SAN 03/14 -- No Beaver Nuggets for you

I maybe spend an hour a day where I'm not thinking about hockey. Whether it's my own goaltending, the Aeros, the Wild, my fantasy teams, my hockey friends, etc. I know, I need to get a life, but until I'm tired of this one, I'll keep thinking about hockey all the time.

But tonight, after watching hockey since noon and watching both the Aeros and Wild lose to teams they have the skill to beat, I kinda had enough. I did something I almost never do if there's a hockey game on. I watched regular TV. I flipped through the channels until I found a movie that seemed interesting, and I watched it.

Tonight's feature was The Guardian, where Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher are Coast Guard rescue swimmers who wallow around in the water and shout BooYAH! (or something) a bunch, and then they have some personal crises and, most importantly, save people from certain drowning in tumultuous ocean waters.

And when I look at the standings after this 3-1 loss to San Antonio tonight, I carry that sense of drowning with me. There are only 5 points separating the Aeros from 6th place in the division. They are now tied with Chicago, who won in a shootout tonight against the untouchable, first place Milwaukee Admirals. Tomorrow's opponent, the Rockford IceHogs, are one point behind, Peoria a mere 2 behind them, Iowa a mere 2 behind Peoria.

The waters rise, yet the Aeros stay at the same level so far through the weekend. The dark abyss tugs at their kicking feet.

And tonight the dark abyss was played by the Aeros inexplicable inability to put the puck in the net. The only Aeros goal came from the stick of Corey Locke on a 5 minute power play after a boarding call on San Antonio's Goertzen (who also got a game misconduct for the hit), in spite of 24 shots, some of which were decent chances.

That Goertzen hit was on Tomas Mojzis at 4:55 in the first and set the tone for a rough and tumble game across the board. Mojzis was back for his first game in over a month from an upper body injury and was continuously targeted by San Antonio for abuse. Amazingly, after at least 3 hits that put him hard enough into the boards to send him crumpling to the ice, he played on.

Albers stood up for Mojzis on the boarding, and Irmen dropped the mitts with Kolarik, though it was behind the play and off screen so I don't know what precipitated it.

With the physical intimidation established, the Rampage rattled off three unanswered goals, one by defenseman Jeff May shortly after Locke's goal in the first. And then the game winner by Garth Murray at 14:06 in the third.

Constantine pulled Khudobin with about 3 minutes left in the game for the man advantage, during which the Aeros got a few chances, but spent a lot of energy just trying to retain possession. Rampage goalie Montoya even launched one down the ice, but missed scoring by a couple of feet. Ultimately, with a little over a minute left, Kevin Porter whacked it in the empty net from a face-off to seal the deal.

As usual, it's difficult to get a sense of the overall play from the little window, especially when the broadcast person keeps ads up on the video while the game is in play. In fact, we didn't even see the empty netter at the end as a result. Lame. Andrew will fill in on Sunday with a first-hand account.

My only request is a little flavor of what it's like to go to a hockey game with a bunch of dogs. What an odd thing to hear the barking behind Joe O'Donnell's broadcast. Suppose we could get a Pucks & Paws night at the Toyota Center? What do you say, Mr. Alexander?

Anyway, the Aeros are back in the drink tomorrow. Who will step up and be Kevin Costner, busting through the jammed cabin door to rescue the Aeros from their watery grave? Kolanos? Pouliot? Schultz? Locke? Rosa? We'll find out starting at 4:05 p.m. Sunday.