Winter is Here

tUMD 4, Red Menace 1

Ok I’m pretty excited about this win so I thought I’d chat about it. First off, an update: BC Interruption’s wonderful initiative in response to the atrocious election results raised $2418. I donated $38 (I rounded up from $37.50) to the Women’s Health Center of Duluth, and Dan of the Week matched my donation. So, $76 donated to fund abortions. HOPE YOU LIKE THAT, TRUMP LOVERS.

Now, on to other important things: tUMD beating Wisconsin.

I arrived late to the game, as per usual, although I was much later than planned. Yesterday was the first snow of the season and while it didn’t seem like it would be too terrible, it was insanely windy and the rain from the morning/early afternoon had mixed with the snow to create a substance the texture of an Icee on the roads, though substantially less delicious. I had to cross over the freeway on 5th Ave W because of the Christmas City of the North parade (which had to suck for participants) and decided to take a bit of a jagged route so I was not going down the whole hill at once. This proved a smart choice as I skidded slowly down an entire block, foot jammed on the brake pedal as my car shuddered and finally stopped at the bottom of the block, where a police officer was attempting to help a stuck motorist in the other lane. So that was stressful for me. I thought about turning around but I was halfway there and didn’t really want to go up the hill again. So then I had another skidding incident while turning from First St. on to 5th Ave W, which I stopped by not once, but twice deliberately running into the curb (at about 2 mph). Woo.

I made it to the game with about 4 minutes to go in the first period, which is not my worst showing. I was afraid it was going to be 2-0 Commies by the time I arrived, but it was still 0-0, although the shots were 20-3 in Wisconsin’s favor, and tDogs really seemed to be scrambling.

The second period went much, much better for tUMD, with tDogs actually getting the shot advantage in the period, and the scoring advantage! After struggling to clear the zone several times in the beginning of the period, tUMD started to take advantage, and after an Emily Clark penalty, Michelle Lowenhielm scored on the power play. 17 seconds after that, the Badgers were back in the box and tUMD had a couple more good chances.

The BADgers were clearly not expecting tUMD to put up much of a fight at first – they seem to have a couple of show-offs on the team who were more interested in making a pretty play and looking good than they were in playing fundamentally sound hockey. That tightened up in a hurry once they found themselves “behind at the pay window,” as Bruce says. Either Mark Johnson ripped them a new one in the locker room, or they realized that their cockiness wasn’t going to fly without star goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens to bail their butts out.

It didn’t matter, because tUMD scored 3:59 into the 3rd period as Katie McGovern’s third chance at stuffing the puck in between the post and goaltender Cece’s glove was the charm. Mrazova scored less than 3 minutes later, and tUMD was leading Wisconsin by 3 goals, something I had not conceived of when I was risking my life (or at least my car’s life) driving to the game. Wisconsin did finally skip a puck by Maddie Rooney, who had been UNBELIEVABLE to that point. When your team allows 20 shots in the first period alone and you stand tall, that is everything. Ashleigh Brykaliuk scored 1:12 after the Commie goal, on a snipe that made me almost feel bad for the poor goalie, it was SO SICK.

It was incredibly exciting to see tUMD beat Wisconsin, who had not lost yet this year. The last time tUMD beat Wisconsin was Oct 14, 2012, so it had been over 4 years. It felt pretty amazing, and I don’t care that it came without ARD. She’s a lights-out goaltender, but Wisconsin has firepower, so there’s no reason why they couldn’t have scored more than one goal. No reason besides tUMD’s awesomeness, of course.

I’m looking forward to this afternoon, which will hopefully have 1. a safer drive and 2. an equally awesome score.