Gorgeousness And Gorgeousity Made Flesh

tUMD 3, Terrible Power Play 1

You know, say what you will about Godzilla, but he gets results. He ravaged Tokyo. I ravaged my apartment. And now? A win. Superb! This game was like a bird of rarest-spun heaven metal or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now.* It's going to be a trail of tears back to Grand Forks for those fans that made the trip. Thankfully the state is flat or there'd be throngs of people lining up to jump off cliffs.

So many good things about this game. Let's discuss!

1. Ok, this is a bad thing in a way, but stupid B2 thought the game started at 7:37. The Charter channel wasn't working right away and I was in a state of panic. I always have the radio going (and THAT didn't start until just before game time, thanks to the sub-chimpanzees that work back at the station) but I like to SEE things. I emailed B2 and they said "The game starts at 7:37, please stand by." I responded kindly (ha!) and they wrote back with a link saying I would not be charged for the game. I responded, again all sweetness and light, explaining that the problem was not the feed once it got started, but rather the game had already been underway for half an hour. They did not have any further comment at presstime. If it hadn't been in Charter I would have cut someone. I really needed to SEE the glories of this game.

2. We certainly took a lot of penalties, but our PK was so amazing tonight!!! I mean yeah, they did give up a goal, but that was on the 9th pp. There certainly were some scares where we just got lucky, but overall it was just HIGH QUALITY PLAY. We cleared the zone a LOT and normally on the PK we spend most of our time blocking shots and breaking up shooting lanes which makes me very nervous (let's face it, when am I NOT nervous during a hockey game?), but tonight it seemed like we forced a turnover just as soon as NDK tried to gain the zone.

3. Speaking of gaining the zone, as Rik put it, "the Bulldogs put up a nice picket fence on the blue line." Classic NDK hockey usually involves a strong transition game and for long stretches of the game they could not gain the zone. I feel like we are usually on the receiving end of that kind of defence, so it was great to see us play that way. GREAT adjustments from Friday to Saturday. We need to learn to defend and break out against multiple styles of play.

4. "Gergen's" goal was nice, although as much as I love Michael (and he looked very sexy in his television interview after the first period), I really don't think he touched it out front, but it is so hard to tell. Palm had a pretty great game overall (Palm-wise) and even though he took a few penalties, I'm just happy he made it on the stat sheet in another way. And boy did that water bottle pop!

3. Jordan Fulton's goal was about the most perfect goal I've seen since Mike Connolly undressed the WMU goalie. Fulton and Fontaine had a 2 on 1 with some hoser from UND (I could look up his name but it's not really important, they all suck) and Fontaine made a pass to Fulton that resulted in a wide open net and Jordy did not make any doubt about it. Also, Jordy is a MUCH better hockey name than Jordan, so I will try to refer to him as Jordy from now on.

4. While Fulton's goal was perfect, the entire play that set up MacGregor Sharp's goal was beyond perfect. Josh Meyers at the point to Mike Connolly in the semi-high slot to MacGregor Sharp who slammed it home. Two extremely quick passes to get that set up; any little error or misfire and that goal doesn't happen. I mean, that's the type of play that works perfectly in practice but never seems to go right in reality. But that's three skilled guys putting it together and executing flawlessly.

5. Alex Stalock, of course, rocked everyone's faces off. He wasn't really tested much to start the game, but once he was, he showed he was up to the task. He had a shutout going until 7:28 was left in the game, but I don't really care that he gave up one goal. As demoralizing as it would have been to the weeping masses in UND's camp to get shutout by the "vastly inferior" "clutching and grabbing" "UAA-like" Bulldogs, 1 GA is still pretty sharp. God did he make some amazing saves, sometimes seemingly at the last minute!

6. I can't single out anyone who had a bad game. Everyone seemed to be having great individual games and every line and defensive pairing worked well together. That was one well-oiled machine out there tonight, and I was so happy and proud to be a Bulldogs fan. I'm always glad I'm a Bulldogs fan but it's just so much more fun when we win! I was happy to see them assert themselves after a tie. Because the DECC is OUR HOUSE and we are rude hosts.

I will reiterate, for those UND fans who might have missed it: It has been my experience that the more someone knows about the game of hockey, the less they complain about the officiating of individual games.

The Numbers
Wins until we equal last season's total: 7! (Marvelous!)
Points until we equal last season's total: 16! (Glorious!)

My Guys
MacGregor Sharp: 15! (FANTASTIC goal!!!)
Jack Connolly: 9! (Totally awesome tonight! Almost had a goal or 2 also!)
Michael Gergen: 6! (A total sweetie and humble about it!)
Rob Bordson: 0 (But back in action! And played really well!)

Freshmen
Mike Connolly: 11!
Jack Connolly: 9!
David Grun: 0
Scott Kishel: 0
Brady Lamb: 0
Travis Oleksuk: 0

On Notice:
Drew Akins
Rob Bordson
Jay Cascalenda
Matt Greer
Mike Montgomery
Kyle Schmidt
Alex Stalock

Goals Only
Andrew Carroll
Jack Connolly
Cody Danberg
Nick Kemp
Trent Palm

*This and the title are A Clockwork Orange quotations. Although they are describing something entirely different. If you've seen the movie, then you know. If you haven't, well, you're culturally illiterate and most likely a St. Cloud fan.