Ben Bishop and Sarah Palin
Posted by: Avash KalraYou may remember former Maine goaltender Ben Bishop, who led the Black Bears to back-to-back Frozen Fours in 2006 and 2007.
Well, thanks to — of all people — vice-presidental candidate Sarah Palin, Bishop made his NHL debut on Friday night, playing for his hometown St. Louis Blues against the Los Angeles Kings. What did the Alaska governor have to do with all this?
Well, regular Blues starting netminder Manny Legace suffered a hip injury after slipping on a red carpet on the ice, which was in place for Palin to drop the ceremonial first puck. No word as to whether this will affect Bishop’s (or Legace’s) vote in a couple of weeks.
Two other observations around college hockey from Friday night:
— The CCHA has only had 10 league games so far, but 6 out of its 12 teams have already experienced a game-deciding shootout — a feature that the league introduced to settle ties this season. On Friday, Western Michigan earned an extra point against Ferris State, while Michigan State earned an extra point against Northern Michigan.
— After somewhat impressively playing two close games at Colorado College two weeks ago, Alabama-Huntsville was back on the ice… for a 13-0 drubbing of Tennessee in an exhibition game. Some fun facts: the Chargers outshot the Volunteers 66-8, including 24-0 in the third period. 15 of the 18 skaters for UAH recorded at least one point, with 9 different players scoring at least one goal. Obviously there was a significant talent gap.
But a little research finds the possible real reason for the Chargers running up the score: way back in 1979, UAH lost its very first home game… to Tennessee.
