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.

Marco's series vs. Moose impressive, helps get him a good AHL deal

Here is the story from our friends at the Winnipeg Free Press.



Apparently, like some of us, they thought he was the best player in that series.

Again, more kudos to Mr. Rosa.

Marco To The Moose

The Aeros have lost another of their free agents as the Manitoba Moose announced today that they have signed Marco Rosa to an AHL contract.

I'd like to wish Marco luck with the Moose, except when he plays against the Aeros. He was always an easy guy for us to deal with in the locker room after games, and he seemed to be well-liked by his teammates. He also, it seemed to me, to be a good Constantine-type player in that he wasn't the most gifted of players, but he always gave the maximum effort and did everything possible to make himself, and his teammates better.

And I'm sure I speak for the rest of us here at T3I in that I'd really like for the Aeros to start getting some guys under contract. I know there's been that whole change of regime thing going on up in St. Paul, but I don't think the Aeros can afford to lose all of their offensive skill players.

Round 3, Game #4 -- Aeros vs. Moose -- Photos -- Part 2

I realized I'd not given you a shot of Carson McMillan yet.

Some Marco Rosa.

A swooping Danny Irmen.

Bryan Lundbohm and ex-Aero Mark Cullen

A calm Cory Schneider is about to catch the puck.

Matt Beaudoin rushes up the ice.

Greg Rallo lifts the stick of Matt Kassian.

Cory Schneider with some leather larceny.

Mitch Love is cross-checked by Nolan Baumgartner.

Mitch Love is given a ride along the Aeros bench by Guillaume Desbiens.
Krys Kolanos gets off one of his terrific shots on Cory Schneider. Often times these find their way through, under the arm of the netminder.

Cory Schneider takes some refreshment during a stoppage in play.

All Photos:Fred Trask

Round 3, Game #3 -- Aeros vs. Moose -- Photos Part II

A few more from game 3, Clayton Stoner.

Marco Rosa

Mitch Love

Cory Schneider

Tony Hrkac

Matt Kassian and Maxime Fortunus

Mitch Love

Robbie Earl

All Photos:Fred Trask

Photos and media roundup from Game 2

Chris dishes up the goods again with some great photos from last night, starting with a perfect shot of Testwuide's goal.


And then Rosa's goal:


And finally, General Constantine, his chops, and his charges:

All photos: Chris Jerina

• Here's the Chronicle write-up, with some quotes from KC and the boys. They sound really ready to come home, understandably.
  
• And here's the Winnipeg Freep's write-up. Tell me you don't cringe at him calling Schaefer "trivia fodder." Ouch.
• And here's the Winnipeg Sun

Thanks bunches for getting us these shots, Chris!

Aeros vs Iowa 4/2 -- Photos

Let's start with some pre-game warm up shots. Here's a face we've not seen for a while, Barry Brust.
Due to call-ups and injury, we have the new face (one that has Ms C dreaming) of Rejean Beauchemin.
From the comments - On one side of Rejean's mask is guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine/Audio Slave/Nightwatchman etc and on the other side there (I don't have a good shot of that side) appears to be a tribute to a fellow hockey player Todd Davison who succumbed to cancer on 12/2/06. YouTube video of the Todd Davison story.


An old face is back, without a cage and just a little bit of bruising still visible, Mitch Love.
Unfortunately Barry Brust, coming back from a month long injury without the benefit of even a full team practice, had some rust and timing issues. Here the expression on Paul Alber's face says it all as the Chops score a soft goal 5-hole on their 2nd or 3rd shot of the night.
Mitch Love decides to tempt the nasal Gods with a pugilistic exhibition against one of the longest names in the AHL, Charlie Kronschnabel. His name goes from bicep to bicep on his jersey.
Barry had trouble all night with bouncing pucks and making clean saves. Clearly his timing was off and that was understandable, even if it was frustrating to watch.
A stunned Brandon Rogers has a look of disbelief as Barry had a bouncer "short hop" over the glove in the 2nd period. These things happen from time to time but the timing was awful.
Tomas Mojzis got the Aeros on the board in the 2nd period.
Jason Ryznar has a great chance in front as the shot gets in on J. P. Lavasseur. Ryz never seems to get the credit he should. He does a great job on the checking line and I think he has good enough hands to move up. In any case he does a great job in things that don't always get mentioned or show up on a stat sheet.
For the Tony Hrkac crowd, crank up the circus music as this was one pretty goal to tie the game at 2.
Unfortunately Benoit Pouliot takes a high sticking penalty not long after and Marco Rosa clears a puck into the stands taking a DOG penalty and giving Iowa a 5 on 3 chance that pays off as Brust never saw this one coming from Brian Salcido, through the screen.
At the end of the 2nd period (still down one man) Barry loses his mind and takes a poke at Iowa's Adrian Veideman. Fortunately Iowa's Brennan Evans drank from the same water and took a double minor for an attempted spear on Danny Irmen.
The Aeros were able to tie the game for a second time on this beautiful goal by Marco Rosa.
Unfortunately the Chops got the go-ahead goal and followed it with an empty netter to give the Aeros a 5-3 loss.
All Photos:Fred Trask

Aeros v. Rockford 3/27 - Photos Part 2

Antti Niemi makes a huge save with the right pad on a Jesse Schultz shot, late in the third period.
Both net minders made huge saves in the 13 round shootout. Here you see Anton Khudobin making a pad save on Tim Brent.

Antti Niemi stops Morten Madsen

Khudobin shuts down Pascal Pelletier

Krys Kolanos tries some kind of weird drag move that doesn't work out well.

Benoit Pouliot snaps one in.

Since Pouliot was successful coach put him right back out there. He tried snapping a shot from further out but Niemi was able to get a pad on it.

Anton was able to squeeze this shot between the pad and arm.

Marco Rosa got in too deep and Niemi got his blocker on it.

Krys Kolanos snaps this one past Niemi.

The Aeros needed a goal to stay alive here and Corey Locke tried the same move he used 5 nights before against Peoria. He had Niemi down but he couldn't get the shot up enough to have the same result. Rockford wins 3-2.

I couldn't decide on which one of these Niemi shots I liked better so you get both. This was as he waited ot be announced as the #1 star of the game. You can see he's a fan of Assassin's Creed.

All Photos:Fred Trask