Weekend ugly for Ice Dogs
By Marten Lewerth
Special to the Daily Forty-Niner
Playing three games on consecutive nights
can be hazardous to a team.
Just ask the Long Beach Ice Dogs, who
only have three losses and an injured player to show from this span.
The weekend began Friday with a 7-5 loss
to the Utah Grizzlies at home and was followed by a 3-1 loss at Utah Saturday.
Sunday, a tired Ice Dogs team returned home and lost to Chicago, 5-2.
Poor defense by the Ice Dogs in the second
period Friday led to aggressive play in the third period.
This resulted in a brawl between several
players, which set the stage for an extremely rough game in Saturday.
On Saturday, the Ice Dogs lost winger,
Claude Boivin, to an injury in one of the melees.
The two teams were assessed 344 penalty
minutes in the game.
At some point Boivin was allegedly hit
from behind by 6-foot-2, 220-pound Utah enforcer Mick Vukota, leaving him
unconscious.
Boivin was taken to a nearby hospital and
diagnosed with a concussion.
For Ice Dogs' winger Pavel Rosa, the whole
experience was disconcerting.
"This is sad," Rosa said. "If a guy wants
to fight, he should wait for the other guy. To punch a guy like this from
behind when he is not looking is just bad."
With a 1-2 record, the Ice Dogs returned
home to lose to the Chicago Wolves Sunday afternoon.
Ice Dogs Head Coach John Van Boxmeer had
some concerns before Sundayís game due to the emotional impact of the events
against Utah.
"Last night was a pretty emotional game,"
Van Boxmeer said. "I thought it (Chicago's game) was going to be pretty
difficult."
It looked anything but difficult for the
Ice Dogs' opponent, which capitalized on three power play opportunities
in the first period.
"They totally dominated us, kind of toyed
with us," Van Boxmeer said. "We werenít a match for them tonight."
A holding penalty on Chicagoís Dean Malkoc
gave the Ice Dogs their first goal, when Scott Thomas scored on the power
play in the final period.
The Wolves answered two minutes later with
a goal from Guy Larose, after a defensive breakdown by the Ice Dogs behind
their net.
With only three seconds left in the game
Long Beach winger Len Barrie scored at the end the game.
Van Boxmeer said he is not pleased with
some players.
"The rest of the guys gotta pull up their
socks," Van Boxmeer said. "We've got about five passengers on our team
right now."
Center Doug Ast said the team will respond
and improve.
"Weíve got a good group of guys in here
and weíll battle back." |
![[sports]](http://www.csulb.edu/~d49er/Icon/sports.gif){kind=icon}
![[news]](http://www.csulb.edu/~d49er/Icon/news.gif){kind=icon}
![[opinion]](http://www.csulb.edu/~d49er/Icon/opinion.gif){kind=icon}
