Disastrous First Period Dooms Mutineers

BOX SCORE

It's hard to pinpoint what just went wrong in the first period of the Marquette Mutineers' game at the Fox Cities Ice Dogs on Saturday, Feb. 18.

A short bench made line changes tough for Marquette and Fox Cities capitalized in transitition. The Mutineers got off to another slow start, not taking a shot for the first four minutes of the game and no shots on goal for the first nine. The "hometown bounce" was definitely in effect the last three minutes of the period when every goal scored was powered through Murphy's Law. It was also just great team hockey by the host Ice Dogs.

Whatever the definitive reason was for such a bad period, it led to the worst loss in this young franchise's history as Fox Cities beat the Mutineers 11-3.

The Ice Dogs dropped eight goals on 19 shots in the first period with half of them coming in the last 2:28. Eleven different Ice Dogs had a point in the first period with seven different scorers. 

Marquette rallied in the second and third as Brandon Knopp took the netminder exchange. Joey Enright nabbed a power play goal in the second to get the Mutineers on the board while Dallas McLaughlin added two in the third. Levi Jezek and Craig Hartz both had an assist in the game.

Despite keeping the game tied 3-3 in the final two periods, the damage was already done. The eight-goal lead is now the worst loss in franchise history replacing three separate times where Marquette lost by five goals: 10-5 at Mosinee on Nov. 25, 7-2 at Fond du Lac on Dec. 3 and 6-1 at De Pere on Feb. 11.

However, the game served another milestone as well for the opening season of the Mutineers. The game at Fox Cities was the last road game of the season for Marquette, meaning that they will play their final seven games of the season in the UP. 

The Mutineers now sit in fifth place of the GLHL with a 10-9 record and 20 points. They are 3-2 in their last five games and sit just one point behind the Portage Lake Pioneers for fourth place.

Marquette looks to start off their home stand strong against the Calumet Wolverines this Friday and Saturday, Feb. 24-25 in Lakeview Arena. Both games start at 8 p.m..