Great moments... Great opportunity...

USA vs CANADA
Sunday February 28
Olympic Ice Center
3:00pm

Good luck today Team USA.
I can tell you this, there won't be any Molson, Canadian or Golden, in the house today. No Labatts at the top of the garage stairs for the afternoon game. No way.
My beverage will be from Anhieser Busch St. Louis Missouri thank you very much. All American today, because the Gold is on the line and our brothers to the north stand in the way between US and the highest spot on the podium. Like all battles between brothers, it is sure to be passionate, emotional, and most of all, desperately hard fought.
So we've brought out the 4th of July buntings here at Schlidaveur World Headquarters, we've got MIRACLE playing on a non-stop dvd loop in the other room. The voice of Al Michaels wafts through the house bringing occasional shivers, and strange misty visions. A tale thirty years old is told again to a new generation and by this afternoon the living room will be echoing with the chanting... U S A, U S A, U S A...
Good luck boys. Get after those Canucks and show them that while they may claim the game is theirs by birthright... tonight the title belongs to US.

Good luck USA Hockey and Rosters for next week

Team.

First... good luck to the Yanks this afternoon against the Fins. Hopefully we can get through for a possible matchup with Team Canada for the Gold on Sunday. That's the matchup the hockey world... well... North America... wants to see. Good luck boys.


Check out the rosters for the games next week. Get any conflicts back to Management asap.

Mon 9:30 Bavis, Schlitz vs Windsuckers
Campbell
Ken G
Chris
Scott
Larry
Blake
Chuck
Pete
Mark R
Goody
Neil
Steve
Brian - Goal

Tue 8:00 BU, Cadavers vs Blues
Roman
Matvey
Nelson
Jeff
Hammitt
Gregson
Dan H
Matt E
George
Marc V
Chuck
Daley
Ken D
Lizzie – Goal

Wed 8:10 UMass, Cadavers vs Lobsters
Ijosh
Ken G
Scott
Larry
Dan G
Dan H
Matt E
George
Mark R
Ken D
Goody
Neil
Steve
Lizzie - Goal

Suds vs Call @ UMAlcatraz

Schlitz (20) vs Last Call

Thursday February 18

UMass 7pm

4-4 Tie

A chilly early evening matchup with the Last Call guys out at the Prison by the Bay. Really February is the time of year to make the trip out to the State House of Horrors... it really brings out the ... "atmosphere"... yeah... Nothing like paying to park at Arctic Station Zero to skate at a rink that has roughly the same comfort level of a 50 year old outhouse behind a summer cabin in the back woods of Maine... and that might be putting it nicely...

Anyhow the blogger was not on the Thursday roster and thankfully for you we have a number of sources on the action last night including guestblogger Extraordinaire iJosh. But first lets get the down and dirty from Greggy to start off...

"4-4 tie We started with 8 skaters then DWH came in late. So we had 9.

Ijosh had 1

DWH 1... Larry had 1 and Steve had 1.

I'm not sure about assists, but I had 6 or 7.

When DWH came in it was him Valenti, Matt E. on DLarry Jasse and myself on 1 line Ijosh Steve and Scott on the other.

Lizzy was in net and Jasse gets the gold Schlitz star for bringing the good sarsaparilla for the 4th."

Nice. Thanks Dan. Now we have a brief set of comments from Dr. Jasse who checked in this morning.

"It should be noted that Valenti showed up with no cup, no jock, sans socks and jersy.
With a little help from his teammates all worked out in the end.
Heard whilst lining up for the opening faceoff: “This is a battle for the basement dwellers”
Kudos also to DWH showed up late due to traffic-good for him for not turning around and going home if he doesn’t show we likely lose. He ahad a nice goal on a good rush as well.
Ijosh was writing his guest blog game recap in the parking lot. The bar has been raised."

Woah. The Blogger tips his hat indeed. Thanks Doc for those words. Now lets have the game story from the man with the ambitious thumbs... do I have to say his name...? Here's iJosh: "Good day boys and girls.

It has been a whirlwind few months and more so a whirlwind week for this guest blogger. Not only did I actually play 3 games in 8 days, but in the middle of it all I finalized a very lengthy legal proceeding. I won't say exactly what it is, but it does rhyme with shlivorce. All is good and with any luck it will give me more time to play and guest blog. Gotta have priorities you know (and of course my kids).

So I strolled into UMass Boston last night for an early 7:00 game. It would be a light crowd for both Schlitz and the Last Call for this game. The Golden Suds would start with a sparse 8 players. We would grow to 9 for the start of the 2nd period.

The forwards would start with: Larry Bell, Mike Jasse, Dan Gregson, iJosh Greenstein and Dr. Pounds. The Defense would begin with: Matt Elliott, Steve Baker and Daddy Valenti.

Both teams looked slow and out of sync. Not good hockey. The lone fan seemed content to stare at her book rather than pay attention to the action on the ice. Pucks were bouncing. Passes were missed and it just looked ugly. But no scoring early. Finally the Call would put one past Lizzy. After a little bit of a rush, the puck would jump out in the high slot. iJosh noticed he was in the way of Lizzy and tried to give her some visibility. But not quick enough as the puck sailed by his head and past Liz. 1-0 Call. The Beercans would then try to pull things together a bit. A few good chances were had. But no gold for the gold. Then Larry would take the puck away from an opponent in the defensive end and send the puck to iJosh, who quickly gave it back to a rushing Larry on a give and go. Larry then went end to end on a 2 on 1 with Jassman. The goalie was showing plenty of real estate to Jass, but was also showing 5 hole. Larry not sure which to do, then shot the puck, burying it for a 1-1 tie. The Call would answer back. On an odd man rush, a Call would take a slap shot from just above the left face off circle and put it into the back of the net. That would make it 2-1 at the end of the first.

To start the 2nd, Dan with Hands would make his timely arrival. This would allow Steve Baker to move to forward and create 2 cohesive lines (Larry, Jasse and Gregson & iJosh, Baker and the good Dr.). This would solidify play for us a bit (about as much as it can solidify for a bunch of old, slow, beer leaguers). Dan would get involved in the offensive pressure, and provide a boost on D. Early in the 2nd though, the Call would strike again. This time it would be on a rebound. Lizzy would make the initial save, but there wasn't enough people back to contain the loose puck and the Call would pick up the trash and make it a 3-1 lead. Now it was time for the Golden Suds to produce some offense. The first would be an end to end rush from DWH. He would collect the puck from Larry and then take it all the way and tuck it past the keeper to cut the deficit to 3-2. The Suds would not be done. iJosh would get the puck and try to center it to Steve Baker. The pass would miss and be taken the other way. But DWH would steal the puck right back and send it to Steve Baker who teed one up from the same top of the circle spot that Lizzy got beat by one period earlier. 3-3 tie. But once again folks, momentum only lasts so long. With the seconds winding down the Call would go on a rush again. This time with only Valenti back and iJosh racing to catch up. The Call would slip a man behind Valenti who had nothing but open net. Valenti would hold his ground, but was unable to play them both as the puck carrier slipped it to the open man who easily netted the puck. The period would end 4-3.

Final frame would see lots of action but only one goal. Early in the 3rd, Steve Baker would take a quality shot. The goal keep would leave the puck at the doorstep. iJosh would slap it into the pads, but would get a second rebound and would tuck it behind the goalie for a 4-4 tie. Play would be up and down the rest of the period. Lizzy would make some good saves and in the final minutes, Larry, Jasse, Baker and DWH all had quality chances. But the Call Keeper was able to keep them at bay. So the game would end with a come from behind 4-4 tie.

Jasse would provide 4th period spirits in the form of Heineken Keg Cans."

Scoresheet:
1st:
Larry from iJosh
2nd:
DWH from Larry
Steve Baker from DWH
3rd:
iJosh from Baker

Penalties:
1st:
Baker for a rough

Civil War Daveur @ BU Snowdome

Cadavers/South(19) vs Schlitz/ North(19)

Tuesday February 16

BU 8:10pm

SouthCads 6

NorthSuds 5

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS...

Well... we had a great concept... some good teams, an early start time and a pretty good location. Against us from the start was the weather, which was a classic snowy or wintry mix(!) for the whole day, continuing into the evening and game time. Most players had to find parking along the snowbanks on Babcock street or pay the $5 to park in the BU lot... the parking guys hadn't gone home yet... but in general everyone made it ok, if not eventually... except for one.

We didn't have two of our regular keepers available and Management called in a guy from the Goalie list to help out and play for the Suds. Lizzy was there for the Cads but as game time approached no sign of the fill in. This guy's name is Anthony Damplo, and had confirmed that he would be there. Given that there was no change in the weather during the whole day we can only assume that he wasn't taken by surprise when he realized it was snowing when he left for the rink... who knows. We may never get the story because Anthony Damplo didn't show... didn't call... just disappeared i guess and left the two teams, two refs and scorekeeper in the lurch. No official game, the crew went home, we turned over the net and played an hour of pickup. Too bad... we need to have a rating system for the goalie list so we can trash losers like Anthony that pull a no-show. Maybe someday he'll google his name and find this post... who knows. Chances are he could give a shit.
Anyhow Management apologizes for the lack of a game and hopes to not have this problem in the future...

The teams were pretty good and this is how they played out.

Schlitz/North

Goalie= No show

D= Daley, DWH, James and Elliot (i think...)

O1= Larry, Neil, and AK

O2= iJosh, Greggy, and Mitch

Cadavers/South

Lizzy in net

D1= DiLo, and Campbell

D2= Reynolds and Jeff

O1= Jasse, Chris, and Baker

O2= Nelson, Scott, and Goody

The game was actually pretty low scoring with only a goal a side for the first period. Lizzy making nice saves, both teams getting decent chances. The play was a little awkward as we called our own Goalie covers and offsides, but it had a cool almost pond hockey kind of a feel so it was alright. I believe that Greggy had a goal in the first for the Gold and possibly Chris for the Red... not certain... please comment to set the record straight.

We switched sides in the second and the Red shot on Lizzy while the Gold shot at the net webbing on the turned over net. If my recollection serves me the teams ended up 2-2 after the second period with Larry scoring a goal for the Gold and somebody (Baker maybe...) for the Red.

During the second there was a terrific collision between Greggy and Campbell as Mike was coming back out of the zone after a rush and the two Big Boys collided at the blue line. No reports on what the Seismographic Institute recorded when the two of them hit the ice... but chances are it rocked the needles. There was certainly some physical play here and there given the lack of refs, but really it stayed pretty subdued. No one took any rough or cheap shots and while there was a little contact here and there nothing egregious took place and in general everyone deserves a gold star for sportsmanship... maybe not Campbell... but what do you expect...

We switched at about 16 minutes left on the clock for the third and then the game opened up a bit. The Red went on a tear scoring the next three goals to bust open the game at 5-2. Again I'm not really sure about the goals but I do know this. Jeff scored the goal to make it 4-2 on a nice steal, rush and shot, and then must have felt so good about it... you know... scoring on the turned over net and all... we know what an accomplishment that is... that he turned and proceeded to ride his stick out of the zone. Uh... only one problem... he fell flat on his face as his legs went out and came to a skidding stop on the blue line... on his face... an epic fail of gratuitous grandstanding... good entertainment for everyone else. The Red would get that one more but then maybe Jeff's shenanigans spelled doom for the Red as the game would turn suddenly.

The Gold would swing the momentum right back as they would make a nice run, led by a terrific goal by Larry, fed by either Neil or AK... or maybe both... to bring them within two. Then Dan "The Ghost" Gregson would proceed to rack up two more goals, both of them coming after the Gold had done a nice job keeping it in the zone... letting the Red defence run around (Jeff)... and then deftly, silently,... ghostlike... slid into position on the left post and banged home two goals only a couple minutes apart to tie the game. No sign of Jeff on either goal as Greggy stood there wide open, in great position.... maybe he was still thinking about what went wrong on that goal celebration...

So there we were, with less than 4 or 5 minutes left tied up nicely with both teams making runs and getting good chances. As time was winding down the Gold would pull their goalie... which meant Daley would turn the net right side up and join as the 6th man... really they had nothing to lose... right? But the Red would capitalize as Hard Workin' Hard Skatin' Good Shootin' Nelson Sharfman would hold the puck in the Gold end and would unleash a nifty shot from the low left side (below the dot) that would find the net and put the Red ahead with less than TEN SECONDS on the clock. Really for an unofficial game... it was pretty darn good. A nice skate from everyone there and a good way to forget the bummer of the no show.

No Game Stars...

Which is a shame because Dan "The Ghost" Gregson came away with a beauty of a Hat Trick... that's 4 goals in 2 games also... and had a great night. So an Honorable Mention goes out to him.

More props to Larry who had a great night and a pair of goals, and to Nelson for the Game Winner, and Dave DiLoretto for great work on D all night for the Red.

At some point Jasse and Chris combined on a terrific rush that resulted in a great chance but no goal. This was highlighted by a give and go between them all the way up the ice.

Last but not least the atmosphere was actually pretty great... the snowy walk down the slippery ramp at the beginning of the night to the slushy BU lot with the cars warming, sharing a few (really) cold ones with the Apres Skate crowd. Big ups to beer men Jasse, Campbell, and... Larry maybe... again please comment to set it straight.... it was a fun night after the game.

We may just keep these teams for the end of season Daveur which is coming up in about two weeks which means they could be possible Playoff Rosters as well. Please comment to voice your opinion.
Thanks for reading... and being patient... the Blogger appreciates it...

Dead and the Call in West Roxbury

Cadavers(18) vs Last Call

Thursday February 11th

West Roxbury, 10:30pm

3-2 Loss

Well team... the blogger is more than happy to announce the Return of the Original Guest Blogger. That's right, iJosh not only played last night but he's got a "hot off the pressess" game story for us. So without further ado...

Here's iJosh:

"So it has been a long time since I have been able to write a story. Between not playing as often as I'd like (thank you Paul for the wonderful diverse schedule....Monday, Monday, Monday, Tuesday. Guess which days I can't play) and usually being paired with the Blogger there hasn't been much chance. Since this was a game on a Thirsty Thursday, I was more than elated that I would be able to make my way to the local arena.

Thank god I got to KenMitch's house early to pick him up. Because shortly after that a call from AK has us racing to Cambridge to add him to the carpool. AK had left an door or trunk open to his car which drained his new battery. That left him with no way to get to the rink. Again, thank god, because without him we would have been quite shorthanded.

So the carpool of iJosh, KMitch, and Angry Ken would arrive on the later side to get the group to nine. Nelson (making his usual timely entrance) would eventually give us an even ten.

To start the game, the pairing would be:
Gregson and Neil centered by AK
KMitch and Scott centered by Nelson

Defensive pairings would be:
Steve Baker and Mark Reynolds
The Natick Labs Pairing of Capt George and iJosh who did his best impersonation of an orange cone.

Playing at West Roxbury arena has its challenges. It is a small surface. But specifically there are no lines, dots or circles still visible on the ice. That issue would play a role in the game. More often than not, play would be offsides without a whistle or a Cadaver would slip over the blue line without realizing it. Or someone would dump the puck too early due to the fact that....well.....you can't see the freaking line. The ice surface was a touch choppy too, but that is par for the course for most of the places we play at.

Overall the Dead in Red would be a touch choppy too in their skating. Not much pressure offensively nor defensively. Mid way through the 1st, Last Call would a Cad and one of their own tussling in front of the net. The Call would send the puck toward them and a distracted Sergent Brian Carey. The puck would slide into the net untouched. However, the Call didn't realize that they had gone back over the blue line. Offsides. No goal. The Dead would get away with that one. Now the Cads would start to get some puck movement. At least for a little while. It would see a nice effort in front of the net where AK would finish the job and put the puck in the net for a 1-0 lead for the Red. Somewhere in there George would get his first penalty of the day for a slash. George claimed that the other guy did it first, but the ref wasn't buying it. In George's defense the Call were a little testy at the time.

Going into the 2nd frame, the Red had some mo'. Though as like any well thought out Schlidaveur plot-line there has to be ups and downs. So the eerie, melodramatic music is playing......So not long into the 2nd period the Last Call would finally strike and put one past Sgt Carey. This would soon be followed by George taking his 2nd 2 minute timeout of the night. With our depleted D corps, George could not afford to take a 3rd penalty. This would affect his aggressiveness a bit since it was his intention to take it to #10 (I think I am remembering the number correctly) most the night. Later in the period Brian would get beaten by a slap shot from above the left face-off circle on an odd man rush. This would make the score 2-1 and bring us to the end of the 2nd period.

Into the final period we go, still within reach of a win, despite not really playing any cohesive hockey all night. Sure there were some flashes of good play. Some good rushes. But nothing we could really point to. The Call would go down a man and finally the Dead would wake up a bit. This is aided by some upbeat "something is going to happen" music. This would be courtesy of shot from the high slot from Neil that would make its way past the goalie. Now in a 2-2 tie, the Red would try to make a push to get ahead.

Now the ominous music begins again. Only a few minor attempts would be viable before the Red would make a fatal error and become a victim of the lack of paint. An attempt to clear the puck would seemingly fail. But some would argue that it did not. Regardless, no call was made. But the Red did not cover the point nor the slot well (sorry that was my man). The point would send a shot into the middle that was well tipped by #30. The puck would redirect up, stick side, high and beat Brian for a 3-2 Last Call lead. Unfortunately there would be no comeback. As the clock wound down the Dead in Red could not control the puck long enough to make a viable push and pull the goalie. So the game would end with a 3-2 loss.

Noteworthy though was that due to the refs watching George's play AK stayed out of the box. However he has enough to deal with today with his dead battery.
Guest Blogger out and glad to be back...

Alright. Too bad the result wasn't better... but it is nice to have the OGB back in town. Thanks again Josh. See you all next week at the Schlidaveur on Tuesday night!

Suds beat Clinic (whew) @ UMass

Schlitz (18) vs Clinic

Tuesday February 2nd

UMass Boston 9:20pm

4-2 Win

Nothing on this. Well... almost nothing.

We won 4-2. AK had 2 goals, Nelson, Gregson and Elliot with 1 goal each. Neil and Larry with an assist each... and thats about it.

Glad we won. Anyone with any recolection of this game is welcome to comment. Really... please? Anything at all...

Zombies fall to Suckas

Cadavers (17) vs Windsuckers
Monday February 1st
Bavis Arena 9:20pm




4-1 loss



A cold Monday night on the South Shore for a tough division matchup with the pesky 'suckas, this one would suffer from being the same night as the Beanpot which would reduce the roster size considerable. Despite that Team Zombie showed and played hard against the Blowhards and it sounded like a hard fought game.
Once again the Blogger doffs his hat to another Guest Blogger for this game story, this time from dependable (on ice and off) Mark Reynolds who gives us a nice rundown of the action. Without further ado... Here's Mark:


4- 1 loss to the Windsuckas

Defense: Valenti – DWH – George
Forwards: Baker – Pounds – Matvey – Goodie – Chuck - Reynolds
Net: Lizzy

The Red started out with 8 skaters. Then, Goodie showed up after visiting the wrong rink (aka the Greg James syndrome), but arrived in the second as a huge and much needed relief.

The Suckas had us vastly outnumbered, but it didn’t faze the Red. We played a tough game and moved the puck reasonably well. They had a few guys that most wouldn’t consider “D leaguers” which accounted for their goals and generally gave us some trouble.

Steve Baker scored the lone goal on an extra effort by jamming the rebound past their “rent- a-goalie”, who happened to be far superior to the usual goalies we face. The Red had lots of high-quality shots on goal, but we just couldn’t beat him with anything.

Our defensive trio won most of their battles in the corners and our forwards passed well and did a good job of controlling the puck in the offensive end.

As for Lizzy, she played a kick-ass game. She stopped a number of high velocity shots and didn’t give up any rebounds. Way to go Lizzy!

Penalties: Matvey for tripping in the second immediately followed by Reynolds for slashing one of Suckas non-D league players (#5). Yes, I totally got my money’s worth.

Valenti tangled with #5 later in the game and gave him a WWF style body slam…simply outstanding. #5 went to the bin and Valenti remained on the ice, much to the chagrin of the Suckas.

Without their “rent-a-goalie”, the Red would have fared better. We’ll get em’ next time for sure.