Bulldogs Rout Rams

 

GAME RECAP BULLDOGS RAMS Date/Time Rink 7 2 10/3/2006 @ 09:30pm IIC, Romeoville, IL

October 5th, 2006- The ‘Bulldogs’ came into Tuesday nights game knowing that they would be short handed. The storms on Monday night had left several players stranded, while others were forced to stay behind to tend to their flooded homes and power outages. Fortunately for them, the ‘Rams’ were faced with the same dilemma as they were only able to dress 7 skaters. In the end, the ‘Bulldogs’ walked away with a 7-2 victory.

The ‘Rams’ came out strong. They appeared to be the best team the ‘Dogs’ have faced to date. They made good passes, played tough defense, and their overall style (and jerseys) was very similar to the ‘Bulldogs’.

The ‘Rams’ scored first; midway through the opening period to take the 1-0 lead. The ‘Bulldogs’ on the other hand looked like a band of misfits. This other team made them look foolish and confused. Several ‘Bulldogs’ appeared tired and complacent, perhaps the after effects of the storm from the previous night.

With less than three minutes left in the period, Sam Karim stole a puck in the defensive zone and skated past several defenders, he dished off the puck to Mike ‘Monty’ Montague, who slapped through the pipes to tie the game. Joey V. gave the ‘Dogs’ the lead moments later when his wrister sailed past the goalie after a perfect pass from Jason Darfler.

Darfler would snap out of his early slump in the second period by tallying two of the team’s three goals (Joey V. scored the other). The three goals gave the ‘Dogs’ a commanding 5-1 lead over the ‘Rams’. The ‘Rams’ appeared fatigued, but still put up a good fight mainly because the ‘Dogs’ spent a majority of the period serving time in the penalty box. One such penalty from Sam Karim led to an ejection and four minutes of his penalty to be served by Mike Mancuso.

Despite the time in the box, the ‘Dogs’ killed all eight of their penalties. In the third period, they scored both of their goals short-handed. One by Frank Lionello (assisted by Tony Feeney & Montague) who scored his first goal of the season and the other by Darfler (assisted by Sal Karim) who completed the hat trick with his blue line slapper.

“It was kind of an odd start, but we pressured them to the end and showed our true colors against the Bulldogs wanna-be's” said Alex Martinez referring to the ‘Rams’ jersey which is identical to the one’s worn by the ‘Bulldogs’. “Good win, and as we sit at 3-0, Dan [League Commissioner] has told me that he cant wait to see how we fare against the league’s other top teams. I say, bring it on.”

“Also, I must point out my disappointment in a couple guys on the team. The league will not tolerate the harassment being given to the officials, nor will I. This gives the entire team a bad reputation and we have had enough of that. We need to learn to SHUT THE F*** UP and get in the box. We have Captains on this team to deal with the officials and any other issues that arise. No matter how much we argue, we will never change the refs mind. Because of this lack of self-control, we ended up in too many penalty kill situations because we can’t control our tempers and our composure! Hey, we won the game and we are in first place, what the heck are we so angry about?”