Aeros vs Rockford 3/15 -- Aeros Grill the Hogs in 5-4 Victory

About midway through the second period of tonight’s game against the Rockford IceHogs, a balloon soared into view of the press box, then quickly fell back to the ground as all of the air blew out. Andrew Ferraro, sitting to my left, also saw this. To which he stated: “That’s like the Aeros playoff chances right now.”

The statement was understandable as, at that point, the Aeros were down 3-1, they were already on their second goalie of the game, and while they hustling more than they had in any game over what turning into a lost weekend, the game just didn’t appear to be headed in the Aeros direction.

But at 10:26 of the second Benoit Pouliot was able to bury the puck in the net to briefly make the score 3-2. Then Rockford’s Pete MacArthur scored his second goal of the game at 12:35 to put Rockford up 4-2, and the game looked to be over.

Then the Aeros went on the power at 14:18 of the second. And for most of that power play, the Aeros were a disaster. Players were falling down with the puck. They were turning it over, whiffing on shots, everything but running a top-notch power play. Then Krys Kolanos fed Corey Locke who was slicing between defenders, and at 16:02, he put the puck in the net to make the score 4-3.

About a minute-and-a-half later, Danny Irmen got control of the puck behind the Rockford net, and with Rockford defenders draping him, he fought and fought until he saw Krys Kolanos all alone in position for the shot. Irmen got the puck to Kolanos, and Kolanos nailed the shot to tie the game at 17:41.

“We had this feeling in the locker room that we were going to get this thing done,” Danny Irmen said after the game. And at that point, it appeared the Aeros had indeed shifted into another gear that Rockford just couldn’t match.

And with seven seconds left in the second, the Aeros sealed the win when Krys Kolanos accepted the pass from Jesse Schultz to net the game winning goal.

“We never really give up. That’s how we play,” Irmen said. “And we know we have a lot of offensive guys, top of the line…players who can score at any time.”

Nobody was able to score in the third, though Anton Khudobin, who replaced Nolan Schaefer at 17:44 of the first period, faced some tough shots. And the Aeros, who faced dropping out of second place after a disaster weekend of play, found a way to salvage two points, making themselves and the crowd of 4648 very happy.

After the weekend, the Aeros still sit in second place with a record of 33-25-1-8 975 points). The Chicago Wolves are in third place at 35-31-2-1 (73 points), and the Peoria Rivermen are in fourth place at 35-30-1-1 (72 points). With the loss, the IceHogs dropped all of the way down to fifth place with a record of 33-28-0-6 (72 points). The Iowa Chops are in sixth at 28-26-4-8 (68 points),and the Quad City Flames are still in the playoff hunt at 27-29-6-6 (66 points).

The Aeros have most of this week off – which is usually bad news for the Aeros – and return to play against the Peoria Rivermen for two games at Toyota Center on Saturday and Sunday.

MISCELLANEOUS GAME NOTES:

Amazingly, despite their awful play over the weekend, the Aeros have won 11 of their last 15 games. They are now 23-11-1-3 against their West Division foes this season.

And with his three points against Rockford today, Krys Kolanos now has 251 points for his professional career. Maxim Noreau’s two assists give him 51 career points. Jesse Schultz has points in 12 of the Aeros last 15 games.

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The three stars of the game were 3) Benoit Pouliot (goal and assist), 2) Rockford’s Pete MacArthur (2 goals), and 1) Krys Kolanos (2 goals and an assist). For once, I don’t think those of us up in the press box had much of an argument with this, though an argument could have been made for Corey Locke (goal and an assist).

But the true star of the game was probably Danny Irmen. Irmen got only point in the game, but he did a lot of the dirty, hustle work in the game that made the scoring possibly, especially on the two Krys Kolanos goals.

And the crowd favorite of the night, aside from Krys Kolanos, was Mitch Love who got in a fight toward the end of the first period that helped to bring a little energy to the team.

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“It wasn’t inevitable things would have worked out,” Kevin Constantine said after the game, “but we gave ourselves a chance for things to work out because we worked harder tonight than we’ve worked in a long time.”

Constantine was happy with the team’s play, especially with the team’s energy level. But the one thing he was unhappy about was Nolan Schaefer’s play. “Nolan didn’t look sharp. And I didn’t think Nolan looked sharp two games ago,” Constantine said. “And we just left it and at the end of the day lost…we didn’t want to leave it today.”

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I’m not really in a music vibe tonight. But I heard this song the other night as I walked into Toyota Center, so, I thought why not play that song. So here’s The Rolling Stones with the “Harlem Shuffle.”