Suds fall to Shellfish

Schlitz (7) vs Lobsters
Wednesday June 24th
BU 9:10pm

4-3 Loss


A tough night but a good skate at BU against team Shellfish. Always nice to lace them up at the old Walter Brown Arena, a lot of good memories for the blogger in that shabby old cave. Unfortunately this game against the Lobsters wouldn’t be competeing for room with any of those good memories.
The Suds showed in good numbers and had a nice lineup to face the new look Lobsters who’ve clearly found the right formula for them with a pair of dynamic ladies anchored by a very solid C level half shield dude on D. They have been tough to beat for us since they’ve had the pickups and haven’t won many against them.
I think any cough reasonable analysis of the situation would reveal two things. First we have trouble with fast skating forwards who can stickhandle, and secondly we are old and prone to spending time in the penalty box. And we’re old.
The Suds looked like this.
D pairs: Cambell-James. Jeff-Dave Diloretto*
O-Fence. Nelson, Larry, Mark, Chuck, Matvey, AK(Angry Ken), Neil Shah*, Howard Heppelman, and Blake.
Matt CEOBMF Kilroy in the pipes.
* - rookie of the year candidate.

There was reasonable, if not unfounded optimitsm going into the game and the Suds did an admirable job of jumping to the play and taking it to the Lobsters in the early going. It was clear very early on that our work would be cut out for us as we chased around the girls in the magenta shirts. We even were the benefactor of the first three whistles of the game as the Lobsters were called for the first group of infractions. The Power Play didn’t net any results but the game had a good pace and the Suds were holding their own.
It didn’t take long for two things to change. First we started making mistakes on D and in general, and second we began a litteral parade to the sin bin. The breakdowns gave the Lobsters a 2 goal lead about halfway through the period. Not much Matty could do on either of them, the first a long break by the tall girl who just ripped a wrist shot, the second an extended pass around the zone affair. No glory for the Gold until Mark Reynolds would land a hard work chance fed by Nelson and the Suds would stay in the game at 2-1. Before the end of the first the Lobsters would strike once more and the first would end 3-1.
The play was fairly fiesty back and forth. Mark and their star 7 had a few things to say to each other as the second period got going. The Suds were showing good heart, skating hard, taking short shifts, Matty was playing very well all night. Dave Diloretto jumped into the play a few times trying to create chances. At one point the puck came loose at the top of the zone while Dave was still low, Jeff jumped up to stop the puck and fed it back to Dave who fired a brilliant shot that pulled the Suds back within one. It wasn’t too long after that that the offense would answer as well when Larry would score, again on a feed from Nelson. Their line did a great job all night and had buckets of chances.
So dig this. The game is now tied 3-3 and the teams are exhaustedly going after it at a good pace. Then the parade begins.
Mark goes for a slash (Mr.Superstar)
AK goes for a rough.
Bonehead defenseman Jeff for too many men (a little to eager to replace Campbell who was still in the play. Gratefully served by another teammate. thanks…)
Greg for a hook and then
Mark again for Interference.
And this was all before the end of the second period. This did include at least one 5 on 3 streach of more than a minute.
The Lobsters, amazinly enough wouldn’t capitalize until just seconds left in the period. That was a credit to Matthew who is rounding into a very nice regular keeper. He was all over the place and made a number of excellent stops. Despite the work of the CEOBMF the Red would score with less than a minute on a long scramble and breakdown in our end and the second would end 4-3 Red.
The third was just no bargain. The suds tried and tried to get over on the Red but there was nothing doing. Some good chances but 77 would make a trip… for a trip and the coup de grace would be old bonehead #10 with just under 3 minutes to play as he would perform a discreet mugging on one of the magenta shirts as she broke to the net. Jeff hauled her down and took the final penalty of the night and would effectively end the Suds hopes. There were a few good chances in the last minute, we even pulled Matty but no dice.
Kudos for the effort to everyone all the way around, but it would really be nice to get them the next time around.