For whom the bell tolls...rung up by the Freeze

Schlitz (22) vs Deep Freeze
Thursday February 28th
Boston University 6:50pm

8-4 Loss.

Wow. Not your average game against the 'Freeze this time around. There was a very clear thread that RANG through the stories on this one. Yes the Freeze came out of nowhere with a Ringing win against a well-stocked Beercan Club. Too bad to have extras and add-ons decide one of our division games... but such is life... and the way it goes in the NESHL.

I'm going to turn it over to your emails and comments by they guys who played the game.
Without further ado...
Some excellent summaries from a crew of guest bloggers:
iJOSH
...Ah, the trap game. That is certainly what this one looked like. After having beaten (at least I think) this team before handily and after looking at the number (we had 13 they had 5) we were taking about getting ahead early and often. Not to mention there was quite a large fan base for the gold as the Underhill and Greenstein crew were there in full, pounding on the glass behind the bench. Mrs. Elliott also made an appearance to watch her Matt...
What we didn't realize is that they would recruit from the previous session. Two guys who clearly were a cut above were inserted onto the blue team.

Anyway early on it looked good, Matt looked great in goal. Now only if I could adapt myself to a new position so handily and successfully. He made a few tough saves early on. And we had a few good opportunities, Nelson was just ON all night and Jasse was no slouch either. However our fortunes would change, but not before DWH scores from the high slot after a pass from Nelson.
Their two ringers, specifically #8 were just too good skating. Our best defenders kept getting beat and leaving Matt out to dry. Even when our guys tried to take the body, the opponent would shiftily make their way around. Finally after one of these plays, they would beat Matt to make it 1 -1. They would go ahead 2 - 1 before the period ended.

In the 2nd period, things looked like they could get out of hand. Marc Valenti, in his best effort to win the Mike Campbell award, would get called for hooking. Off he would go to the box. That would prove to be costly as the gold would not be able to hold off the penalty and went down 3 - 1. Shortly after the penalty ended, we would give up yet another goal.
Then Mr. Sharfman put on the cape and went to work. After a very good give and go from Nelson to Jasse just missed, Jasse would feed one to Nelson from behind the net and Nelson knocked it home. On the ensuing face-off, Nelson won the face off going forward, pick up the puck and cruised to his second goal in only a few seconds. That left the score 4-3 bad guys. Rumbling from the bench could be heard, could Nelson get the Natural Hat Trick? Ah but it would not be. The shift would end without another Nelson goal and before he could get back on the ice the score would be 5 - 3.
Then after DWH lead iJosh toward a break away, that he would eventually lose and slam into the board awkwardly (trust me it looked much worse than it felt), he would redeem himself on the next play, taking a pass from Matt Elliott, take a shot and fall. He would collect his own rebound while on the ice and knock it home to make it a one goal deficit, 5 - 4.
That would be all the scoring the red and gold could muster. But certainly not for a lack of trying. Matt Elliot had a few chances that just couldn't get through, he even had men waiting for the rebound, but the goalie just would not give it up. The third would be marred with 2 gold penalties (Valenti and Goldenberg) and 4 blue goals. But despite it all Mr. Kilroy looked absolutely fabu in goal. I think he might have found his true calling. Look out OEJ I think with a little more work, Matt might be challenging your GAA.
The Greenstein clan did not stay for the 4th period, so someone else will have to give a rundown, if there is one.

Great Game story iJosh! Forget OEJ... the blogger is the one getting nervous.

NELSON
Standard story. What would have been a close and interesting game was made non-competitive by a couple of league-mismatch extras. Apparently the other squad was quite short of people so they grabbed some extras from the previous game. They were good. At one point when we had a power play one of their ringers (number 8 on your scorecard) successfully ragged the puck and kept it from us for about a minute and a half. That tells you all you need to know.
Other than that it would have been interesting. We had Kilroy in the pipes and some of our less experienced players up front. We had good defense but they had a legit chick who had the goods. Of course, had they played with only five players (from their own roster) they probably would not have lasted.
We struck first but soon the ringers became aware of some "chinks" in our armor and they went to town. They were up 5-1 at one point and we came back to make it 5-4. They potted the next three and that's how it ended.

iJosh had the fourth[goal]. It was a nice "hustle" goal that he put in as he was going down. He worked hard all night and deserved one. Matt Elliot was a bit snakebit. He had some great opportunities from his linemates but couldn't find a spot past the goalie.
Kilroy had a nice effort back there, but it was unfair to ask him to stop some of those bombs and dekes from the B/C players.
The Jass-man had a beautiful feed from behind the net for one of my goals.

KILROY
8-4 them. …they were on the edge of not having enough players. They picked up at least 1 for sure probably 3 from the game before so they had 7 skaters, we had 13. But the game before was a B level game easy. And one guy they picked up who was really good didn't hold back one bit. He was basically able to get to the goal anytime he wanted and he did a lot. He had 6 points and 3 goals. They had two others that were really good as well. #'s 8, 16, 9. 7 of their goals were scored by one of these three, every goal had one of these three involved, 6 of their goals had a combination of these three, 1 of their goals had all three of these three. Remember this team is below us in the standings and we beat them like 9-1 before. But despite the score we were only 1 or 2 goals behind until the middle of the 3rd.
Nelsons goals were about 20 seconds apart.
Ijosh's goal was a tremendous second effort, his first shot was stopped and he whacked at it repeatedly as he was falling and basically just got a stick on it as he was horizontal and about to hit the ice and scored.

CAMPBELL
Lost 8 - 4.
We had an army of skaters... Not sure how many overall, but Me and
George, DWH and Valenti on D. Ijosh and Nelson rotated through as
centers.
Wings were Gregson, Bates, Underhill, Mitch, Jasse and I forget who
else.

Goals by DWH, from the right point. Nice wrister middle of the first.
Ijosh got one. Jasse carried the puck behind the net and fed Nelson
beutifully - looked like we had done this once before! - and Nelson
scored (with hard work and determination to stay in the slot, as usual).
Then Nelson took the face off at center ice, won it skated down intot
heir zone and shot and scored again. VERY sweet. Now that I think
about it, not sure if Jasse fed Nelson or iJosh. Either way, he fed,
and they ate, and it was magical.

Kilroy played damn good. The D tried to limit odd man rushes, although
they had a floater all night - number 8. Each of the D had some good
plays where we broke up the passign lanes to the floater. We problably
did that 6 or 7 times overall, and every time it felt really good.
Otherwise, we tried to keep them on the outside, and did that somewhat
effectively. Matty took a dozen or so slapshots from the outside,
mostly right in the chest. There's a mark there today, I bet. He was
also good when they got inside, and didn't' give up any weak, flubbing
goals.
They scored a lot, though. There was a pick-up game before us... I
think some BU vets, actually. REALLY good skaters. A lot of just out
of college kind of guys. The other team was short skaters, so we think
they picked up two from the game before us. One guy, number 8, had six
of their points. He was way out of our league - taking the puck
stickhandling, playing it off his skates, behind the back - dick moves.
We stayed in it, and skated hard, but those two guys were just a lot better than us.

They also had a pretty good girl. She got a couple of goals too, and
generally I tried to make her pay for them. She was none to fond of me,
and since you're going to hear it from someone - likely Kilroy -
I'll tell you about their eighth goal. Late in the third, I was covering
Lady Bing in the slot and, like I said, she didn't like being covered,
but I didn't like losing either, so I stuck with it. We cleared the
puck to the neutral zone, but it got tied up with two or three guys
along the board, in front of our bench. Gregson was in there, I was in
there. One or two of their guys as well. Finally the puck comes free
onto my stick, between our blue line and their red line on the boards.
For some reason I have yet to figure out (I think it's because I suck,
but there may be another reason), the puck left my stick, bounced off
the boards five feet away, and back out to Lady Bing another five feet
away, skatinginto our zone. F*CK. Now I've got to go catch her.
Remember two things. 1.) It's late in the third, and 2.) I suck.
Despite my best efforts to catch her, and keep her outside, a diving,
stretching, swing of the stick at the puck, she buried it past Kilroy.
He may tell you what he was thinking, but it was something like, "I
can't believe he's gonna let her do that."

After she scored I remained on the ice, and reflected for a moment on
how much I suck.
DWH skated onto the ice to change shifts. He pointed out that if I
hadn't made her so mad - she might not have scored on me like that. He
made a good point.

Overall, good skate though. Without their last minute additions, it
would have been a good tight game. We have a damn good crew of guys. I
guess it's always a good crew of guys and that's why I keep coming back.
Even after games when I suck.
A few of hung in the parking lot for a beer or two but it was ass cold.
After sharing stories about being ejected from night clubs, we all
headed home. I tried to coerce Jasse into Poppers at the Fours, but he
had a sick house hold and had to behave. Probably a good call. I would
have made him smoke, smoke and drink 29 beers.
I don't suck at that.
That's all for now...
~ Mike

Mike. You don't suck at lots of things. In fact most things. Thanks for the great story. Sorry to put the whole thing on here but its all good stuff. I like your analysis.

Here are Kirloy's thoughts on the 8th goal.
Yes, the eighth goal. My fault despite what Mike says. It was the weakest of the bunch, I was a spectator and let me tell you of what. As soon as it was clear that they had ringers (and I think the girl was one of the ringers. she was very good) Mike understandably put away his Mr. Nice Guy style and adopted his "If I catch you I'm gonna let you know I'm there" style. He is generally egalitarian about his choice of recipients but they only had 7 and the girl was a forward on Mike's side so he saw her a lot.
Basically he enthusiastically greeted her every time they were in our zone together, eliciting multiple questioning, firm verbal opinions from her about Mike. After several such meetings with slight escalation every time. Well this last time, late in the 3rd, I see her and Mike mixing it up at full speed and basically think 'I wonder what form Mike's enthusiastic greeting is going to take?'. It is late in the third and we are losing 7-4 so I figure this is going to be a good one. So I sit back and watch. Whatever happens it is most likely going to end with both of them on the ice and probably Mike going to the sin bin. Remarkably it ends up with her in front of me with the puck on her stick. Remember I had already assumed spectator status in my mind so when she shot it I was barely aware what my job was. I barely flinched toward the puck. I did not focus. It was fun to watch though.

That is classic.
There were certainly some stand out performances this week despite the lack of Game Stars due to the loss.
Major Props to all the guys who guest-blogged this week. Sorry to use so much of your emails that made this a longer than average post, but you all had great tales to tell. The blogger thanks you all.