Cads capture Tigers for nice win!

Cadavers (10) vs Tigers

Monday December 7

Canton 10:20

4-2 Win

A late night engagement for the Zombies against El Tigre in Canton last night saw something that we haven’t seen around here in a while. A win. Seriously. Not bad for a Monday night. There weren’t an abundance of Zombies, but we hit the ice with a nice even 9, and a good crew it was.

Lizzy in Net

D George, DWH, Jeff

O1: Larry, Neil, Gregson

O2: Daley, AK, Chuck

I think that’s how it went, but I could be sketchy on the forwards. The Tigers had their usual lineup. Number 8 with the Cooperalls was there as always, they were also 9 or 10 but added a handful of players as the first period went on. They had the Asain kid with the Red shirt and pads in the net. Naturally, due to the Tigers Red shirts Team Zombie skated as the Gold.

The first would see lots of back and forth action and both goalies made some good stops and the teams fell into the rhythm of the game. The Red would take a penalty with about five minutes left in the period, but survived the Gold power play without giving one up. The Gold did get some nice chances but nothing off the ice. Fortunately just after the penalty expired the Gold finally broke through. Larry would feed DWH at the point and Dan would launch an absolute laser into the top corner for the 1-0 lead with just over 2 minutes to play.

The good momentum would continue for Golden Zombies and Neil would land a nice shot (again from Larry) about 2 minutes into the second. Things were starting to fall for the Gold but they were clearly going to have to keep the effort up to preserve the lead. Larry wasn’t done with the score sheet quite yet, and four minutes later he would send a wobbler toward the net. There are conflicting stories on the flightpath of the puck but it went under, over and glanced off of a defenseman or something and ended up in the net (unassisted). That gave the Gold a nice 3-0 lead with just over 10 minutes left in the second.

Team Kitteh wasn’t done either and they would clearly bear down and try to make some things happen. They would break through only another minute and a half later to get on the board. The Gold was looking tired but continued to grind despite the loss of momentum. At the four minute mark the Tigers would land another one, this one a long shot from the point and the game was now 3-2 in the closing minutes of the second. Larry and a Tiger would go for a match with a minute and a half and the game but the sides would skate 5 on 5.

The Gold did a nice job not backing down and thanks to some hard work by Chuck, AK and then Daley they would score just before the end of the period. Daley had a nice finish on the play that had gone around the zone nicely. Onto the Third 4-2 Gold.

I’m here to tell you friends, there were lots of tired faces on the Zombie bench but everyone was game to bring it for the whole third. Golden Zombie pride was on display as the Cads would handle the early surge by El Tigre and settle the action down. The Gold was able to get some more chances but nothing was falling. Larry in particular had a great opportunity that the Red Keeper slammed the door on after it looked like half the net was open. AK would get stuffed on a breakaway. It seemed the first period troubles were back with a good number of shots but just no finish. As time wound down the Gold started to play a bit more conservatively and did a good job keeping the Red bottled up. We went to the final 5 minutes and the intensity was clearly rising. Mike Daley made a nice call and requested a timeout with a faceoff in our own end at the four minute mark.
Jeff: “Good call on the timeout”

Daley: “ You were looking pretty tired there Jeff”

Jeff: “You’re just noticing now? I’ve looked like this since the first period.” Actually the Blogger is pretty sure Jeff looked like he was about to fall over on his face… just sayin.

So with a quick breather the Gold reapplied themselves to close out the game. The Red would really take the game to us in their last surge. Lizzy stood strong on not 1, not 2 but no less that 3 great stops that really stymied the cats and kept the good guys ahead by two.

Just under a minute Larry would give a forward a hit and the guy turned as he bumped him and went head first into the boards which garnered a whole bunch of “Hey!” but Larry appropriately helped the guy up and told him he didn’t mean to send him face first into the boards. Good intentions not withstanding Larry went to the box, the Cats pulled their goalie and we skated 6 on 4 for the final minute. All the Gold skaters did a great job breaking down the Red chances and this one would end, thanks to Lizzy as a 2 goal win for the good guys. It felt really good.

Game Stars

^3rd Star: Tough call. DWH had a great goal to break the ice… but Mike Daley just does so many things well, and he had a nice goal too. Those two can share the Star. Great work all night from both of you.

2^nd Star: Lizzy. Nice solid play all through the game, and showing a very UN-Patriot-like tenacity in the clutch, she shut down the Tigers when it counted most with just a couple minutes left in the game. Great work.

1^st Star: Larry Double Vision Bell. A nice 3 point night, and two penalties to round it out. Larry was all over the place and had a terrific all around effort.

Plus Larry bought the victory rounds at TGIFriday’s across the street for the Fourth Period win. He was joined by Star goalie Lizzy, Chuck and Jeff. The bartender (wearing a ref shirt) said “boy you guys look tired” as we sat down. I guess it really showed.