Air Force hosted Colorado College Friday night at the Cadet Ice Arena. Coming off last year's 2-1 victory, hopes were high for the Falcons to roll the Tigers once again.
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Three panes of glass cracked within the first
15 seconds of the warmup. Not a good sign. |
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Three panes broken. One pane replaced.
Two panes duct taped. Again, not a good sign. |
After a 19 minute delay the game got under way with Air Force coming out like a house on fire (whatever the hell that means). A ton of pressure that was rewarded with a goal from Jason Fabian at the 3:32 mark.
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| Fabian buries the puck from just left of the slot! |
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| And there was much rejoicing! Yeah. |
The Falcons continued to dominate through the first 10 minutes of the 1st but could not find the back of the net. Heck. They could not find any part of the net. They only put 3 pucks on goal the entire period. And even though the ice tilted decidedly in CC's favor for the last 10 minutes, Falcon goaltender Jason Torf turned away the 8 shots he faced and Air Force went into the break up 1-0. Could we be in for another upset?
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| Jason Torf watches stuff happen at center ice. |
Between periods the Air Force mascot, The Bird, was skating (barely) around tossing t-shirts to the sellout crowd.
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The Bird. Not throwing t-shirts, but carrying a flag
before the game. No shots of the t-shirts because
why the hell would I take pictures of a dude in a
bird suit throwing t-shirts? Why, you ask, did I
take this shot? SHUT UP! That's why. |
Well The Bird was late getting off the ice. And The Bird is not the strongest skater in the world. And, I don't think The Bird has been to too many hockey games, so he was skating towards the gate where the Tigers enter the ice. And the gate is small, just big enough for one to enter/exit at a time. And the CC players were waiting to go out. And the CC players just got their asses handed to them in the locker room by Coach Scott Owens for a crap 1st period. So, the CC players were ready to burst out and kick some ass...
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CC players heading to the ice.
Big,strong and pissed off.
Hope nothing gets in their way... |
...And here comes The Bird. To the net. He pauses. Watches the players start to come through the gate. The Bird times it, poorly, and skates through the oncoming Tigers and stops against the boards right next to the door. Surely he is going to wait for the rest, about 10 players, to come on the ice before he tries to exit. Surely? Nope. More players skate out. The Bird attempts to exit. DENIED! And is bounced back out! Next player flies out. The Bird tries again. DENIED AGAIN! Back to the boards! (PengoSports heard that during all of this excitement Coach Owens was screaming at the Scorer's Box to "do something about that fu*kin' bird or he'd take care of it". Don't worry Scott. Someone was about to do 'something' about it). Third times a charm? The Bird decides enough is enough and bores through the door. An unknown CC player (unknown because everyone kind of looked away, knowing what was coming up, out of embarrassment) just railed The Bird. I mean, crossed checked the living shit out of him right into the door. It looked kind of like this but instead of a video game Crosby, it was The Bird. Just use your imagination okay?
The Bird righted himself and slurked off to his locker room while the rest of the Tigers made it on to the ice. The night was decided right there. CC just destroyed Air Force, outscoring them 6-1 in the final two periods. Thanks Bird.
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CC had more size, more speed and,
after the Bird incident, way more motivation. |
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Air Force tried.
But for the last 50 minutes forgot to play like a team.
And got schooled for it. |
The PengoSports 3 Stars of the Night:
3rd Star - Scott Winkler, Colorado College - 2 Goals
2nd Star - Andrew Hamburg, Colorado College - 4 Goals
1st Star - The Bird, Air Force - Fired up an entire team.
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CC celebrates another Andrew Hamburg goal.
And the death of a bird mascot. |
