Georgia Bulldogs: Did you know UGA has a hockey team?

For those of you who may not know, the Georgia Bulldogs have an ice hockey team.  I found out myself sometime last season, but only just got to experience my first game.

Yes Dawg fans, the Georgia Bulldogs play Ice Hockey. While that probably isn’t a surprise for some, it certainly was for me. Us southerners aren’t exactly known for our love of ice. This past Saturday I took my family to our first every Dawg hockey game and we had a great time. It’s something I will definitely be doing again and something I would recommend to all Dawg fans.

If I’m being honest, I have to admit that I’m not a hockey fan. I’m about the farthest from a expert on the sport as you’re going to find in the online sports community. I would honestly need Google to find out when the NHL season began. I do, however, remember going to a minor league hockey game when I was a kid and really enjoying watching it live. So I was super pumped when I got the Twitter notification from UGA hockey on Friday that I had won 2 tickets to see the Ice Dawgs take on the South Florida Bulls on Saturday.

https://twitter.com/UGAHockey/status/957056706357420032

I’m not a guy who wins stuff like this a lot so I was excited to win this.

The Ice Dawgs usually play inside the Classic Center. But every so often they have a game outside in the 440 Foundry Pavilion behind the Classic Center.  Saturday night was held in the open air pavilion, and it was a packed house. It was actually a sellout. Now we aren’t talking Sanford attendance numbers or even Stegman Coliseum numbers.  But the crowd that was there was packed and very excited. We were lucky enough to have 2 season tickets, so we got to sit with the hardcore UGA hockey fans.  It was really cool to see fans with UGA hockey jerseys cheering the team on. I even seen a few NHL jerseys like the Boston Bruins, which tells me that there are not only UGA hockey fans at these games but a few NHL hockey fans as well.

One of the few things I do know about hockey is the games aren’t typically high scoring. That wasn’t the case Saturday.  After an early 1-1 tie, USF went on a quick tear and went up 3-1. The Dawgs kept playing hard and eventually tied the game up at 3-3. Not long after that, USF scored again to take a 4-3 lead. And then in the 3rd period, Georgia scored to tie it up at 4-4. As the last few minutes of the game ticked away, it looked as though we may see a tie. But with only 1:07 left in the 3rd period, Georgia scored the final goal of the game and then held off the Bulls for the final minute and win by a final score of 5-4.

So many people have said to me that they didn’t even know that UGA had a hockey team.  Well like i said earlier, they do, and they’re good. Their record is now 19-3 and 9-0 in the SEC which sets them at the top of the conference. Seems like this is another sport that UGA is doing pretty well at right now.

Next: Check out potential UGA defensive tackle Rick Sandidge

For those of you who are upset with the basketball team right now, maybe take a shot and go and see the hockey one day this semester? If you have yet to go see this team and you are a UGA fan, make it a point to get to a game. You won’t be disappointed. All ticket and schedule info can be found at UGAHockey.com.