A splendid weekend, with Hockey, in San Antonio

The weather could not have been better [made up for the be-fogged and be-rained one earlier ;-)], but sadly the Rampage lost to the Rochester Americans 3-2. BTW I really like those read-white-blue jerseys, but I do like the Rampage warm up jersey more-muy caliente

!!!Of course, it was not a BAD game, but a loss is a loss for Rampage fans of which there were over 6,000, although there seemed to be more.
Noisy ones, at that!

The first period started, as did the one the last game we saw, with an early goal by Rochester by -of all people - Johan Larsson- Second Star of the game

Crabb shadows Gillies

with Colton Gillies ( both ex Aeros) and Irwin in just a hair over 2 minutes into the period. On a power play, yet, thanks to Megan.
Rob Madore

Rob Madore standing as tall as 5'10 (176 pds) can be Third Star of the game

Nathan Lieuwen

was in goal for Rampage,  Michael Houser was recalled to be backup, due to Markstrom's injury (?)  earlier.

Nathan Lieuwen for Rochester at 6'5 (186 pds) played Goliath to Madore's David (lol). Since Rampage played (to quote seat mates) like 'girls hockey' (they did root for Rochester - I may add!) the scene in front of Madore frequently was like this:

Madore did acquit himself rather well stopping 34 of 37 SOGs throughout the 3 periods.
Rampage managed one goal on the 2. A power play goal by Janik, Gilroy and Martindale

Janik Goal in 2.period

and 1 in the 3. by Howden with Shaw.
Both teams had 2 penalties each, and a power play goal each. Penalty kill was adequate.
Called up by Rampage, Wade Megan played quite aggressively,  perhaps too aggressively. Megan sitting for hooking allowed the first PP goal for Rochester.
Especially in 1. and 2. there was some sloppy passing and stupid mistakes by Rampage players. Although they picked up some speed and managed to shoot 3 more SOGs (8) then in the 1. (5).
Only in the third did they seem to have found their rhythm with 15 sogs. And every time I looked Kilroy (oops) GILROY # 97

"was here" defending (he also did a get an assist).

But it just wasn't enough to carry the evening.
Rochester out shot and out scored them - albeit just by one, a, PP goal by Tardif (First star of the game), Adam and - again - Larsson.
Lieuwen had a few close calls,

Close call-but no goal

but managed to  stop all but the 2 of 28.

Two more ex-Aeros were present, Drew Bagnall

Bagnall-Nr.4 the C

sporting the C was on the ice seemingly all the time.

Hackett still Nr. 30

 And Hackett as BUG skated during warm ups and later to help the team celebrate its win!

Hackett congratulates Team and Larsson!

And then there were none... goals that is for the Rampage

Yes Sir, I know its a bottle, next time it'll be a puck, one of 39!

Lieuwen at work

Yes, it's true, yesterday's game Rampage vs Rochester ended in a Shut out 3-0 for the visitor from the East. Who had some dedicated Sabre Jersey clad Fans in the audience, right behind the Amerks' bench..
Nathan Lieuwen cold stopped Rampage's 39 shots on goal, 10 if which have to be credited a very busy Ortmeyer.

Melee-just one of many in front of Lieuwen

Ortmeyer at work

 Back soon where he usually is.. Orty

BTW Orty was were he could do the most damage - that is in front of Lieuwen, but the Amerks defense and Lieuwen was just too good. 

Orty hurt?

At one time Orty looked hurt.. but was back in the blink of an eye and back in front of the net of Lieuwen.

Timmins

Timmins at face off

A wide awake and sober (Lol) Timmons (32) nailed face off after face off (photos above).

Gauthier-Leduc (34) to Gomes (12): "Hey, bud get off our goalie !" :-) it was that kind of game!

Barlow (10) skated like pursued by the devil during periods 1 and 2, but lost steam in the 3.
He also was the lucky (lol ?) winner of the most PIMs ;-). 
Sadly, most of the Rampage players seemed uncoordinated, skated, while not exactly sluggishly, certainly less energetic, missed passes..etc.
The only reason, Rampage did not loose with more goals against was entirely due to the efforts of Grumet-Morris - he did some great saves. He DID stop 9 in the 1, 5 in the 2. and all 8 in the 3.

And Rampage ought to have made some goals, the way Ortmeyer was present with his 10 shots on goal ,  Timmons had  5.

Grumet Morris save in 1.

Grumet Morris save in 3.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

High Fives, y'all.

Leggio observing :-) Dov

Other observations:
Leggio (not in net this time) certainly had a grandstand view of the opposing goalie.

Helmet malfunction for Rochester-this game:-)

Got my helmet back ;-)! - no, really - a high stick save by Lieuwen!

And finally, a Leggio  rather chummy with Koharski,
the, oh so unbiased (at times-lol) ref.

Did he thanked him for officiating so well (?) at both games this weekend -just kidding!

Cody Reichard mans up at the game

and keeps the Rochester Americans in check through quickness, flexibility, glove catches and using his chest to deflect pucks - just to keep them from going into the net, except for 2 in the second period, and,alas, the third in the SO by Biega, which wins the game for Rochester 3-2.
Overall it was kind of nail biter game. And gained the team 1 point!
Reichard showed his mettle by stopping 27 of 29 SoGs. IMO he has real potential. He may need more practise facing 'shoot out foes'. Good JOB!

Even with a foe on top of him in his net, Reichard did make the save

Leggio, who has improved from last season for sure, stopped 38 of the 40 he was peppered with by an 'energizer bunny' team  in the first and second period. 
Rau with McMillan scored first.
Both teams held onto their 2 goals each on OT  but Rochester scored 3 vs the Aeros' 2 goal in SO. Leggio appeared (to me) to give advice to a Cody McCormick.. maybe how he saw Reichard react? But to no avail, McCormick did not score.
Despite the fact that Rochester sits in 1st place in their division with their penalty kill, Aeros' Phillips with Scandella and Granlund (again laying up for good shot) scored on one of their 4 PP.

Again, IMO, the Aeros' passing was good, the penalty kill much more effective, this speedy and rather physical game made tonight worth watching.

And a fight broke out ;-

Yes, I know they lost 2 to the 3 vs  Rochester BUT it was only in the SO the others gained the upper hand. Otherwise the pace of game was fast and furious with a total of 70 - yes - 70 sogs by both teams.
Granlund really seems to have iron lungs, he was out there so much - it seems he never took a break.

McMillan tried, oh how he tried, only to have the perfect pass from Granlund go stratospheric.

 He tried, McMillan did!

Save by Reichard

Here you are ref.. a puck!

Starting with helmet malfunction?

.

Rau and Larsson inplace at the right time, but no goal afterall.

in the 2nd.:More helmet problems?

Playing hard 'puck' and not taking any gaff from the "foe"-this was an Aeros team not much seen in the first months of the season. 

If they keep this up.....Calder Cup may not be just wishful  thinking after all :-)!

Now - if the referee would have done HIS job better.....

Unhappy, even mad Coach! ;-)

well it was obvious that coach Torchetti was NOT happy with Kosharsky in OT-above.

And the fans boooed rather loudly the ;'non-decision by Koharsky, as well.