Hockey is not dead in Iowa.
Dubuque has a brand new USHL hockey team. This past Friday night, the Dubuque Fighting Saints faced off against Des Moines Buccaneers at Bucs Arena for their first-ever meeting.
Omaha has typically been the biggest nemesis of the Des Moines Bucs, but last Friday's game proved that their is a new player in the league. Dubuque got on the board first, but the Bucs answered a short while late with a goal of their own. The scoring remained fairly balanced through the first two periods of play, but the fiestiness on the ice started to pick up in the second period. The hits were getting harder and more frequent, and the tempers started to flare.
But it was the third period where the real action started. After a couple of fights and a couple of ejections, the Bucs found themselves on the short end of a 7-4 score. With a little over five and a half minutes left in the game, trailing by three goals, and wielding and short-handed offense that hadn't shown much fire since early in the second period, Coach Simon and the Bucs decided it was time to welcome the Dubuque Fighting Saints to the USHL, and also help them earn their given nickname. As soon as the puck dropped, so did the gloves.......ALL of them. Every player on the ice was instantly engaged in fighting, primarily instigated by the Bucs. The officials were helpless to stop any of it. Just seconds after the fighting started, the Dubuque goalie skated across the ice and meet the Des Moines goalie and the two of them went at it as well. It was a glorious sight!
After several minutes of picking up hockey equipment, sorting out penalties, and 7 ejections, hockey resumed and the Fighting Saints held on for the 7-4 win. But the Bucs made a statement, and made Dubuque's victory a painful one, sending them back to Dubuque with, yes, a win, but also maybe a little something to think about when they meet again. In the process, the Buccaneers created a new rival in the Dubuque Fighting Saints, and perhaps sold a few extra tickets for the rematch at Bucs Arena in December.
