Zombies and Jacks Grind it up.

Cadavers (4) vs Inglewood Jacks
Monday June 8th
Canton 9:20pm


1-0 Loss



Some of the new look 'daveurs gathered last night in Canton to take on occasional rival the Inglewood Jacks. The Jacks have had the better of us the last few times we've played them and frankly they are the type of team that usually gives us trouble. The majority of the roster is average guys like most of us, but they clearly have a few gems. They have two guys with Harvard shirts one better than the other, both rock solid. This complemented by a "you know the type" no shield dude with the home made number on a filthy old generic white shirt. Number 17, red seven , black one. He would make a few nice moves, but didn't ever take over the game thanks to the hard working Dead in Red. Speaking of... There were some late arrivals as per usual now that the summer Southeast Expressway Paving is in full swing... but this is what we looked like.
Brian Carey in the pipes
D1: Steve Baker, and Kevin Parker
D2: The Fosdick Brothers
O1: Larry, Neil, and Chuck
O2: Roman, Matvey, and Hammitt, who filled in on D for the whole 1st period.
O3: iJosh, Ken/Mitch, and Mike (Goody) Goodwin

Big props to Hammitt for legging it out on D for the whole first period. Once again we seemed to be a little bit short on regular D skaters for this one. Hamm did a good job and held the fort ably until Kevin Parker showed up. Kudos also to Chris "I'd rather be playing wing" Fosdick for sucking it up and playing very solid defense all night long. Parker also turned in a number of good shifts in his time working with Steve "gotta pick up a cage" Baker who has been yet another plus added to the combined 'daveur roster this season.
This was all backstopped by Brian "Government Bailout" Carey who was doing his best to bail us out all night whenever he was tested. Another very solid night overall for Brian. Don't look now but all three goalies have played very well here in the early going... its a shame we dont have a win or two more to show for it.
The game was tight. There were some solid chances on both sides, and both keepers seemed to jump right into form as the game heated up. So aside from a hand full of chances and stops there wasn't much more to report from the first. Except for a costly breakdown by the Red with 2 and half minutes left. Jeff would pinch on the left and miss badly on trying to intercept the outlet. That left brother Chris with a 2-1 and not much help. He left the shooter but the shot was wicked and beat Brian up high and put the Jacks up by 1. By the time the last shifts were taken in the opening frame, iJosh, Mitch and Parker had joined the fray and we settled into the three full configuration. Down 1-0 after the first.
The second was just a flat out grind. Good chances. Hard work. Zombie pride saw the red slowly work the momentum of the game to their favor as everyone did a good job of keeping the legs moving and the shifts short. Its the blogger's opinion that if we keep playing like this the results will come... we kept expecting them last night... we just couldn't grasp them.
There were a few more breakdowns but none as costly as the one in the first. There was a sketchy outlet from Brian to Jeff that nearly resulted in a goal, if not for a "superman" move by B-Care to save us and himself.
The Red had a few really good chances in the Second and the momentum was clearly on our side by the end of the period, just no goals to show for it. Neil just missed on a very nice tip play. There was another quality set up or two and nice cycles from the forwards but time and again the Jack's goalie stood up to the task. As time expired in the Second Larry would go for an elbow along the boards, called by our longtime friend and colleague... Butterball.
The Red were up to the task of the PK and proceeded to kill it off in the early going. Some of the momentum was gone. More of it went when ol' Butterball struck again this time at 11:36 remaining and a questionable interference on Chuck Slate. Again the Red performed ably on the Penalty kill and again emerged unscathed. The trouble was we never really got going again.
Typifying this was a baffling sequence where Rookie Phenom Neil Shah briefly morphed into Roman and danced along the blue line just long enough to keep the play alive and put all of his line mates offside. Luckily this transformation seemed temporary... we already have one Roman... We just couldn't seem to put it together.
The Zombies ground it out, got more chances than the Jacks for sure in the last 5 minutes, even pulled Brian with about a minute to go... to no avail. 1-0 loss in a game that many of us thought we should have for sure. Tough one, but a good skate. Great effort by all Zombies last night. Thanks for coming out.
No Game Stars.
But... there are 4th period beer credits Parker, Hammitt, and the Blogger hisownself.
Another enjoyable evening in the Canton lot.

This week's nostalgia prize goes to Chris Fosdick for mentioning the old Combat Zone, in particular that great piece of American culture the neon sign from the Naked I ... which, if you are old enough to remember had the eye placed just perfectly... cant be seen in the photo here... but i couldn't find a good shot of it.










Ok. Check for roster updates tomorrow for the game thursday night.
Edited to add....
Forgot to mention the empty netter that was missed completely in the third period on the first occasion that we had the Jack's keeper really dead down and out.
Also a funny scene from before the game...

Hammitt is chatting up the two Zeebs that had just come off duty from the previous game. One of them is telling the other about this game last week and how this guy, a big guy, reaches out and just labels this dude to the boards and he says "Nice hit... but you can't do that"... then Hammitt realises that the guy was talking about him. Pretty funny once they recognised each other.