The Land of the Free and The Home of the Bulldogs

Well folks, it was the season home opener for the 'Dogs tonight, and the whole team here at Runnin' With The Dogs was warming the bench. Yours truly, along with UMDDogz, the fluffy white BullKitty (known in some other spheres as Kittylove), and the Alleged Webmaster, who is supposed to eventually make this site look like something of which I can be proud. Three generations of 'Dogs fans (four if you count the BullKitty) were basking in the glow of their computer screeens, in a chat room discussing hockey, the *#$&! internet feed (two generations still have dial-up internet, I wasn't even sure that existed anymore!), and... colonoscopies. Don't ask.

I wasn't even going to post tonight, since I didn't expect collegehockeystats.com to be so up on things that I could get my official tallies. Things were a little confusing tonight. Many goals were scored in a small amount of time. Assists were changed. Penalties were served by people who still remain anonymous to me. Kerry Rodd referred to our goalie as Tim Reichmuth. So you can see why my head was spinning, and I decided to go watch Roseanne instead of creating a meaningful, thought-provoking essay on the game of hockey.

I'll be listening tomorrow night too, which is an unprecedented occurrence.

Anyway, the 'Dogs came out and just killed tonight. MSU took an early 1-0 lead, but never regained it, although after the 'Dogs went up 2-1, MSU came back to tie it. The final was 8-3, which is, you know, almost respectable for a team like MSU. Except for the fact that Marco Peluso scored as many goals as their whole team could muster. Well, they did try to get a 4th goal on the board, with a kick-in. I guess someone needs to tell the defensemen (Dubel, looking in your direction) that you have to use your stick. Kerry Rodd mentioned that "Pele would be happy."

The 'Dogs got "about 20 goals on the power play," according to Kerry, although he admitted "I sometimes embellish a little bit. 4 for 8 on the PP isn't too shabby. Oh yeah, and we went 2 for 4 (or so) on their PP.

Don't worry, I'm already on the phone with a hit man, Ryan Geris. You will be avenged. Rankin hit him on the head, and he just suffered a freaking concussion. Rankin got a 10 minute misconduct and left the game, but I just have to make sure it won't happen again. *Cracks whip*

The game recap isn't really my specialty. Wild claims that I can't back up and violent threats are my department. I'll leave you with my own "numbers crunch" and UMDDogz can fill you in on the rest.

Penalty Leaders:
Jay Rosehill: 9 penalties, 26 minutes (yut!)
Mike Curry: 7 penalties, 17 minutes
Neil Petruic: 6 penalties, 12 minutes
Marco Peluso: 5 penalties, 10 minutes
*someone needs to tell collegehockeystats that they need a new font, as the 5 and 6 are almost exactly the same*

WCHA ACTION:
Wisconsin 7, Tech 3. Tech had an early lead in this game, but couldn't hang on. Not that I was surprised, but I wanted them to. Wisconsin must die!

North Dakota 4, Minnesota 2. If there's one thing that divides the beat writers here at Runnin' With The 'Dogs, it's who we root for in a Gophers-Sioux matchup. I tend to root for the Gophers (I know I'm not supposed to, it's a big rivalry, blah blah) whereas my counterpart was pulling for the Sioux. It's just like last year during the Final Five Championship game, except I no longer drive a yellow truck and we weren't drinking Coors Lite at the Holiday Inn across from the Excel with some moron (Scotty) who put the box on his head and sang Alice in Chains' "Man in the Box" to anyone he encountered.

Colorado College 4, Air Force 1. Sorry, Elaine, but you knew your team would go down. I think CC will have a good year.

Denver 5, SCSU 2. Hey St. Cloud, weren't they saying your goalies had, um, improved their GAA?

UAA vs. UAF: evidently no one cared enough to see what the score is. It's 12:30, the game started 2 and half hours ago, the USAToday page I have open keeps popping into the foreground each time it refreshes, and they can't bother to update the Seawolves' score? BAH! (Collegehockeystats now has the game at UAA 5, UAF 2. YEAH SEAWOLVES!)

OTHER HOCKEY ACTION:
I don't usually report on games without at least one WCHA team involved (because they are boring and those other teams are weak), but I have some mocking to do.
MAINE lost to ST. LAWRENCE 1-0. We couldn't even figure out what CONFERENCE St. Lawrence was in (because we didn't care or try very hard.) Folks on the power rankings, look out below! Here comes Maine!
BOSTON COLLEGE lost to NOTRE DAME 3-2!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!! Yeah, there'd better be a new #1 at the top of the INCH list!

The Hater Report:

1. Ryan Potulny
Games: 4
Goals: 5
Assists: 1
Points: 6
Penalties: 2
Penalty Minutes: 4
Oh Ryan, I bet you were so excited when you scored that goal tonight...and then your team LOST at HOME to North Dakota. You think you're going to win at Ralph Engelstad? Hell no you aren't!

2. Robbie Earl
Games: 3
Goals: 2
Assists: 4
Points: 6
Penalties: 3
Penalty Minutes: 6
Robbie is a cheap player, so he must he hitting far enough behind the play that the refs aren't noticing. Oh yeah, but they were playing at the Kohl Center tonight, so that probably means he committed about 43498076498 real penalties, but only 2 were so blatant that the zebras would have been actually in trouble for not calling them.