Aeros @ Manitoba Moose - Game 6

For those of you who are more visually/aurally inclined, I'm providing a musical game recap:



Final score was 5-3 Manitoba. Aeros first goal came from a pretty Kolanos wrap-around almost identical to the goal he got last night (and earned himself third star tonight).

Rookie Dane Crowley got the second goal on a floater from the point that just bounced ugly past Schneider, and Rosa nailed the final goal with an empty net behind him in the final few minutes, but it wasn't enough to catch up.

Brusty was in net. I was right to some degree that his playing the puck better than Schaefer helped get the puck out of the defensive zone a little better. Not sure how many of those goals he could have stopped, especially considering I missed the first two Manitoba goals while I was making dinner. I'll have to go back and look at the archived game tomorrow.

(ETA: I watched those first two Manitoba goals from last night. The first one, Barry should have gotten. No screen and just a straight up shot on goal by a player who broke away from the defense. The second one was, I believe, one shift later off a face-off, where the Manitoba player shot from a few feet beside the net and the puck bounced in off of Paul Albers' leg. Ouch. At least, that's how it looked. There was a Manitoba player right behind Albers, but I don't think he got a piece of it.)

The Aeros did seem to step it up a notch from Friday night, especially in the first period. They didn't seem to be moving as slow, but Manitoba kicked their own game up another notch. Their defenders were all over the Aeros forwards like stink on Brad May in the 2nd and 3rd periods, and shots on goal were down as with Friday's game.

Highlights were a much improved penalty kill that proved perfect in 6 Manitoba attempts and didn't struggle as much as last night to clear the zone. Everybody looked pretty good in the first period. My notes are full of "Stoner's having a great game," "Barry is looking solid," and "Much better pressure and speed by the defense." My notes are lame, I know. And such notes stopped cold later in the game.

Like deja vu all over again, the bottom line is that the Aeros were flat out outplayed.

Housekeeping:

Scratches: Locke (DTD), Love (not on the trip), Insana, Kassian, Falk
Captain: Hamilton
Fights: Hamilton v. Bootland (Draw)
Pucks to the face: Kinch, the Aeros Equipment Manager took a puck on the bench. Didn't hear how he's doing but here's hoping he's okay.

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Wild game... Exciting finish but I couldn't enjoy it in my mini-freakout about the fact that Clutterbuck was relegated to Boogaard minutes and didn't play a single shift in the third. What the hell did he do in the second period to piss off Lemaire?