A wild Friday evening at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena, filled with penalties and much whining by the U-18 Team. They supposedly have some of the best talent in junior hockey, but they sure as hell don't have the sportsmanship or class. I guess that's what happens when you put a bunch of prima donnas on the same squad.
Tech started strong out of the gate, picking up an early PP goal off a rebound that was buried by freshman Brett Olson, with assists from Alex Gagne and Deron Cousens.
John Kivisto made it 2-0 early in the second period with an awesome shot from the inside the top half of the left circle. Who knew the guy had it in him? Olson and Geoff Kinrade picked up assists on the play.
RPI recruit Jerry D'Amigo cut Tech's lead in half on a shot that evaded Robinson with just over five minutes left to play in the second, but the Huskies regained the two-goal lead when sophomore Eric Kattelus wristed a bullet over Haxwell's left shoulder. The goal again came on the powerplay, with assists from Drew Dobson and Eli Vlaisavljevich (yes, I looked up the spelling).
The third period scoring began with Gwilliam capping off Tech's scoring, apparently poking in a puck that Haxwell mishandled (my interpretation from what I could see sitting in Section N). That turned out to be the game-winner, when UNH commit Ryan Bourque scored twice in the final two minutes of regulation to bring the U-18s within a goal, but not close enough.
Haxwell? He's not just a goaltender, he likes rough play too! He hauled down a Tech player (once again, I didn't see who it was from my end of the ice) and held him there for a good five seconds while the refs stared off into space and didn't call anything. Of course, a makeup call came a bit later on, but still, pretty funny shit. I'm sure Jerry York will approve of such play when he shows up at BC. (/sarcasm)
The game was a penalty-fest, with the high schoolers acting like a bunch of little pussies once they had dug themselves into a big hole, hacking it up all over the ice. Of course, Russell wisely did not allow the Huskies to throw any serious punches (for obvious reasons), though I was pretty sure Ryan Bunger would've been more than happy to rearrange BC commit Kenny Ryan's face, after he jumped on Bunger's back and started cheapshotting him without even taking his own helmet off.
*sigh*
Kids these days...
Anyway, exhibition hockey is finally over with, and next week we're hosting the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves for a pair of WCHA games in Houghton. UAA is 4-1-1 through their first six regular season games, including a 3-1 defeat of Maine, and a 3 pt. weekend at home against the Bulldogs of Duluth. This is shaping up to be a tough Anchorage squad that MTU should not take lightly, like they did last season. Coming out flying and playing a consistent, strong 60 minutes of hockey should be the goal for both nights.
Tech started strong out of the gate, picking up an early PP goal off a rebound that was buried by freshman Brett Olson, with assists from Alex Gagne and Deron Cousens.
John Kivisto made it 2-0 early in the second period with an awesome shot from the inside the top half of the left circle. Who knew the guy had it in him? Olson and Geoff Kinrade picked up assists on the play.
RPI recruit Jerry D'Amigo cut Tech's lead in half on a shot that evaded Robinson with just over five minutes left to play in the second, but the Huskies regained the two-goal lead when sophomore Eric Kattelus wristed a bullet over Haxwell's left shoulder. The goal again came on the powerplay, with assists from Drew Dobson and Eli Vlaisavljevich (yes, I looked up the spelling).
The third period scoring began with Gwilliam capping off Tech's scoring, apparently poking in a puck that Haxwell mishandled (my interpretation from what I could see sitting in Section N). That turned out to be the game-winner, when UNH commit Ryan Bourque scored twice in the final two minutes of regulation to bring the U-18s within a goal, but not close enough.
Haxwell? He's not just a goaltender, he likes rough play too! He hauled down a Tech player (once again, I didn't see who it was from my end of the ice) and held him there for a good five seconds while the refs stared off into space and didn't call anything. Of course, a makeup call came a bit later on, but still, pretty funny shit. I'm sure Jerry York will approve of such play when he shows up at BC. (/sarcasm)
The game was a penalty-fest, with the high schoolers acting like a bunch of little pussies once they had dug themselves into a big hole, hacking it up all over the ice. Of course, Russell wisely did not allow the Huskies to throw any serious punches (for obvious reasons), though I was pretty sure Ryan Bunger would've been more than happy to rearrange BC commit Kenny Ryan's face, after he jumped on Bunger's back and started cheapshotting him without even taking his own helmet off.
*sigh*
Kids these days...
Anyway, exhibition hockey is finally over with, and next week we're hosting the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves for a pair of WCHA games in Houghton. UAA is 4-1-1 through their first six regular season games, including a 3-1 defeat of Maine, and a 3 pt. weekend at home against the Bulldogs of Duluth. This is shaping up to be a tough Anchorage squad that MTU should not take lightly, like they did last season. Coming out flying and playing a consistent, strong 60 minutes of hockey should be the goal for both nights.
11 comments:
Saucy!
Good job on justifying the text, btw. ;)
Why thank you, I'm always great at remembering to do that. :)
You are a justification whore Bethlyn. I'm pretty sure this post is a different color gray than the last one though ;)
It is. Everyone else but me who posts in this blog leaves their text black. .. which makes it a gray color when posted. I always make mine light gray when I'm posting them. Neat, huh?
I can't wait to come to Houghton this weekend!
I'm a huge Huskies Hockey Fan, and was at this game... i just wanted to say that these 17 yr old's are tougher than you all think. one of my friend's sons played for them not too long ago and said they go through boxing lessons twice a week. Also, the one actual fight between the two teams ended in one of our Tech boys having to get stitches on his face. I'm not saying that overall this u18 team would win in a brawl, all im saying is that those high schoolers are a lot tougher and stronger than you think. Go HUSKIESS!!!!!
I don't think anyone is calling them sissies because they do or don't know how to fight, I'm pretty sure we're calling them crybaby pansies because they take cheapshots and use their 'toughness' to injure the players of the host team because they scored a goal. If they were squaring up in legitimate fights instead of jumping on our guys' backs and punching with their own helmets on, then I'd take what you said with more than a grain of salt. Skill only goes so far when you don't use it with honor.
Holy shit, Boosh... nice reply.
I havent played hockey since high school, but i have been in my share of hockey fights. In the fight in the second period, where the Tech player hit the USA player after the whistle. The way i saw it was that the US guy hit him back in defense. then it escalated to the point where the USA player dropped his gloves and threw a punch back. Im not sure how thats a cheapshot if the Tech guy threw the first punches with his gloves on. Im not going to say that this was a square up brawl, but Im pretty sure our Tech boy expected to be hit back. Therefore, not much of a cheapshot in my eyes.
Go HUSKIESS!!!!
I'm not calling them sissies for their willingness to mix it up to try and regain some momentum in the game, I'm calling them sissies based on how they went about it.
To be fair, I am not judging the fight Kivisto got into, because I didn't see how it really began. I'm only telling you what I clearly saw.
Kenny Ryan jumped on Bunger's back and punched him in the head multiple times without even taking his own equipment off. That's not a fair fight, that's called a cheapshot. Maxwell hauled one of our guys down well away from the play and held him there. Bourque intentionally sprayed Josh Robinson in the face long after the whistle had already been blown and then bitched to the ref about the misconduct penalty he got for it. That is not how hockey is played, not even the occasional fighting aspect of it. These kids are supposed to be the top junior talent in the country, and they played like a bunch of immature hacks until the last five minutes of the game, rather than trying to regroup and play smart hockey.
Also keep in mind that Russell didn't really let our guys go, because I guarantee you that if he had, most of those scrums would not have been close. Even some of our freshman are three or four years older and 20-30 lbs. heavier than many of those 17 year-olds, regardless of whether or not they practice their boxing skills.
Bunger was not involved in the initial scrum. He was standing near the top of the right faceoff circle watching when Ryan literally jumped off the ice and onto Bunger's back. I haven't been in any hockey fights, but I've watched a lot, and I've never seen any respectable fighter jump on another guy's back. And there's a reason the NHL penalizes fighting with your face shield on (like Sidney Crosby :D). Punching a large piece of lexan hurts, but I have a feeling punching a steel cage hurts more, and its proclaiming to the world that you're a pansy who is willing to give, but not take what you are giving. I have nothing against people who retaliate for questionable hits, but people who go out of their way to do stuff that is unsportsmanlike and extremely dishonorable piss me off.
Way to go Tech...
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