10/2 - Aeros v. Moose

Manitoba looked like Manitoba and the Aeros looked like the Aeros tonight as the teams came together north of the border to kick off the 2009-10 season.

The final was 4-3, and while the Aeros jittery play did smooth out later in the game, in reality, it was not as close as the score might indicate. Aeros seemed to put nearly every shot right into the chest of Cory Schneider, and when you're dealing with the AHL Goalie of the Year, you just can't do that.

Frankly, the scoring attempts were more reminiscent of the season before last, though I think once the new guys who have been up with the Wild throughout Aeros camp have a chance to practice with the squad that's been here, you'll see the play smooth out an awful lot.

The talent is there, for sure. Colton Gillies earned the first Aeros goal of the season when he put a pretty power play rebound past a scrambling Schneider, and then had the only assist on Andy Hilbert's goal. Then Hilbert got an assist on Noreau's buzzer beater that Earl apparently deflected in. And Craig Weller also assisted on Gillies goal. That's 5 points for the once-and-future NHLers on the squad, so as long as they're here, they should be a real boon.

Of course, one of the craziest things about hockey is when a beloved player moves to another team and then plays his old team. And for Marco Rosa, who is now a Moose, it couldn't have turned out better. He got the first goal of the night, nay the first goal of the SEASON, for the Moose and the #1 star. Bada-bing! Nice seeing you, Rosie!

Oh, and how about that final goal from the Moose? If you didn't see it... the guy shot from the high slot or thereabouts. Basically a hard dump-in. It went over Dubie's head, bounced off the glass onto the top of the net, and then rolled off the top of the net and into the goal.

It was one of those moments as a goalie where you just think, "I should have been a right wing." Poor guy.

He did have an amazing save early in the game where the Moose had him down on his blocker side and passed to his glove side, shot it just inside the post, and he dove over and got a glove on it.

And of course, I can't wrap this up without mentioning the 88 minutes of penalties in the second period. Not a typo. 88. What the what?

Well, first, Kassian and Desbiens went at it and Kass just pounded him. He's really such a gentleman fighter though. Clearly Desbiens was hurting and Kass kept his grip on his sweater but gave him a few seconds to find which way was up before pounding on him some more. All class--you know, for guys who are punching each other in the face.

Then Stoner laid a nice hit and Ramsey took offense and jumped him (and got instigating and game misconduct penalties on top of the fighting major), but Stoner handily beat the snot out of Rammer. Stoner had some huge open ice hits tonight, too. Heads on a swivel when that guy's around. Holy cow.

Lastly, somehow Noreau and Smith both got into fights and the whole kerfuffle had about as much of a line brawl feel as you're gonna get with the modern rules around fighting. Smith got a slew of minutes for tha,t as his was a secondary fight.

That's it! Here's the game sheet if you want to see all the extracurricular shenanigans that went on.

Same bat time, same bat channel tomorrow night.

Who starts in goal? Dimples or Dubie? I wouldn't say Dubie is the hot goalie right now by any stretch. If I'm KC, I see what Dimples can do.