Jekyll/Hyde

tUMD 6, Buttmidji 2
tUMD 1, Buttmidji 0

What an odd series this was.

So as you all know (duh), this series was my birthday series. Normally I post about it in advance to remind the boys I need a win, but I was lazy this week and didn’t. They remembered anyway. Such nice boys.

I wore my Dylan Olsen jersey for the first time since he abandoned ship, and was a little worried about the possible bad karma from it, but apparently it’s a lot luckier than I thought!

Although I didn’t think so at the beginning. What an unpleasant way to start the series: two Buttmidji goals 1:05 apart. I thought for sure this was going to be the same old same old, but Wade Bergman did not, and after a time out and a Series of Hilarious Events, he had scored. Really, just check out the AMSoil Arena channel on YouTube and watch the highlights from Friday, because I don’t even know how to describe the goal other than about 5 Bulldogs tried to put the puck in the net and missed, and about 5 Beavers tried to clear the puck and failed, and then Bergman was “Wade On The Spot” as Bruce Ciskie would say, and scored, just as I had finished sending an angry text message. JT Brown then scored, with an assist to Fidel Casto (who also had a goal! For us, rather than the other team!), and we were back to even before the period was over, which was awesome.

UMD pretty much took over the game from there on out, scoring 4 more unanswered goals while the Beavers managed to… improve Kenny Reiter’s save percentage, I guess. I was hoping for a couple more goals so UMD could outscore Tech (who beat DU 7-2), but since Tom didn’t pull his goalie with 7 minutes remaining, we had a little bit tougher time than Tech did.

So today the Buttmidji game plan worked a little bit better. Man, that game was brutal. In the first period, a Beaver fanned on a nearly empty net and that was the different for them, but the executed their “stop UMD from getting any offense going” strategy very well. UMD also mixed in a little sloppy play and I thought that was a recipe for disaster. A couple of guys hit pipes and there were some other close calls, but I really thought the game had potential to end 0-0, which was only underscored by a five minute power play with only a single shot on goal. The power play isn’t there yet. It’s still got a long way to go (although it’s miles ahead of the Wild’s.) FINALLY Jack Connolly had a pretty little goal that should be sent out to the Hobey voters as part of his highlights package. And the Dogs even managed to hang on with the extra attacker on for the Beavers, but I shudder to think what would have happened if they had pulled Bakala sooner.

But all is well, we’re not in the WCHA basement anymore, and we’ve swept those pesky Beavers and taken a little vengeance for the Final Five. (Well, the national championship was also vengeance.)

Finally, person in the Count von Count costume? You are awesome.