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DATE: March 30, 1996 (away game) A special note from Zamboni... Sarah and the entire Bendy clan is in deep shock because we missed last nights game against Rochester. It wasn't by choice - we were mislead! We wouldn't miss the excellent play-by-play of Todd Kimm on KDMI for anything! The TV announcer told us that the first game was Sunday night - we believed it! A snowy Saturday night without hockey and ESPN 2 forced us to seek other entertainment. I don't want to divulge too much - Sarah is writing her rant, and brother is she mad! The only thing I will divulge is the evening involved pizza, Hercules, Xena and the Brady Bunch. Sarah's back... Did anyone tell me? No! And I'm steamed. The news said the first Rochester vs. Des Moines game would be tonight, Sunday night. No one told me there'd be a game Saturday night! Now I've been told the Bucs are down in the series, because they lost Saturday night 6-4! It just goes to show you that you can't trust the news. This is what I learned from different sources. Platt was in goal for the Bucs Saturday night and in the first period the Bucs put on a lot of pressure, but Rochester's goalie Karasek was hot. Rochester's first goal in the first period, by Jeremy Bautch, looked harmless. Rochester went on to score another goal late in the first period with Jeff Turner at 17:58. In the second period the Bucs fought back and were rewarded 1:37 seconds into the second with a goal by Joe Blake (assists to Matt Bailey and Terry Harris). Blake scored again late in the second on a power play with a little over two minutes left (assists to Andy Birrenkott and Matt Bailey). Rochester came right back and scored within seconds left with P.J. Perry. A minute after Blake had scored his second goal Adam Morris answered with another goal to tie it. The Bucs outshot them in every period, but when the Bucs let down on their defense, Rochester capitalized. In the third period the Mustangs scored three more goals giving the Bucs little chance of fighting back. P.J. Perry got his second goal of the night for the Mustangs midway through the third. Then Carl Boben scored with 6:48 left to go in the third. Finally Kerry Hafele scored 1:44 after Boben. Bill Trainor late in the period and on an elbowing penalty to Jeff Turner got the Bucs second power play goal of the night. The Bucs had a total of 37 shots on goal, to Rochester's 25. In the first period alone the Bucs had eight more than Rochester's ten. Very few penalties were called in the game. In fact the only two power play opportunities the Bucs had they capitalized on. Written by Sarah Bendy. Des Moines 4 - Rochester 6
DATE: March 31, 1996 (away game) "It didn't feel like we'd lost the game." I wasn't going to miss Sunday night's game, even if I had to drag a Walkman around with me (which I did)! After missing the game the night before, through no fault of my own (well... maybe negligence, because I could have found out if I took the time), humiliation was rearing it's ugly head and I was determined to do the best on my next rant. The fifth seed Mustangs against the seventh seed Bucs had already won the first game of the series. In the first period Peter Fregoe hit early 4:07 into the game (assist to Matt Bailey and Sergie Federov... and Bob Nardella). At 13:02 Antzoulatos and a Mustang got put in the box for matching minors, for what else but, roughing. It was a fast moving first period. The Mustangs bucked back and tied it with 3:06 to go. Klage Kaebel then beat the goalie to his glove side, but it went off the post. Just seconds later Mike Hanson's shot that had the goalie Nelson beat also went off the post. Late in the first the front of the net was a chaotic mess, but Clemmensen was doing a good job clearing. Clemmensen kicked away the puck as a Mustang had a breakaway. Rochester outshot the Bucs 11 to 8 in the first period. The two posts that were hit were not counted in the shots on net for the Bucs. The Bucs continued their onslaught of the goal post when Stoy Dulgeroff hit the crossbar at the beginning of the second period. Rochester got another power play, but the Bucs did a good job killing it off against the potent power play of the Mustangs. These two teams, together with the defeated Omaha Lancers were among the best in the USHL in power play's for regular season. It was to be expected that the game would have few penalties. Both goalies were doing good, Scott Clemmensen robbed Rochester's Wetterberg on a rebound shot. Meanwhile Rochester's goalie Nelson was doing a good job, if not better. All I heard was Nelson save, Nelson covers up, Nelson glove save, Nelson stick save, Nelson, Nelson, Nelson! The second period was filled with good goal tending, and outstanding offense. The Bucs had outshot Rochester this period, 13 to 12. I heard rumors from the game up in Rochester, that the Mustangs don't like defensive play and don't relish the thought of coming down to play in Des Moines. Are they afraid of playing in our barn?! I heard another rumor (from the grapevine), it seems a little outlandish to me, but Owens has signed a player from Iceland. Within the first twenty seconds of the third period the Bucs already had 2 shots on goal, could they continue to do as good? The Bucs got their second power play when Jeremy Bautch (who by way, has done a lot of damage to the Bucs through the regular season) was put away for a double minor. Bill Trainor also had Nelson beat on a shot, but it went wide. It was still tied at one, would the Bucs be going into another overtime? Yes they would be. The Bucs had experienced overtime with the Lancers in the first series, but the Mustangs still had yet to taste it. This game would not be allowed to tie, they would keep playing until someone scored. With 6:10 to go Rochester got a penalty for too many men on the ice. Brendan Walsh at this point complained about the call. The announcers got so excited at one time that I thought Rochester had scored, but Clemmensen robbed Cory Miller with a big save. Mike Nooyen shot a blast, and, of course it went off the post. Even Reggie Berg's shot went off the post when he shot seconds later! Then on a give-away Rochester won the contest. Clemmensen and another Buc got tangled up, the puck popped up in front of the net and a Mustang put it in. The next two games are in Des Moines, if Rochester wins both of those, then they'll have swept the series. P.S. If anything in the above rant seemed strange to you, then screw your head on tighter and check the date! Written by Sarah Bendy Des Moines 1 - Rochester 2 (Overtime)
DATE: April 5, 1996 (home game) You know it's the play-offs when you start seeing play-off beards sprouting on once clean faces. During the play-offs you begin to see too much of the other team's colors and you begin to know the other team's weakness and their strongest points. Rochester is a fast team, it's been said all along, but I don't know if anyone has said that their deadly with the puck. A slow game that looks like it's going one way can change so fast that if you blink the momentum is switched. If the last game was messy than this game was clean and crisp, at least part of it. At 11:06 the Bucs struck first when Mike Nooyen put a shot on goal and goalie Nelson let it trickle behind him (assist to Mike Hanson). The Mustangs got the first power play, and though they didn't score it was scary. Nelson stopped seven shots for the first period. Clemmensen stopped one less. As the three blind mice (or zebras) left the ice the crowd booed their reffing talents. 35 seconds into the second period and Bobby Davis scored (assists to Mike Nooyen and Mike Hanson). Bobby had the puck and with a Mustang defenseman standing in front of the goalie Bobby came in and waited and waited then shot it past the defenseman and past the goalie. The burners were on and no semblance of the former Rochester team of a period before remained. But the tables turned and the ice was tilted down towards Clemmensen. At 10:07 the wrong red light went on and Rochester players were scurrying around the ice with their sticks in the air, Jeremy Bautch had scored. There was two and a half minutes left and Nelson was far out of the net, bombarded by the Bucs on a power play. Matt Bailey came in and shot right into Nelson, Pete Fregoe got the puck loose. Bailey came back in behind Nelson and put the puck in the open net (assists to Adrian Fure and Pete Fregoe). In the final seconds of the period Bailey had a breakaway, but he tripped and fell to the ice and the puck went flying beyond his stick and past the net. Third period, the Bucs didn't look so hot. They were running down and there was no more fire power left. Nothing much happened until 8:27, when Rochester's Brian Bolf scored. Clemmensen tried to save after a couple of rebounds, but the leg he stuck out just didn't help. There is more than one Mustang fan from Rochester! Their air horns sounded from behind me when they scored. Less than a minute later the Bucs attacked the net. The goalie was down on his back and the Bucs were cheering, but the light never went on and they never got the goal. The Bucs were mad, but evidently not mad enough. Just as Todd Kimm announced that there was a minute left in the period Rochester tied the game with Kerry Hafele. Nelson stopped 7 shots, Clemmensen was peppered, he stopped 14 shots. Overtime again. . . Clemmensen made some unbelievable saves, but Rochester clearly had the upper hand. With about 4 minutes left Joe Blake was down rolling on the ice, he was in pain and he had to be helped off the ice with an injury to his leg. Two minutes later Rochester came skating in and scored winning three games in a row. Written by Sarah Bendy Rochester 4 - Des Moines 3 (OT)
DATE: April 6, 1996 (home game) Game 4, would the Bucs go down another game without having won one? Would Bobby Davis be as grumpy as he was the night before? Would the refs mess up the game again? And my biggest question was, would those Mustang fans be sitting behind me again with those stupid air horns? Six minutes into the first period Mike Hanson got his sixth goal of the play-offs, it was passed to him and put in (assists to Bill Trainor and Pete Fregoe). The Bucs were looking good. In the first both Chris Antzoulatos and Adam Morris (at different times) got coincidental minors for roughing, which is no surprise. They're the hotheads on the team. You rarely see boarding calls in the USHL, but with a boarding call against us last night and the night before the game was starting to look too familiar. Late in the period Jayme Platt was skating around trying to get the cobwebs out of his pads. In the second period we saw Platt adjusting his pads, as his usual ploy for a breather. Around 11:12 Terry Harris one-timed a puck that I was sure went in. I even thought the twine puckered! But it hadn't gone in and the crowd sat back down after exploding with sound. At 10:56 Bobby Davis got a goal that was even better than the one he'd gotten the night before (assists to Mike Nooyen and Mike Hanson). Davis took the puck in past about three Mustangs, waited, waited (as all the players panicked and started hooking him) the goalie went down before the puck was even off the stick. Davis saw his chance as the goalie went down (did Nelson panic too?) and put it up in over Nelson. Not long after that Bill Trainor tipped in a blast from Andy Birrenkott from the left point (assists to Reggie Simon and Andy Birrenkott). Rochester was starting to get physical, mugging Bucs left and right. Rochester was really doing bad, and getting worse in the third period. They were missing on shots when they had Platt beat. Meanwhile Antzoulatos was heating up, in one shift he gave out three clean checks that made the boards shake. It started when he raced a Mustang down for the puck, if the Mustang had gotten it then it would have been an icing. Antzoulatos skated down behind the Mustang and smashed him into the boards touching the puck first. The crowd roared it's approval. Antzoulatos must have liked the attention, because he smashed two other Mustangs in the same spot after that! Of course the crowd cheered for those too. Would Platt be getting another shut-out? No he would not, because as I was cheering for a save Platt had just made, Rochester got their first goal. For those who want to know, the goal was given to Jiri Maxa. The Mustangs were instantly fired up. There wasn't enough time for them though, with 42 seconds left on the clock Rochester called a time-out. Nelson had stopped five shots, Platt stopping nine. Bill Trainor got offense of the game. Platt got defense of the game. Written by Sarah Bendy Des Moines 3 - Rochester 1
DATE: April 8, 1996 (away game) OPPONENT: Rochester Game 5, Round 2 of the Clark Cup Play-offs Well, folks, this'll be my last rant of the season. The 95-96 season is over, thanks to Ryan Karasek who shutout the Bucs. . .again. Who would have thought Saturday night as the Bucs gathered in the middle circle and saluted the crowd that it would be the last time we saw are beloved Bucs? With the age change in the USHL many of the Bucs will be able to come back for the 96-97 season. Only two Bucs cannot stay on the team. We still will be losing a few to scholarships, people like Jason Ialongo, Kevin Karlander, Joe Blake, Matt Bailey, to name a few. Joe Blake was still out with the injury, which we found out, was an ankle injury. Kevin Karlander, who was out for two months with a knee injury, would be playing in the lineup again. Twenty seconds into the first period Rochester's P.J. Perry got a penalty and put the Bucs on the power play. It didn't help, Jeff Turner for the Mustangs got a shorthanded wrap around goal. Rochester was playing a dump and chase hockey game, and though the Bucs were putting a lot of pressure on the Mustangs, they just could not beat Karasek. Karasek didn't want to come and play in Des Moines, he was going to do everything he could to keep from playing here. Bill Trainor took the pass from Klage Kaebel and almost scored, Terry Harris almost scored, Bobby Davis came in shorthanded and deflected it over the crossbar. Karasek robbed them all! 8:30 left in the period and Jeff Turner came in on a breakaway, but Andy Birrenkott tripped him up and Lucas Kirsch swept it away. Andy got the penalty. The Bucs were having a hard time breaking it out of their zone late in the period. The refs continued their disparage of bad calls, Matt Bailey got hauled down and the ref didn't see it. At the end of the period the Bucs had outshot Rochester, but they seemed tight. Benny (Bencurik) was interviewed during the first intermission. They talked about his game winner goal in his opener with 24 seconds to go back in November. Benny hates the Lancers, I mean he really hates the lancers, "their breath even stinks!" That's Benny, never at a loss of words. Jeremy Bautch (of Rochester) went around Lucas Kirsch to score 1:28 into the second period. Bencurik got a tripping call, he got beat, but he didn't trip! A very bad call. . .again! Jayme Platt fixed his pads for another breather. Then Kirsch took a hooking penalty, but the guy he hooked acted. Another very bad call. Louis Mass finally got caught at 9:53 for interference, then Rochester took another penalty, tripping. Platt started working on his pads for yet another breather. The Bucs were 5 on 3, they had several good tries, but no goals. Cory Martinson got his first goal of the play-offs for the Mustangs with 1:36 left in the period. Does everybody know about the new Lincoln team that's coming into the world? Well, I found out a little something, Lincoln hired the Fargo-Moorehead coach Steve Johnson to coach the new Stars team. I guess we can say good-bye to Fargo. The Bucs still had a chance to tie the game up and force a game six, never mind that the Bucs have never been able to come back from that kind of score this season. This was the play offs, a whole new year, a whole different team, at least we thought. Pete Fregoe had an unbelievable chance and couldn't beat Karasek, out of frustration he slashed just a little bit, but the ref saw that one and put him away. Stoy Dulgeroff also took a penalty in the third. If the Bucs could come back they'd have to start playing better and force the frustration out of their heads. The Mustangs hammered the last nail in the coffin when they scored on the power play (Fregoe penalty). Of course, I'm very happy that we got as far as we did. At the beginning of the year the Bucs had trouble scoring goals, and by the end of the season, well, they still had trouble scoring goals. But they had definitely picked up their game. My only solace after this series is that Rochester will get demoralized by Green Bay and Green Bay will win the Clark Cup and then go onto the Gold Cup too! I'll be doing one more rant, my end of the season rant, look for it this next weekend. Written by Sarah Bendy Des Moines 0 - Rochester 4
Clark Cup - Round 1 Rants | 1995-96 Schedule | Season Conclusion |
