Hello Ice Bears fans! My name is Mike Bulawka. Besides playing for the Knoxville Ice Bears I will also be writting a weekly blog for the season. Before coming to Knoxville I played in Denver Colorado for the Rocky Mountain Rage out of the Central Hockey League. In the off season after talking with former teammate Chris Brannen and head coach Marc Rodgers there was no doubt in my mind that Knoxville would be the place for me to play for the 2009-2010 season.
After a rigorous 2 weeks of training camp which included two exhibition games against the Fayetteville FireAntz where we lost a close one, in a 3-2 shoot out loss. Then came back the following night with an entertaining 7-3 win. Coach Rodgers has slimmed the roster down to 18 to get ready for opening weekend.
Friday night versus the Huntsville Havoc could not have started any better. With the raising of the Regular season and League Championship banners and a building full of unbelievable fans cheering us on we got out to a great 2-0 lead after the first period which ended up being a 6-1 win to start the season. Saturday night was a different story. We came out flat and were down 3-0 before we woke up. With a burst of 2 power play goals we cut the lead to 1 but just could not overcome our slow start and ended up losing 5-2.
Now with a few days off before our next game we have some time to tie up loose ends and get back on the winning track. Well its past my bed time and I know Coach Rodgers might throw in a few more skating drills tomorrow morning after our subpar performance Saturday night so I should get some rest.