Zombies Beat Runners!

Cadavers (P3) vs Double Runners

Monday September 8th

Canton 10:40pm

4-2 Win!

Another big playoff tilt for the Dead in Red last night at home rink Canton. The Zombies faced an elimination game with the Double Runners for the Stanley Cup Division Playoffs. The winner of this game would move on to face Team Tigre (tea-grey) next Monday night in Dedham for the trophy.

A solid turnout gave the Red 13 including Captain George who filled in for D Man Marc Valenti at the last minute. The rest of the crew broke down like this.

Lizzy in Net. (Mom in the stands)

D Pairs: George and Pearlman. Fosdick and Campbell

Offense 1: Roman, Capraro and Reynolds

Offense 2: Sully, Elliott and Pounds

Offense 3: iJosh, Parker and Kenny

The Runners looked solid but had only 9 and things were pretty tight for the first few minutes of the game. It was interesting to note... that along with the Hometown rink we got our favorite pair of "hometown" refs, the Butterball and his sidekick Grampanoteeth. Now we see these guys all the time, and we've had plenty of run-ins with them. They love us... I mean Looooooove us. It was clear from the start that our rotund and striped friend had a buddy or two on the Runners and made no bones about it. This developed into a theme.. as much as the blogger despises it.. it must be mentioned.

With that in mind.... George goes off at 13:21 of the first for an innocuous lift of the stick that was called "hooking". Okay, the Red do an admirable job on the PK and things are still 0-0 a few minutes later.

In fact things went well. Working off a nice hard work play from Kevin Parker (when isnt it?) Billy Pearlman put the Dead on the board and out in front at 7:55 remaining in the first. Nice slapper from the point.

Wouldn't you know... our best skater George gets whistled at 6:21 for "unsports"... ? Hmn? This one, as the blogger faintly recalls was a scuffle along the side boards with both guys going at it. Both guys went to the box. Just after this penalty expired the Runners made a nice play keeping it in our end and popped a second or third rebound behind Lizzy to tie the game up. It was a bad scramble on our part and the game was tied going into the second.

The Red would strike again early in the second, to take back the lead. Jim Sullivan followed another solid shot from Pearlman at the point and buried a nice wrist shot for the 2-1 lead. Not long after that Zombie momentum took over. Jeff Fosdick swept up the puck in the neutral zone after iJosh shuttled it back from the faceoff. Jeff wound his way up and into the zone then passed to Kevin Parker on the wide left. Parker took the puck low behind the net for some abuse (I think he likes it...) and none of the D turned to cover Jeff who had collapsed down into the slot. Kevin to Jeff, into the net and a 3-1 lead for Team Zombie. That goal came at 13:46 in the second.

Once again the Zebras turned to the whistle and George went for his third and the eject button at 11:30. That's right, gone for the night 5 minutes into the second. The Red was solid once again and with Lizzy kept the runners at bay. Campbell would go, again full participation from both guys, their guy heads to the box after the whistle, yet only Mike gets the minutes. This was followed by some hearty (and misplaced) jawing that didn't win us any favors.

The third period would open (still 3-1) and see Parker go off for goalie interference... again more jawing... but again there would be good work on the PK. Matt Elliott had filled in for George and skated with Jeff the rest of the night while Billy skated with Mike and the forwards broke out the Sharfman Abacus. Good work by Elliott filling in, and good work keeping things straight up front.

The Runners would climb back in it after Jeff failed to clear from behind Lizzy then the puck would bounce back out front to an open man who would send it home, and pull them within one goal at 8:44 remaining in the game.

The rest of the third was exiting, and there were plenty of chances going both ways. The Runners pulled their keeper with about a minute left but the Red jumped right on it and took it to their end. Ken Goldenberg, who was around the net all night would deflect another Pearlman blast and score the empty netter that would ice the game 4-2.

There were more jabberjawfests with the round zebra which ended with him screaming profanity at our bench... this is just not good in any way for us. Pearlman would go with 21 seconds left things just fell apart. As wrong as the calls were... and they were suspect, all of the icing/offsides crap... there is just nothing we can do about it. One thing is for certain, aside from this guy sucking, and hating us, is that we are gar-un- teeed to see him again... many many times. We can't keep fueling his stupid hate or we will continue to not get a fair shake. The point is NO ONE in a Zombie shirt will get a fair shake, and that just sucks. In the future (the blogger knows this applys to him also) we just HAVE TO KEEP OUR MOUTHS SHUT. We know he's a stooge, but he's probably going to be the stooge reffing the Championship Game next Monday night...

Game Stars

3rd Star: Matt Elliot. Not on the score sheet, but Matty did a great job filling in on D when asked for better than half the game. A true team player stepping up when needed. Thanks.

2nd Star: Kevin Parker. A Sharfmanlike performance (again). A pair of helpers and a truckload of hard work all night long. Positively Masochistic behing the net. Solid.

1st Star: Pearlman. Billy scored the first one with a sweet shot, fed the second one to Sully, and the fourth to Kenny. A good night all the way around for Bill. Nice work.

Honorable Mention 1: Lizzy. Another solid performance from our gal in the pipes. Neither goal could be pinned on her as they came from turnovers and extended action in our own end. Check this out. Liz is 3-0 in the playoffs with a 2.33 GAA so far. Great work.

Honorable Mention 2: Jeff Fosdick for what would be the game winner (bug ups to Parker). Blogger beams with pride.

Overheard in the Parking Lot: "The Teaser. The Pleaser. The Vulcan, the Shocker, and... The Pearlman!!" The last one with Lizzy making a fist and holding up her forearm... sweet.

So. It is on.

Monday September 15th

Dedham 9:00pm

Cadavers (3-0) vs Tigers (3-0)

Stanley Cup Division Championship!