursting multicolored sparks.
A fitting end to a smashing (and I mean this literally) game.
It's been quite a while since the glass reverberated like shots!
Bodies slammed into boards so frequently -THUMP, THUMP, THUMP.
And the raucous fans went wild.. "hit'em, get'em"..
and so on right at my right ear. It still feels numb!
Leaving the numbers game to the experts,
here is my take on this afternoon game.

Apparently the talking to the guys by the coaches about
 'puck management',
 'the best defense is offense',
'don't let the others have any 'space', etc.

Ortmeyer, he with the 2 assists

worked. A rejuvenated team stormed out and took on arch rival Rampage.

Body checks de rigeur.

 'Humpty dumpty' falls on both sides.

Ortmeyer and McLean (chivalry is not dead yet-Mc Lean lent a helping hand up to fiormer mate)

Tangling with foes any which way.

This was a good game.

Not a great game, but both teams worked at it.

Both scored 1 goal in the First, with Hollweg on a PP, and Fredheim (Ortmeyer, Gillies) shortly after.

Hackett got his 'moxie' back, after all that words starts with a M(ontoya in the net), not with a C(limie)!  Just kidding.

Even though it was a good game, it lacked the DRAMA of last night...

no fights to speak of-  tee hee -

but for the last few minutes.

Lots of "to'ing and fro'ing" all through the 2.
with heavy work for Hackett and Montoya .

                       But then the Third...  Earl getting feisty.. jabbering?

Montoya, stunned, on knees after that Daoust, Rau Earl goal!

 No, I DON'T wanna look at that dratted Nr. 62!

Patting the Winner

The Scrappers's goal to make it 2 Aeros - 1 Rampage.

And after that it's back to
Rampage pounding Hackett - he saves.
Aeros pounding Montoya - he saves.

A stranger interlude: did the net break, did the puck break it?
What happened?
I was so intensely watching referees and others seemingly reweaving the net..

Inspection

Net fixed?

                                      And  now it's back to the game, guys!
I caught only the tail end.

Gillies with Ortmeyer (he's again much in evidence-good move to sign him) makes it 3-1 with an empty netter on a PP, yet!

Fans ecstatic, as are the Gillies huggers!

and few more pictures-enjoy

all by artandhockey's trusty little 'pic-snapper'!;-)



Hackett at work



 A dropped stick, yet a save!

Brandon Buck "I'm just protecting Matt, Sir"!

Intermission Entertainment of the cuter kind

Hackett in full form!

Oh, just look at that little puck!

Number 1 Star of the Game with big grin!

Aeros ready to play!

When it came to the anthem...

there was this one male/boy singer who was so darn off pitch, but he made up for it by singing loudly.

 The sopranos of this group sounded really very good, however!

But then the second choir presented such a variety: another patriotic song -was it America the beautiful, or what. Well, never mind they were hardly audible from a certain location.

On the other hand the cute little skaters in unison and the small drill team were rather pleasant to look at!

I truly hunger for trained opera singers' presentation of the anthem.

And more instrumental entertainment,

provided IT is audibly mike'ed!

Gone and Back to a surprise..

BIG news coming down the wire ;-)! The Wild signed The Scrapper Jean Michel Daoust (here he isscrapping with Tjordman of the Rampage)

to a one year NHL contract and is thinking of offering the same to Rau=WOW!

Shall I call myself Sybil after all? (see my Post of 4/13)

Alas, the first game of Texas Stars vs. Hamilton Bulldogs, in Hamilton, ended with 3 -2 loss in favor of the Bulldogs. But there are still at least 4 more games to definitely establish the winner of that round.

MOBY DICK at Dallas Opera-absence explained.

The white whale struck again, this time as an opera by Jake Heggie ("Dead Man Walking"-which, BTW, will be presented by HGO next season). So we and a friend hied ourselves to Dallas for a night of a mariner's tale of epic proportion set to rousing music. So how apropos was it, that the floor of the dress circle bar vibrated and trembled? Not due to the music, I think-in intermission? And no quake either.. just a room full of people walkingabout and shaking the building?

Our first time at the new Dallas Opera House, named after the benefactors Margot and Bill Winspear. A glass palace with red accents inside, soaring ceilings and almost free floating staircases, cool or cold, modern, bare lobbies not exactly cosy nooks! An old fashioned (;-) horseshoe shaped auditorium with few plush accoutrements. Warm appearing wooden floors and walls however assure excellent acoustics. A stalagtite chandelier of glowing rods gets silently absorbed into the ceiling at curtain time. An open orchestra pit filled to the brim with musicians and their instruments.

A large orchestra, you say!

Yes, but Heggie's Moby Dick music, has an almost Wagnerian cast with swelling sounds accompanying the excellent all male chorus. As a matter of fact the whole cast was male, albeit with one exception:

Soprano Talise Trevigne in the trouser role of the ship's boy PIP. She carried the role well, sang exuberantly with a crystal clear soprano, even while being carried on a rope across the lofty stage area - the director's attempt to portray PIP overboard at sea. PIP is emotionally hurt by his 'almost death at sea' and even as he is rescued, he turns loony.

Captain AHAB, obsessed with the hunt for the White Whale, and powerfully sung by Tenor Ben Hepner, outfitted with a peg leg. How that was accomplished is still astounding and that he could sing the way he did with it, was even more of a feat! To my ears, admittedly not truly expert, Hepner's voice lacked a certain dark shading . Unexpectedly, I felt, his portrayal of the mad Captain of Melville's novel was perhaps the weakest part of this opera. Now, it simply could be due to the libretto or due to his clean and heroic sounding voice which is and will be that of a Heldentenor, hero of Wagner's Operas. I cannot explain it, really.

Heggie's music seemed ideally suited to the chorus, building a bridge between, at first, low, then stronger and louder sound till culminating in a roaring rocking crescendo when Ahab finally 'persuades' his crew to hunt relentlessly, as he wants, nay has to, for Moby Dick.

STARBUCKS, the mate, sung by Baritone Morgan Smith, has a plum of a role, amazingly a really fleshed out one. He is the caring, cautious mate, who in the end has to bow to his Captain's will and dies with him and the rest of the ship's complement.

Tenor Stephen Costello sang GREENHORN, the sole survivor. His voice has a burnished sound which reaches easily the heights required by the composer. His role is a sympathetic one and Mr. Costello did it full justice.

Baritone Robert Orth as STUBB provided a measure of levity as the singing instigator of sailors' hornpipe dances to pass the time on ship.

Jonathan Lemalu, listed as a bass-baritone, was the Native Queegueg. His voice, alas, at times was drowned out by the swelling orchestra. And to my ears, he sounded more like a deep bass without the higher notes of a baritone.

Several other roles of somewhat less visibility were sung creditably by O'Neill, Beyer, Haal, Bates, Jackson and Roswell.

Maestro Patrick Summers conducted with a fine feeling for Heggie's music.

The stage direction (Leonard Foglia), set (Brill) and lighting (Holder) relied heavily and MOST successfully on projections (McCarthy) of a schematic drawing rather then a physical mock-up of the 'Pequod' whaling ship, and skeletal "whale boats" surrounding the 'seated' (on a steeply raked stage) sailors on the hunt for Moby Dick.

Gushing, spewing, giant waves , believable torrents of them seemingly rushing into the orchestra pit!

The visual effects were truly stunning. I kinda hate to use AWESOME, but it truly was!

There was not one single moment when the audience was not drawn into the action on stage, by the visuals, the mood on stage, the emotions/characterizations of Melville's hugely plotted Magnum Opus expressively empowered by the libretto (Gene Scheer) and essayed by the actor/singers. Standing ovations went on for a long time!

And so did we.. stood and cheered, clapped till palms stung.

What an experience, this opera grabs you by the throat and will not let you go from the first to the last minute!

Unfortunately, no recording of it is available at this time. Sure hope a DVD of this production will be cut soon?

Aeros leave fans screaming for joy

Richard Bachmann in Star net.. saved an incredible 40 shots on goal delivered by a very industrious and aggressive Aeros. I believe that is the most Aeros shots on goal all season.

Anton Khudobin, ready for anything, stopped 17 shots.

AEROS WIN 4 vs STARS 2. Darcy Kuemper skating out to join the celebration! This is funny take on a German Drinking song about Vodka? Or so I've been told!

The last goal an empty netter by Irmen and Hilbert, who also had a goal.

Hilbert was like greased lightening on ice. Had he been healthy all along, I am positive the Aeros would be, at least, in the first round of play offs. In just the few games, he managed a bit over 1 point per game.Daoust had, again, 2 assists and is currently the leader in overall points. IMO he is the backbone of this team. And Falk had a really sweet assist to the goal of Smith. Rau did some by 'the skin of the teeth' forechecking.

Aeros passed decisively and mostly on target.

This team skated like ...well, they ought to have skated from the season's start. BIG SIGH!

Without going into details: it was a great game, exciting from start to finish.

All goals, Aeros and Stars, happened in the second and third period. The "Fight" between Smith and Stevenson should have been called "roughing" and worth a only minor. Kassian vs.Gazdic was a fight and a 5 minute major was in order.

Jerseys off their backs followed the end.

and here are a few pics from the line up

of auction winners versus a happy team in RED:

Aeros facing - no, not foes, FANS-

ready to 'strip for charity', sign jerseys and

pose for professional photos with the winners.

One more game tomorrow vs. Rampage in SA,

who, BTW, won tonight as well.