Science Fiction Double Feature

tUMD 3, Purple Cows 1/tUMD 3, Red Cows 2

Any day I can catch two Bulldog hockey games is a great day. Especially a day when I don’t have to work or go to class and it’s not 20 below zero.

I headed down to the women’s game with the two other people who opted to come along. Can you imagine how many people would take me up on the offer of free tickets to a tUMD men’s game? Come on, people. Give tUMD women’s hockey a chance, and you’ll be hooked.

Well, as long as you ignore the first period of the game, which was rather dismal (as if men’s hockey is 100% up and down the ice action). The only goal of the period was scored by Mankato, off a terrible, weird bounce on a dump in. Kayla Black went out to play the puck and it bounced like it was… well, made of rubber, but bouncier rubber. Maybe Flubber. Anyway, it doinked right into the net at exactly the halfway point in the period. tUMD also had to fight off a long 5×3 at the end of the period, but they did, so all was well.

In the second period, tDogs found their groove again. The Purple Cows took a penalty about a minute in, and Zoe Hickel scored on the PP. Tea Villila and Meghan Huertas also had power play goals, and it appeared there was a fourth goal in the period, but the referee signaled “no goal” right away and confirmed it upon review. It never crossed the goal line, I think. I’m not sure though.

There was no scoring in the third period, although tUMD had to weather nearly two minutes of play with the extra attacker on for Mankato. Not two straight minutes of play, as both Mankato and tUMD took time outs, but two minutes nonetheless. Kayla Black was excellent after the weird flukey goal, and the Dogs had two fairly good periods after the dull as dishwater first. Toward the end of the game, Jenna McParland went hard into the boards and was down on the ice for a bit, but skated off on her own power and stayed on the bench, although I do not believe she returned to the game. Fingers crossed she’s ok.

Katerina Marazova played her first game with the Bulldogs today, and had an assist to show for it. She seems like she’ll be able to jump in and really contribute to this team in the second half.

I got back to my house in time to flip on My9 for the second half of the men’s game. Apparently I didn’t miss anything, as it was 0-0 when we tuned in. Thanks for waiting to start the game til after I got settled in on my couch, guys!

It was nice to have the game on TV, although the announcers for the UNO feed were a little bland. I mean, they talked up tUMD like we were the Soviet national team or something, so that was nice, but they didn’t have much enthusiasm or modulation.

After the power play got off to a rocky start, the Dogs got some momentum going and DOMINATO scored the first goal seven seconds after the power play expired. Adam Krause (who is having a fantastic year) added another goal with under a minute to go in the period, which I just love. I love sending the other team into the locker room with that nasty feeling that, if they’d only hung on a little bit longer, they could have prevented it. I am sure Gappy McTooth (who by the way was not with the team due to some NCAA infraction I don’t care about) was not pleased, and I’m sure it caused Jutting to chain-smoke like a mad man.

The commie cows got a power play in the third period and Minnesota Wild draftee Nick Seeler cashed in on the opportunity, which made me a little nervous, but A and Dubs responded a few minutes later with a goal right off a nice face-off win from Tony “Time” Cameranesi. UNO pulled their goaltender early (which leads to suspicion that Gappy McTooth was coaching remotely!) and got one goal back, and I got nervous because I thought they might keep him pulled (because of Gappy), but they didn’t take him out again until under a minute was left. Aaron Crandall made an all-out, no-holds-barred, sprawling, bacon-saving stop on Josh Archibald (cousin of my beloved Evan Schwabe) some time before the goalie was pulled (this sort of thing doesn’t show up on the stat sheet, and I don’t take notes, and I deleted my DVR recording). According to Bruce Ciskie, this was the best game Crandall has played as a Bulldog. It would be great if Aaron was in a groove and could take over the starting goalie spot for the season. (It would be better if he and McNeely could continually push each other to be better, because Aaron’s a senior and if he’s all we’ve got, we’re SOL, but let’s take things one game at a time.)

Two Bulldog wins coming off of two huge recruiting commitments and three big goals from Justin Fontaine means everything’s coming up Milhouse in Bulldog Nation. Two big sweeps tomorrow night would be a beautiful thing. Let’s get it done, folks!