# Any Wild Fans?



## MrSafety (Feb 22, 2005)

Any Wild fans out there see the cheap-shot sucker punch from behind that May threw last night on Johnson? If they don't suspend this guy it's a complete crock...........


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

Here is an interesting column by Pat Roise in today's Minneapolis paper about Dustin Penner of the Ducks.He has come a long way since playing at Bottineau.

A gift from Manitoba

Gary Warren was the hockey coach at Minot State-Bottineau, a two-year school in North Dakota. The Lumberjacks were a perennial power in the increasingly tiny world of junior college hockey.

Warren had a player named Daryl Penner entering the 2000-01 school year. "He came to me a few days after school started, told me his cousin Dustin had been cut by the Winkler Flyers in the Manitoba junior league, and did we have room for him?" Warren said.

There were telephone discussions between Warren, Dustin and his family in Winkler. A student had 15 days from the start of classes to enroll for a semester at Bottineau.

"On the last day, Dustin decided he wanted to come, so the family got in the car and beat feet from Winkler to Bottineau," Warren said. "There was a 5 o'clock deadline to be at the registrar's office, and Dustin made it with a few minutes to spare."

Penner was 6-2 and weighed around 190 pounds. "He was a foal, but he had good hands, he was a smart kid, he had great support with his extended family and he wanted badly to keep playing hockey," Warren said.

Penner was in and out of the Bottineau lineup early in the season, started to come on strong, then suffered a broken femur in an on-ice collision.

Warren left Bottineau to become the Minnesota- Crookston coach for the 2001-02 school year. "I tried to get Dustin to come to Crookston, but he said he was going to try the juniors again," Warren said. "He was cut somewhere -- a team in Saskatchewan. By then, our admissions were closed at Crookston, so he went back to Bottineau."

Maturity and Maine

Penner was getting taller, and his frame was filling out. He had 20 goals in 23 games in 2001-02 for Bottineau.

Again, Warren was hopeful of getting him to transfer to Crookston, but Penner was discovered by Maine at an evaluation camp in Saskatchewan after that season.

Five years later, Penner is on Anaheim's second line and helping to blow out the Wild in the first round of the playoffs.

"We kept him alive as a hockey player," Warren said. "Maine did a great job developing him. Of course, the work he put in -- on the ice, in the weight room -- had the most to do with it.

"He's 6-4, 245, with that big rear end on him ... it's hard to get around him to take away the puck."


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## Gildog (Jan 30, 2007)

at least they showed some #### by not going quietly in the series. Pretty deep hole still, but at least they didn't roll over and die...there will be plenty of time to hit the golf course this summer, no reason to get an early start!


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