Bensenville, IL-(October 1, 2004) Hollywood has made many sports movies where an injured player surprisingly shows up and wins the big game for his underdog team.  The young, handsome hero gets up off the bench or out of the hospital, makes the winning score, then walks off into the sunset with the beautiful cheerleader.  Well these happy endings don't happen for the Bulldogs. In this case the young hero is an old fart "Dan Ayotte", he didn't leave the hospital, he left a drunken bar and he didn't walk off with a beautiful girl, he staggered home along with his ugly teammates. However Ayotte did score a goal and had one assist in another tough loss. The Bulldogs lose 8-3 against the Storm.

The game marked the first appearance of the season  for not just Dan Ayotte, but also John Reeg. The first period was close until Frank Lionello received a holding penalty. This gave Storm and opportunity to break the back and fourth defensive play and score 10:19 into the 1st period. Storm was not done just yet, smelling blood early, they ended up scoring three more times on goaltender Alex Martinez and ending the 1st period with a 4-0 lead.

It took the Bulldogs long to start contributing some offense. Dan Ayotte scored on his first goal of the season from an assist of new comer Bill Nolan. During the second period the Bulldogs were in and out of the box several times and Storm was able to once again take advantage of the power plays and score two more goals.

Early in the third John Reeg and Dan Ayotte would  double teamed and score. Despite being down 6-2, the Bulldogs didn't go limp.  They kept coming and coming, getting a goal this time from second season winger Mike Mancuso. Unfortunately the rally would end as the penalties kept being assigned to "only" the Bulldogs. Storm would score two more goals and end the game with the Bulldogs losing 8-3.

Defender James Senne did make a comment after leaving the locker room to the press. "Alex needs to stop eating Swiss Cheese", Senne goes on, "A Tooter Shooter may be an option if this continues".

The Good-

The Bulldogs had their best game in the second and third periods. Allowing minimal shots and creating scoring opportunities.

The Bad-

Being outshoot 36-19, an improvement over the last prior games, but shoots need to get down.

Offense still needs to back check and cover the points

Penalties

The Ugly-

Both Referee's play calling. Admitting after the game that they suck and admitting that they do not know 100% of the rules.

Player(s) of the Game:

Dan Ayotte