Abbotsford turnes 'caliente' in San Antonio

What an exciting afternoon game in SA with a green hued audience of about 7,000!

 Another save by Brust

Abbotsford with a revitalized Barry Brust in goal and a better coordinated defense dominated the 1. period with 15 SOGs  and 2 power play goals. As well as a fight a few minutes into it!
For Kolanos fans it will be good to know that he had two assists.

 Face Off

Kolanos

Brust deflects puck but not Rampage player ;-)

Brust sprawls to save

For Barry Brust fans, let me just say he was in top form, making some truly unorthodox saves, one during the Shoot Out when he went wayyyy out and successfully deflected the oncoming Rampage player's puck. The final Rampage player during the shoot out either lost his nerve a) seeing how Brust deflected all previous shots or maybe b) he lost control of the puck which just gently drifted onto Brust's stick and stopped there ;-)!

Ah, well t'was the afternoon of the Heat. The game was played fast, aggressively with seemingly no holds barred - vide 3 solid fights, which appeared to me went the Rampage way!

To sum it up, Heat went hotly into the the First, simmered in the Second, but flamed up again in the Third resulting in 4 goals, 2 SOGs in OT and finally scored  2 goals in SO.
Rampage had a slack First with no goal, revved it up in the 2. with 1 goal and hit their stride in 3. with 3 goals almost like .... bang bang bang!

AHHHH that stretch feels good !

Yippee, saved! And what a defense mob!

Doc  Grumet Morris held his own during regulation and OT but was less than stellar in the SO.


The 3 Stars of the game 1. Walter, and 2. Brust of the Heat with 3. Combs (2 goals) for SA.

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

Winning is all that's cracked up to be or not?

In this news report it all sounds so easy, no?
But read carefully and you'll see that the math is slightly off.
Per the couple, they have spent $200 per week every week since 1984.
Now that makes 200 x 52 (weeks/year) $ 10.400 x 29 years=$301.600 on my calculator.
They have won in 1984  and are almost done with the take home of winnings.
They live 'modestly' so they say. And just had the 'feeling'
they would win again, and so they did.
Of course, we don't know how much they earned BEFORE the first lottery win; and how many weeks/years they spent how much money on tickets up to that time.

Having $ 200/week to spend on tickets seems to me a bit strange - unless of course they were well off so that $200 was just a drop in the bucket.
Now this report undoubtedly will inspire many, who may not be able to afford it, to go out and spend money fruitlessly on tickets - because - just maybe they,. too, get that 'feeling' of winning!
I have had that 'feeling' many a time in WINTRY  St. Louis...
but it may have traveled to SUNNY Arizona to that couple ;-).
I mean, we all like warm weather, don't we?
So why not that 'feeling' ;-) as well.

Kuemper gone - methinks - for good

For my Aeros fan readers here are a few pics - thanks to Getty Images-
of the Sunshine Kid Darcy Kuemper, and other Aeros now gone wild: Brodin, Stoner, Falk, Spurgeon, Granlund, Zucker, etc. Enjoy!

It is looking more and more dismal for the future of AEROS in Houston.
Des Moines will this be the new home for the Wild AHL affiliate?
Will keep you posted as things develop.

Count down to take off...departure alert....day 31!

No, we are not flying to the Moon.

Hell, Man in the Moon!

 Just to Florida to get on board for (IMO) epic trip to the old country ;-)!

Just hope NO sinkhole opens around the hotel we stay before embarking on the ship;-).
Amazing things are happening right now.
Today is day 31 before.
Tomorrow 30 and so forth.

Preparing my chers readers for a prolonged absence of postings.
Yes, I know I should take a pad or laptop... but I really don't want to burden us down with gadgets and, especially, their adjuncts (chargers, wires, cables, adapters, etc.)
By the time one puts that all together one needs another suitcase :-)!

Never fear there will be a few more Aeros and Rampage Hockey posts with pics coming up.

Kuemps Zucker Cuma Fredheim.

Anonymous strikes again...

How I love to read comments on burning issues-
may they be political or other in nature!

A famous quote by-you guessed it- anonymous goes:
Every time history repeats itself the price goes up.
now isn't that good for a hearty start of the day belly laugh?

 

How I admire the proliferation of anonymous!
Oh, how a adore the bravery of anonymous!
And even more so in slinging mud!
He has no fear of libel and slander, this brave anonymous!
So I vote anonymous HERO of my day!

You, cher readers may know him/her also as: "Jane/John Doe, X, bearding, innominate, nameless, pseudonymous, so and so, such and such, unattested, unavowed, unclaimed, uncredited, undesignated, undisclosed, unidentified, unnamed, unsigned, unspecified, what's his/her name, whatchamacallit, whatsis, you know who, secret, pseudo, incognito" 
Of which I sorta prefer incognito... that surely has a certain cache to it, dont' you think?

Yes, dear anonymous YOU ALWAYS MAKE my day!
 

A win in the North, a win in the South

Hockey fans are happy.
Aeros won 5:1 over the Heat.

Brust as Binghampton Senator

Barry Brust in goal for the heat must have had a bad hair day ;-)!
2 Goals AND 2 assists by Larsson netted him the Nr. 1 *.Phillips, Rau and Fontaine got the others. Hackett as the Nr 2* was in the net. 3 goals Larsson,Rau and Fontaine's were on a PP!

For Kolanos fans Krys had the first assist on the only goal by Nemisz for the Heat in front of sparse  crowd - less than 3.000.

Dov Grumet Morris with new pads

Matt Climie

Dov Grumet Morris of the Rampage did a lot better, he only let in 1 goal by Ebbett in the 3rd. for the Wolves. While Rallo(Miskovich and McFarland) scored first for rampage and Hamill unassisted brought home the winner. The loud and boisterous crowd of almost 11,000 went home happy! Armed Forces Night.

Sacrificing for the team.. and yes, that puck did not go in

Sled hockey team as honor guard at entrance of Rampage

Not just one-TWO fights simultaneously quickly broken up

After this exciting fast paced game with relatively few penalties  and no PP goals, the Armed Forces Special Jerseys went on  live auction... well, the guys came out, slicked down and in spiffy suits, and stepped up to be auctioned off, their jerseys, I mean of course. I believe they raised over 25,000 to benefit the charities for, among several, the Rampage sled hockey team which is sending 3 to the national team to compete in Sochi! BTW Jed Ortmeyer's Jersey fetched a very nice 800 plus...and from the comments overheard, he is seen as an important factor the team's dismal performance earlier in the season has turned around. As all Aeros fans know only too well, right!

This fan is obviously NOT happy with the 3 on 2 scramble for the puck in front of his section :-)

Now on Friday my fortune cookie said "A surprise is waiting for you on Saturday." And so it was... after all when a 'cow parachutes'  into one's lap with a coupon for a free sandwich, finding a shiny penny on the way to ATT Center, Rampage win and
 seeing this
at the auction which was very successful...
now that all IS a surprise, not so?







But on the lighter side; the game reminded me rather a lot of  'let's find the goalie' and of "upsadaisy who" all night long  on both sides.
Which was, I am sure, no fun for Climie nor Grumet Morris.

Then its Upsa daisy Dov

Now its Upsa daisy Matt

Finding Matt C?

Finding Dov?