Alright, well the Dogs finally put one in the win column last night,
beating the Seawolves of Alaska-Anchorage 4-3 in overtime.  The fans in
Duluth were getting frustrated, and it showed in the attendance.  The
official attendance was 4557, and I would say that was pretty close.(That
would be 1100 empty seats, for those not familiar with the DECC)  The
Bulldogs improved on last weeks power play percentage (0%) in their first
power play, as Rusty Fitzgerald came back from back spasms and put away
his second goal of the year just 5 seconds into the first of 12 power
plays on the night for the Dogs.  The key point of the game was halfway
through the third when the Dogs drew a penalty.  1:01 into that penalty,
they drew another one, so they had to skate 5 on 3 for :59.  The Dogs
killed it off and then ended up getting a power play of their own at the
end of it when UAA seemed to get frustrated and Petri Tuomisto took his
4th penalty of the night at 13:16.  Rod Aldoff took advantage at 15:07 to
tie the game on a beautiful pass from Fitzgerald, the third power play
goal of the night for the Dogs.  The Dogs had 1:51 of the overtime on the
power play, and put a lot of good shots on net, but couldn't quite do
it.  After a scary moment on the other end, when UAA had a great chance
to win it, the Dogs finally put win #1 in the books with a goal by Ken
Dzikowski, his first as a collegian.  UAA goalie Lee Schill was named
player of the game by the media for his 52 save performance.  The
Bulldogs outshot the Seawolves 31-8 from late in the 2nd to the end of
the game.  Brett Larson had an assist on each goal for the Dogs.
 
One bit of news I didn't get on the list, Jerome Butler, UMD's #2 goalie
and a freshman starter 3 years ago, as well as a key factor in the
Bulldogs WCHA championship 2 years ago, quit the team and school this
week.  He was getting pretty much no playing time, after starting just 5
games and playing in a total of 7 games last year.  I will certainly miss
him.  This move Niklas "Swede" Axelsson, originally of Waxholm, Sweden to
the number 2 spot and Tony Gasparini, son of John "Gino" Gasparini, the
former coach of UND, moved to the 3 spot.
 
I picked up the "WCHA 1995 Official Yearbook" at the game last night.
It's got great pictures of the goalies helmets on front (In alphabetical
order by team, one from each team) and a pretty complete history of the
league in it.  From reading this book, however, the only thing you might
remember, since it is drilled into your head, is that the WCHA has won 29
of the 43 NCAA ice hockey championships.  You have to remember, of
course, that 5 of those are Michigan's and one belongs to Michigan State,
back from when they were members of the league.  Well, anyway, if you
have a question about the WCHA, this book should answer it.
 
Scoring summary:
UMD     1  0  2  1 - 4
UAA     1  2  0  0 - 5
First Period
1. UMD  Fitzgerald 2 (Larson, Federenko)04:15 pp
2. UAA  Gore 3 (Bethard, Kowal)         09:02 pp
 
Second Period
3. UAA  Stitt 3 (Williams, Skoglund)    09:18 pp
4. UAA  McCann ? (Tuomisto, Vallieres)  14:42
 
Third Period
5. UMD  Federenko 2 (Rybar, Larson)     04:41 pp
6. UMD  Aldoff 1 (Fitzgerald, Larson)   15:07 pp
 
Overtime
7. UMD  Dzikowski 1 (Larson, Ciccarello)02:46
 
Penalties:
UMD   08 for 18 minutes
UAA   14 for 28 minutes
 
Shots:
UMD     14  17  23  02 - 56
UAA     11  11  07  01 - 30
 
Goalies:
UMD
Lendzyk (30 shots - 27 saves)
 
UAA
Schill (56 - 52)
 
Power plays - UMD 3 for 12, UAA 2 for 7
Referees - Goddard, Anderson  Linesman - Glesner
A - 4,557