Aeros v. Providence Bruins - Game 39

I'm superstitious about writing about a game while it's still on, but I don't want to spend all evening writing this so I'm breaking my own rules.

The Aeros started out looking like contestants in one of those Bat Spin relays (like this) but after letting Providence get up by 2 goals 13 minutes into the first period, they woke up and started finding each other on the ice.

As a result, Schultz got one past Tuuka Rask on a beautiful feed from a fired-up Marco Rosa, who is finally back from injury. Rosa's had a good game and it's great to have him back.

Anybody who watches the Aeros regularly isn't surprised by this: Albers and Irmen BOTH got delay of game penalties within 5 seconds of each other (come on, man!) at 15:47 in the second and the boys made killing the 3-on-5 look as easy as brushing their tooth. And then one minute after the penalty ended, the Bruins scored their third goal. *sigh*

There was almost magic as the teams left the ice for the second period, as one of the Bruins got tangled up with Brusty, knocking him down, mask off and everything. The teams scrummed together a little bit, but no fighting.

And then Rask skates into frame and makes his way to Brusty, gives him a tap with his stick and starts jawing at him. I don't read lips but I'm assuming Brusty said something like, "Oh yah, bring it, ya Finnish hoser! I'll kick your ass, eh!" and kinda starts moving at him, but the refs get between them. This actually went on for a little while as they approached each other again before the whole thing broke up.

That's as close to a goalie fight as I've seen in real time, so I was pretty excited about that. If we're gonna lose anyway, might as well let the Michelin Men get some punches in, right? Oh well. No dice.

The play stayed even and the score stayed 3-1 throughout the third until Brust was pulled pretty early for the extra man. At 3:53 a Bruin got a breakaway and Noreau hooks him but saves the empty net goal. The Aeros manage to pull Brust again but it's not enough to get one goal, much less two.

Would have been nice to at least get the loser point, but the fact that they hung in there after two early goals on the 8th game in 10 days in 7 states will have to be good enough today. Interesting interview with Irms during the second intermission where he said he actually prefers this kind of schedule to having several practice days. I guess I can see where it would be fun on some level, but man, it just makes me tired to think about it. BTW, Dietch was scratched.

NOW they get a whopping 2 days off before they're hit with another 4-in-5 in Bridgeport on Wednesday, Hershey, Quad City, and Chicago Friday-Sunday. There's never a BAD time to get called up to the big show, but if there are better times than others, Scotty's a lucky man.