Zombies Crushed in the Brock.

Cadavers (1) vs Rte138 Autobody

Wednesday May 21st

Brockton 9:50pm

11-2 loss.

You knew… with a name like Rt138 Autobody that the guys were not going to be our regular competition. I just knew it. A look at the Standings showed they were a regular C level squad… I think that Paul just throws us to these guys form time to time as a barometer on our performance. The Suds passed against the Inglewood Jacks but the Dead in Red clearly fell short last night as the competition owned us from the start to the finish.

Its no good when you field a nice strong lineup… one of our best, (despite losing Greg James at the last minute) we had Campbell, Valenti, Capt.George, and Jeff on D, and a solid handfull of forwards, that represented some of our quality, featuring Larry, The Venerable Sharfman, Sully, Pahkah, Matvey, Elliot and the freshly Vegased Gregson. … Lizzy made a return to the crease at her “home” rink in the “City of Champions”.

We really were in pretty good shape.. and the Zombies were braced when we hit the ice and 138Autobody were about what I expected... except there was about 14 of them… oh yeah and they were bigger than the usual guys… and half of them didn’t wear shields… this was looknig grim. I think they did have 14… some of them grumbled about everyone showing up fo the first game of the year.... pity.

Here’s the deal. We scored first. Frantically attcking their zone the dead in Red made a nice couple of chances then kept after a loose puck in the crease. The whistle didn’t blow as the Red converged Gregson and Nikhamik digging hard with Matvey eventuallly poking it home. Ok.. things are looking up… 8 minutes in and we were holding our own and still ahead 1-0. Lizzy held tough on the first 3-4 shots which was huge.

Then it came. The wave. The guys in black n’white decided to take it to us, specifically keeping it in our zone for the next 8 minutes straight to see how we took it. Not. Too. Well. A pair of chase around shifts and they cracked the ice. There really was some redemption or some moral victory in keeping them scoreless for the first 8 or 9 minutes of the game.

They took the lead not more than a few mintues later with another bang-bang play that made most of the Red groan. Nothing Lizzy could do about it in both cases. She was doing a great job making multiple stops, unfortunately they kept getting more chances on the rebounds and the Red COULD NOT CLEAR THE ZONE. Still with chance after chance it was only 3-1 after the first period.

The second was just a wave of pain. More ridiculous cycling… and cycling, picking their spots, holding, dishing, setting a pass and shot, scoreing... Pretty much non- stop, shift after shift. They didn't let up a bit and scored four more times in that period while letting us chase them around like... well you get the point. There were several times that in attempting to just ice the puck their D would just slide into position knock the puck out of the air and toss it back into the zone for more...frustrating. The third saw another 4 goals from them as they wound down the intensity as things just got silly.

Again… its hard to say or think but hidden in that 11 goals against game was a really solid performance by our friend Lizzy.

Seriously. Yes she gave up rebounds, but it was certainly not her responsibiliy when they would get 4 and 5 shots in succession, something was going in… and it usually did… but again, you can’t hang that on the keeper. I’d say no fewer than 7 or 8 of their goals fell into this category. They would get a shot or two, recover the puck, wheel around the zone, set up another guy or two with a few more chances, until one fell. Not necessarily an abject failure by our defense either, althougth there’s no telling how long the blogger will be funk-riddled after a less than inspiring -8/9 performance. There was just no way we were going to keep up with those guys.

We did score once more just before the final whistle as Jim Sullivan put one home long after the other team had stopped trying and were really leaving their goalie out to dry. So we did bookend the scoring... it was just those 11 goals they scored inbetween our two. To their credit they did not play us physical at all and things stayed under controll all night. Really... they didn't have too, all they had to do was skate around us.

They were bigger, much faster, and better skilled players, to a man. In fact if you ranked all of the players on the ice last night you wouldn’t name a Cadaver until something like 7th or 8th, that’s going to be a tough draw for us anytime.
So no, not an inspiring night under the full moon (see Matvey and Larry soaking in the moonlight...and nursing their beers...after the game) in the Brock… not a great way to start the summer campaign for the Dead in Red.. but hey those things happen. The worst thing is they beat us in the parking lot too. They had a full grill setup and a bunch of beer, and I'm pretty sure they were still there after we all left for home. Sigh.

So consider the Barometer checked. Check.

Now back to your regularly scheduled D level competition.

Enjoy your Memorial Day Weekend from all of us at the blog and Management.

Remember no games during the short week, then a busy week with the Cads/Suds on Sunday 6/1, SCHLIDAVEUR TIME Tues 6/3, and then Cads/Suds on Thursday 6/5.