On a hockey note, the Des Moines USHL franchise brought in the Hanson Brothers for an appearance at Saturday night’s game against Indiana. For those who don’t know, the Hanson Brothers were the lovable “goons” in the hockey movie, Slap Shot, and all of whom went on to play professional hockey (and get in more than a few real fights).
Maybe it was something they brought with them or the young kids were trying to impress the old guys, but the two USHL teams combined for 207 minutes of penalties in that night’s game. For comparison, that is more than 30 minutes more than the Sioux Falls Stampede’s all-time record for combined penalty minutes in one game (174). Another measure of comparison: the Stampede averaged just over 19 penalty minutes per game the last two complete USHL regular seasons while those two teams averaged about 21 each per game.
As might be expected given the size of the communities, neither the Des Moines Register nor the Indianapolis Star made much, if any. mention of the game or what occurred. But you gotta love the description on the Des Moines Buccaneers web site, which called its 4-0 win “a physically played thriller.”
In all fairness, the Hanson Brothers probably aren’t responsible. It looks like there was some bad blood carried over from the game between the two the previous night. The teams racked up 98 penalty minutes that night.
Half the game is mental, the other half is being mental.
