Ice Dogs’ New Top Dog Watches Them Lose, 5-4

As many around the Ice Dogs will remind you, Barry Kemp doesn’t own L.A.’s newest hockey team yet.

But he’s here. And here to stay.

Kemp was at the Sports Arena on Sunday to see what will be his newest acquisition--he says the final details should be worked out today--play the Michigan K-Wings.

What he saw was entertaining, if not successful. The Ice Dogs lost, 5-4, in front of an announced 4,238. Zac Boyer’s short-handed goal at 3:47 in the third period was the winner for Michigan.

The Ice Dogs played well at times, but lapses cost them.

“Unless you’re a powerhouse team, you can’t give up easy goals,” Ice Dog Coach John Van Boxmeer said. “If you make a mistake, sometimes a goaltender is going to bail you out. That didn’t happen.”

Ice Dog goaltender Chuck Thuss said, “I take the brunt of it. Overall, the guys in front of me played great.”

Kemp said it broke his personal five-game winning streak for games he has attended and it was the Ice Dogs’ first loss at home in their last seven games.

Despite the loss, Kemp was upbeat and made references to his television-producing background.

“We’ll probably lose money for about four or five years. We didn’t do this to make a lot of money nor to lose a lot of money, but when working in television you usually lose money for about three years,” Kemp said.

“I look at small crowds and I think of ‘Coach’ [the television series of which Kemp is executive producer]--we had small ratings, it took three years and then suddenly it was there.”