Mad Dogs win a close one.

Going into this weeks game there was a three way tie for first place between the Mad Dogs, Mudflaps the Hawks. Mad dogs were down two defenseman and rookie forward Rousey Johnson who is out with a double fracture injury on his thumb. In a tough game the Mad Dogs managed to hand the Mudflaps their first loss of the season and bump them out of the first place position.

With another impressive crowd attendance the Mad Dogs came out shooting to outscore the Mudflaps 2-0 during the first period. Shortly in the second the Pete Lobe scored the third goal of the game to continue his streak. Mudflaps realized they needed to step it up and started taking control of the game. They scored two quick goals midway through the second turning it into a tight game. Mad Dogs seemed a bit flustered and surprised by the quick goals and the pressure that the Mudflaps were applying.

Late in the second the Dogs found themselves in penalty trouble after defenseman Snyder was called for a holding penalty and managed to pick up a 10 minute misconduct on his way to the box. The Mad Dogs were able to kill of the penalty. The second period ended with a score of 4-2. It was an exciting period with 30 total shots, 15 per team. Larry Amundson had his glove working for him and had some impressive saves.

The third period was back and forth with out a lot of shots or to much action until a couple minutes left in the game when the Mudflaps called a time out to put together an empty net strategy. They put pressure on and a Mudflap forward snook past all the Mad Dogs for a breakaway. Jeff Warren managed to catch up to him and take a smart baseball swing tripping penalty to prevent a late scoring opportunity. With 1:53 left in the game and a face off in the Mad Dogs end the Mudflaps pulled their goalie for a 6 on 4 advantage. Their efforts paid off a little to late and they scored to make it 4-3 with .7 seconds left on the clock.

Final score 4-3. Mad Dogs out shot the Mudflaps 32-28. Mad Dogs managed to pick up a season record of 5 penalties but the penalty kill looked strong giving up only one short handed goal late in the game.

Next weeks game is against the Venom. They are a very strong team sitting at 2-1 right now and are not going to want to drop to 500. In the past the Mad Dogs have pretty much split gamed with them. A scouting report is expected soon so keep your eye out for a post on the blog.