Well, not much to say, except at least the crowd got off their hands for one
of the first times in recent memories (goals excluded).
 
I really don't know where to start, so I'll start with the 3 goals.
Dartmouth's first one came late in the first when a puck squirted free on a
rebound and barely caught the corner of the net. If it was UNO shooting the
puck it would have gone wide, but it wasn't, and it didn't, and so it was
1-0 Dartmouth.
 
Goal #2 came 2:03 into the third after some atrocious reffing at hte end of
the second. I don't know if the ref thought 2 UNO players were fighting or
what, but somehow what looked like a typical 2:00 roughing for a player from
each team was turned into a 2:00 cross-check and a 2:00 slashing, both
against UNO. So UNO started the third down 5 men to 3 (for the upteenth time
this year), actually killed it off, but :03 after they killed it off
Dartmouth found the back of the net from what looked like a bad angle and it
was 2-0. I've never heard an arena go "YEAHH!!!!AWWWW (*&**(&" that quickly
before.
 
UNO cut the lead in half on a rebound shot midway through the third, and
looked to have the momentum going. Not much special about this goal, except
it kept my streak of never seeing UNO get shotout alive(in otherwords, UNO's
never been shutout at games I've attended).
 
UNO had a chance to tie it up on the most exciting play in hockey, yes,
that's right, the penalty shot. No matter how badly the ref called the rest
of the game, I do have to give him credit for giving UNO a penalty shot.
UNO's power play was/is going no where fast, and that was probably UNO's
best chance to tie it from there on in. Alas, UNO's Jeff Hoggan missed it
(UNO's leading scorer, Billy Pugliese, was availible to take the shot, but I
think Coach Kemp was pissed at him, more on that later), and the momentum
never came back.
 
Back to Pugliese. On the post game show as I was driving home, Goaltender
coach John Fletcher(sp?) said some harsh comments about "members of the team
thinking they know more than the coaches," and "We've told them time and
time again to not take retalitory penalties." I'm not sure if he was
referring to Pugliese or not(he was 1 of the 2 who was in the pnelaty box on
that 5-3), but apparently they're going to discipline some players over
selfish play and such.
 
On the crowd: I'd say about 6,500 of the 8,314 ticketholders showed up(my
estimate, and I'm no expert), not bad considering some people are probably
out of town and others were probably down in Lincoln coming back from the
football game. 3 things stick out in my mind. One, apparently the crowd read
Kemp's comments in the paper about getting the crowd involved early, and
they did. That died down about midway through though, when things settled
down and still no score. Later, during the second, UNO must have kept the
puck in the Dartmouth end for close to 3 minutes with no whistle, and the
crowd got louder and louder until Dartmouth finally froze the puck. That was
the loudest I've heard a UNO crowd get (excluding goals again)...until...
 
...The most exciting play in hockey, the penalty shot. I hadn't seen either
of the 2 last year (1 for UNO, 1 against), but by god, not only did the
crowd cheer, they actually stood up from the time it was called until the
time it was missed. The place was LOUD, and I don't think if Hoggan had
scored the place could've gotten any louder, though it definatly would have
been sustained a heckuva lot longer.
 
UNO gets an offensive boost tomorrow when Allen Carr become eligible for the
first time after sitting out 1 year 11 games for Major-Junior play. He's
supposed to remind UNO fans of Andrew Tortorella, which would be great to
see on the ice.
 
Same 2 teams tomorrow night in the Bullpen. No clue whether Kemp will leave
Sidoruk in goal or do the usual platoon back to Jason Mitchell. I would have
to give Sidoruk another go around, but he's the coach, not me.
===============================
      Ben Flickinger
-------------------------------
E-Mail:    [log in to unmask]
===============================
(Stanley Cup Champion) Detroit Red Wings Fan for Life
Proud resident of Bugaha(Omaha)-Home of the FIRST Jim Rome World Tour Stop.
U!N!0! U!N!O!
Everyone can have a bad century or two. Cubbies all the way in 1999.
===============================
QOTW: "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift, that's
why it's called the present." (Unidentified United Airlines Co-Pilot)
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.