Playoffs! Golden Zombies Boil Lobsters

Cadavers (2) vs Lobsters (7)
Monday March 29
Dedham 9:00


3-1 Win



The playoffs for the Winter season kicked off last night at the Boch Ice Palace in Dedham. The number two seeded Cadavers would take on the ever fiesty Lobsters who came in as a seven seed in the Islanders Division. Of course the Lobs wear red so Team Zombie skated as the Golden Schlitz. This squad… you may recall was George’s crew from the ‘daveur a few weeks back. The roster looked like this.
Jim Sullivan in Net
D1: George and Pete Capraro
D2: DWH and Jeff
Centers: Larry and Roman
Wings: Blake, Jasse, Gregson, Scott, Chris, and Neil

The game would start off with the Cads immediatley scrambling. It was clear early on the Lobsters had their excellent female player (8) and a pair of good players (73 & 75) who would take their chances and would press us whenever possible. The goldencads would scramble around a bit in the early going just trying to get set up and deal with the red. It wouldn’t be until well halfway through that the Gold would roll and couple solid shifts that would result in some extended time in the offensive zone and a handful of chances. Jim would be a stabilizing force for us in our own end making more than a few quality stops and forcing play stoppages when needed. There was only one penalty, to Larry who went for an elbow… as a kind of strange match for the hack he took just before, and the teams skated 4 on 4 but there was no blood. The first would end with no score.

The second would see more good back and forth action and both teams pressed for chances when they could. It was more than halfway through when the dealock would be broken. A just under the eight minute mark Jeff would take the puck on a rush through the far side of the neutral zone and over the line. Dealing in traffic he worked the retreating defensman and slid the puck to himself coming toward the center of the zone. A quick shot beat the keeper far side and low and Jeff came back up the ice with his arms up.

The red wouldn’t take it quietly and they wouild counter with solid chances. At one point Sully would make a great stop and fell back on the puck as it spun around litterally on the line. Another occasion he came sweeping across the crease and making a Bruce Lee-equse kick save that shot the puck out into the corner and away from traffic. Needless to say Jim was a big factor in the game for the GoldenZombies and did a great job filling in for regular Brian Carey.

The second was noteable for one other event which was a remarkable clearing out check laid on Roman right by the offensive net. What made this check unique was that it was delt by Chris Fosdick as he chased after the puck and got tangled with the russian (who landed on the ice) on his way by the net. Both guys had a good night on offense otherwise and got lots of chances. The second would end Cads 1 Lobs 0.

The third period would see a bunch more action on the ice and the scoresheet. Less than three minutes in the Zombie offense would hit paydirt. George would keep the play in the offensive zone and fed Larry who made a beauty of a pass to Roman who was out front. The Russian ripped a quick shot that put the Zombies ahead 2-0. Only another three minutes later the Gold would strike again. Dan Gregson kept after the puck in the offensive zone and then made a nice pass to Larry who buried a rising shot for the 3-0 lead and the zombies were feeling pretty good, now with just over ten minutes left in the game.

As the game would go under 10 minutes things would start to get desperate for the Lobsters and they would definitly turn up the heat. On a good break one of the 70s guys would turn Jeff but not before the flagging defenseman would get a piece of him with his stick. Jeff would go at 920 for the slash. No blood on the PK but the Lobs were gaining momentum

Jeff was back on the ice and trying to defend a fast paced 2 on 1 but was unable to intercept the pass and the Shellfish would score on the attmept @6:06 remaining. It was really a good pass and rush from 75 and and #8 finished it off nicely.
Number 8 would then tangle with the D once or twice, the second time resulting in a small skirmish with DWH. Of course Dan would be sent to the box, and no match for #8... who apparently doesnt take penalties because she's a she... The zebra didn't seem interested in any conjecture from Jeff or George and got downright snippy about it... but again, no blood on the penalty kill.

Thats how it would roll. The Golden Zombies trying to finish out the win and trying to keep thier mouths shut from inducing any more penalties.

Game Stars
3rd Star: Hmmm. I'll say DWH and George(1assist) who both had very solid nights on D and did a great job all the way around. I'll have some honorable mentions for the other candidates for this star below.

2nd Star: I'm going with Larry "I wish I didn't send that email" Bell. A goal and and assist and a typical hard working great effort all night. Also... Larry was sporting his new "I'm not saying shit to anyone about anything" philosopy... which seemed to work out... but he still made it to the box once. (but he didn't say anything...)

1st Star: Not a shutout but Jim Sullivan was a major factor in net. More than a handfull of EPIC saves and very solid play all night that helped anchor the defense. Great work Jim, nice to have you with us for the "tournament".

Honorable Mentions:
Jeff Fosdick for a wicked goal. (if the blogger does say so himself)
Dan Gregson for a terrific assist on Larry's goal.
Pete Capraro for playing D all night.
Blake Underhill for bringing the effort all night.
Roman for his goal which was a nice tally.

Playoffs Start Tonight!

Alright alright. The playoffs start tonight. Thanks to some wrangling at Management we have the teams, rosters, and times for the playoffs. We are off and running with games on Monday and Tuesday of this week.

Cadavers vs the Lobsters
Monday 3/29
9:00pm Dedham

-Cadavers-

George

Larry

Chris Foz

Roman

Goody

DWH

Jeff Foz

Hammitt

Scotty

Ken/Mitch

Gregson
Pete
Jasse
Blake
This is part of the double elimination playoffs.
If you lose you will play Mon 4/5, Bavis 10:40. If you win you will play Thu 4/8, Bavis 9:30.

Schlitz vs D-minus

Tuesday 3/30

10:40pm Bavis

-Schlitz-
Neil
Daley
Baker
Nelson
Valenti
Reynolds
Ijosh
AK
Campbell
Chuckie
Elliott
Kevin
Greg
Matvey
Lizzie in net

If you lose you are OUT. This is a Play-in game to the playoffs.
If you win you will play Thu 4/8, Canton 8:10 (against the Blues!) and enter the double elimination playoffs.
Managment has every confidence that the Suds will prevail and actually end up with an additional playoff game because of it. Good luck boys.

Sunday Monsoondavuer!

Schlitz vs Cadavers

Sunday March 14th

Dedham 6:30pm

6-6 Tie

The season ending playoff seeding, monsoon season, Suday- daveur turned out to be an epic

daveur indeed, but ultimately left nothing more decided after the game than was before it. By that the blogger means... we tied. On a night when pucks were flying into the net at an alarming rate, ie... 6 total goals scored in the first 9 minutes of play, the combined schlidaveurs left with no concrete decision on which team would play as which for the upcoming playoff rounds.

Not to worry now... Managment will work something out, and will take suggestions from all participating 'daveurs on how the issue should be resolved.

First off Neil Shah (Cads) and George Moorachian (Suds) did a great job picking squads for this game. The sides were pretty even and it really was a terrific game up and down the ice all night. There was even a pretty good attendance factor given that it was a Sunday evening, and half the state was underwater at that point. Here's what the sides looked like.

Cadavers

Lizzy in net

D1: Valenti and Daley

D2: Reynolds and Baker?

O1: Neil, Nelson and AK

O2: Elliott, iJosh, Chuck and John Carey

Schlitz

Brian Carey in Net

D1: George and Hammitt

D2: DWH and Jeff

O1: Larry, Roman and Chris

O2: Gregson, KenMitch, Goody and Dr.Pounds

The game would open with the Dead in Red opening up like a house on fire. Led by Captain Neil and the Energizerbunnylike Nelson the Cads would capitalize on the early momentum and would take the game right to the Gold (and really down their throats).
First strike would go to Nelson from Neil. I think there was some good passing, and certainly some hard work that got that one done. This was followed up by the worst case scenario for Gold Goalie Brian Carey as son John would put in the second goal, this one from Steve Baker.

This would finally be counter by the Gold when Jeff Fosdick would keep the puck at the left point and fire a low shot that Lizzy got in front of, but then it dribbled under her pads and over the line to put the Suds on the board. Team Zombie was not slowed down much when only a shift or so after that Baker would assist AK on a nice 2 on 1 that would see the back of the net and put the Red back up by two, the score now 3-1.

It was punch counterpunch then as defensive star Dan "DWH" Herbert would push the play into the offensive zone, then taking the pass back from Roman would launch a wicked wrister that would give the Gold their second tally of the night. The momentum seemed to shift as the Gold would light the lamp again, this time a nice bang bang play that went from George to Larry to the back of the net. The game was tied 3-3 and we were only at the 8 minute mark of the first frame. Whew! The teams kind of settled in and there was no further scoring in the period.

The punch counterpunch theme would continue in the second, this time with the Gold taking the lead. The Gold line of Roman, Larry and Chris was really nifty at times. It showed on the next goal that went around the zone once quickly then from Larry behind the net to Roman, totally alone out front to the back of the net for the lead. I think... that the Gold would score again before too long when Lary and Roman would assist DWH who had another great shot that Lizzy didn't have much hope on. The Gold had a two goal lead and a pretty good feeling at that point. At some time Roman would take a hook call and there was no blood on the power play. The Red weren't down for long and would eventually answer with a goal from iJosh, assisted again by Baker, and then Steve would get one of his own not much after, this one assisted by Mike Daley who had a good night patrolling the blue line for the Zombies. The game was tied again, getting late in the period.

Then KenMitch Goldenberg would pop in a rebound from Roman and the Gold would take the lead again, now 6-5 just before the end of the period. 11 goals so far and the third looked like it might get even crazier... who knew if the game would end 9 to 8 or something like that at the rate we were going. It was still anyone's game.

The third, instead of being a scorefest was the opposite. The play got tight, and fairly well contested, each puck battled for at the line and in the corners, but there wasn't any scoring. That is there wasn't any scoring until less than 2 minutes left and the Red stacked a line and really put the pressure on the Gold.

It went like this. Steve Baker would make a nice shot after a scramble around the zone and a pile up in front. The ref blew the whistle as he lost sight of it. The puck goes in the net and Red starts celebrating. But the ref closest to the bench is skating in with his arms out (no goal). There is a huddle by the net, and then the other ref brings the teams up ice an says the goal was good. What? There must have been some good convincing going on because just about everyone was very surprised. The Refs, typically, offered no reasonable explanation and seemed pretty disinterested in general. As time wound down there was an intentional offsides, on Red and then instead of taking the faceoff down to the other end, with 3 seconds on the clock the Zebra tells the scorekeeper to run it off. What? Seriously. Jeff appealed and he said "no one's going to score from there in 3 seconds" pointing to the blueline dot. I appealed that it should be all the way down... but again, not interested. What crap. So bored they cant even give us the last 3 seconds on the clock. Kenny and Scott M were the fraud zebras in question. A couple of ham and eggers if you ask the blogger.

But enough of that. The game ends 6-6. Another tie for the season ending daveur. We'll have to work something out. Send your suggestions via email to management.

Game Stars

3rd Star: Larry for a goal and two assists and some great offensive work.

2nd Star: Linemate Roman Kurin for a goal and three assists and a big 4 point night.

1st Star: Has to go to Steve Baker for the Red. He had 2 goals and 3 assists for a whopper of a 5 point night. Good work Steve.

Honorable Mention to DWH for a pair of really nice goals.

Fourth period kudos to Chris Fosdick for bringing beer and to DWH, Matt Elliott, Mark Reynolds, Dan Gregson, and Jeff for standing in the rain (for about 5-10minutes) and drinking them. No shutout in the fourth, even on this rainy night.

Rosters set for season ending Sunday-Daveur!

Cadavers (23) vs Schlitz (23)

Sunday March 14

Dedham 6:30pm

Season Ending Playoff-Roster-Deciding- Daveur!

Ok Team. Here are your rosters for Sunday night in Dedham!

Be sure to be there, and to bring your "A" game as playoff seeding will be on the line.

Guest Captains Neil and George picked the rosters for their respective teams and management thanks them for their contributions.

See you Sunday!

-Cadavers-

Neil

Daley

Baker

Nelson

Valenti

Reynolds

Greenstein

AK

Campbell

Chuckie

Elliott

John - Brian's Son

Lizzie in net

-Schlitz-
George

Larry

Chris Foz

Roman

Goody

DWH

Jeff Foz

Hammitt

Scotty

Ken/Mitch

Gregson

Brian in net

Suds Vs Tigers in Milton

Schlitz (22) vs Tigers

Monday March 8th

Milton Academy 8:10pm

1-0 loss

Alright. Here we have a Guestblog courtesy of BrotherBlogger Chris Fosdick. Here's Chris' take on what went down Monday night:

"Good skate, tough loss: 1-0.
We had 3 D, Valenti, George, Mark R.

2 forward lines: Larry, Nelson, Chris & Steve, Scott, Matt.

We were taking it to them for the 1st and 2nd periods with no luck. Their goalie is pretty good, and we had some very frustratingly close chances, but to no avail. Near the end of the 2nd they made an adjustment and took their two best forwards and put them on D against the Larry line. This created more of a problem and made it a closer game. It was a fast game, lots of rushing up and down the ice. We started to loose our legs as the game wore on (me mostly).

Brian played really well keeping us in there, and shutting down one clean breakaway. Near the end of the game we rallied and were taking it to them again, led by great hustle from Larry and his line. However, with less (or about) 2 mins. to go they had a chance on Brian, and while everyone was covered, the puck trickled in after Brian had made the first save. (From the bench it looked as if the puck actually bounced off the back of Brian's pad or leg.)

The game closed out with us on the wrong end. It was a great hard skate though, and about as good as D-level hockey gets. -- Chris

Ok. Not the result we are looking for, but sounds like a good skate and a competitive night at the rink. Thanks Chris.

Now we have a few words from our own favorite cagey vet Nelson Sharfman:

"We lost 1-0.
I was gross. I failed to score on three separate golden opportunities, and had another handful of shots beyond that in which I failed to convert. The team played a strong game. Brian was epic in net. I was lame. When is the next game? -- Nelson"

Thanks Nelson. Better luck next time.

Stay tuned for details on Sunday night's Season ending Daveur!

Cads vs Lobsters: Ken we win?

Cadavers (21) vs Lobsters

Wednesday March 3rd

UMass Boston 8:00pm

4-1 Win

Alright alright. The returns look great on last nights game at the Prison by the Bay. The Blogger will hastily step aside for WunderGuestBlogger iJosh who has an excellent recap of the game action. Here's iJosh:

Morressey Boulevard, Boston - The Golden Suds would be in the building this evening to take on the one and only Boston Lobsters. The Lobsters have historically boiled us. Though in the recent past Schlidaveur Inc has been able to be a bit more competitive. So would tonight be more like the historical past or recent past? We'll find out after this short commercial break.

"Easton athletic support shorts for hockey. It has your cup built-in. It ain't no Dixie Cup and it ain't no coffee mug and you sure as hell don't want to be drinking out of it. But don't leave home without it. Right Mr. Valenti?"

Now back to the game.

With Schlitz primed and ready and fielding a full team they would set the lines as follows:

Line 1: Larry Bell, Angry Ken and Neil Shah Line 2: Mike Goodwin, Steve Baker and Matt Elliott Line 3: Dr. Pounds, Dan Greggson and NSA (Not so angry) Ken.

For the 2nd time in 2 weeks the defense would experiment with a new defenseman. So the defense would shape up with:

Mark Reynolds paired with Dan with Hands and Capt' George paired with iJosh Greenstein.

iJosh would try his best to no be a yellow version of an orange cone. But in this own, unbiased guest blogger's opinion it was a decent improvement from the 1st attempt.

From the very start the game was in the hands of the Golden few. Schlitz put pressure on the Lobsters right away, who at the time were still very short handed with only one sub. Multiple shots and some excellent passing and puck control deep in the zone would be displayed early. Though it would not produce a result, but if the play continued this way it would only be a matter of time before it would. However, before that could happen, the refs would show Mr. Baker the door (to the penalty box) for a goaltender interference. A mild complaint would go nowhere (does it ever) and the Gold were forced to play a man down. The team stepped up and played an almost flawless PK. After the penalty expired, the checking line would step on the ice. The Lobsters would try to play some transition hockey and sent a pass across center ice to a streaking forward. The pass would get intercepted by the newbie defenseman who would bring the puck to the blueline and dump it deep. NSA Ken would grab the puck along the boards and center it to a camping Greggson who promptly buried the puck 5-hole style. 1-0 Golden Boys. Before the period would expire, there would be a few words between #73 and Larry. The ref would advise Larry to head to the bench, who actually listened and sat down. But the period would end with a 1-0 advantage to Schlitz.

The 2nd period would see the Lobsters try to take the puck to us a little more. Now armed with a full team themselves they were able to play a little harder. Despite having a few strong skaters included their resident female #8, they would be unable to put one past Lizzy who had a quiet, but sold night. The Lobsters would then get trapped with too many men on the ice and give the Suds a man advantage. But George claimed that it isn't always a good thing to give a good skating line more room to move along with no icing. So the man advantage seemed a little more like a PK. A little bit of a down moment. However if that is the worst play of the period, then there should not be too much criticism. The power play over, it was time for the first line to demonstrate why they were the first line this night. Strong play deep would lead to a scrum in front of the net and would conclude with AK putting one away for a 2-0 lead. The Lobsters still trying to get their heads above water finally got a little pressure on Lizzie. But play would be cleared (barely) by the newbie D who almost put it into the net. However the 1st line would again make the team forget about the near travesty. As the puck was sent forward and tipped into the air, Neil would knock it to the ice. He would slap the puck toward the goalie, who made the initial save. Again, AK would be there to fire the puck into the back of the net for a now 3-0 lead. With 2/3 of the game complete, the Suds would take a 3 goal advantage into the final frame.

It is this blogger's opinion that momentum only lasts so long. And this would be true. Evidenced by the following: The Lobsters would finally find their way onto the scoreboard as they would beat Lizzy to the 5-hole. But due to undisciplined play they would be unable to keep the momentum going. And you thought I was going to say the Gold lost its mojo. Not so. The Suds would keep it going. Taking advantage of 3 Lobster penalties that just kept coming. This included one 2 man advantage that came about after another scrum in front of the net during a 5 on 4 situation. This one finished with Larry Bell backing away from a confrontation. I repeat, Larry used control and a level head, even after being pushed by a steamed Lobster. That would send a second Lobster to the pot and give the Gold the 2 man power play. That would really be it for the Lobsters. But the Gold would be able to tack on one more goal. Larry would slide an excellent pass to AK who completed the hat trick and sealed the game for the Suds.

Kudos to Gregson for providing BL and Baker for bringing the Sam Winter and stuffed hot peppers.

Scoresheet:
1st Period:
Greggson from NSA Ken and iJosh
2nd Period:
AK from Neil and Reynolds
AK from Neil and Larry
3rd Period:
AK from Larry and Neil

Penalty Box:
1st Period:
Steve Baker for Goaltender interference

Game Stars:
Ken Douville for his hat trick and no penalties for the 2nd time in as many weeks.
Lizzy for a solid performance in goal.
Neil Shah for a 3 assist night

Another fabulous Guest Blog by iJosh. Thank you sir!
And now how about some comments from Dr. Pounds who has some insight to share as to how things went last night.
Here's the good Doctor:

I had a clear view of the first goal. The third line was me, Dan G and Ken G. Ken G went hard into the boards, won the puck away from their defenseman, and popped it out to me. I just tossed it towards the low slot where Dan G was camped out in his reserved spot and one-timed it into the net.

(In the parking lot after the game we enjoyed some stuffed pickled peppers Steve Baker had brought along. I said to Dan G that we were either the Helicopter Line, the Doughnut Line, or maybe both at the same time. He took a slow puff on his victory cigar and replied, “No, we were the Awesome Line.”)

Red vs Blues classic

Cadavers (20) vs Blues
Tuesday March 2^nd
BU 8:00 pm

2-2 Tie

Another classic D level matchup with old time rivals the Blues. An early evening start at BU meant a bit of a scramble for parking, some paid, some walked a loooong way. At any rate we ended up with a nice full 13 for the roster, and this is what it looked like.

Lizzy in Net

D1: George, Valenti D2: DWH, Jeff

O1: Daley, AK, Hammit

O2: Roman, Neil, and Matvey

O3: Nelson, Elliot, and Gregson

I’m not 100% on those lines, you’ll have to comment if things were otherwise arranged. This was a good group, and the Red felt good as things got going.

The first would see the Red get heaps of chances. A bunch of times the Blues just iced the puck to take off the pressure. They were playing defensively but hanging #8 or greensocks at the top of the zone or in neutral ice, looking for breakaways. The Red would basically take the game right to them and were able to limit the number of chances in our own end. Still the score remained 0-0 for the majority of the period.

Then after a faceoff in our end a strange thing happened. Nelson took the faceoff and he and his opponent tangled their sticks while pushing against each other. Nelson’s stick ends up releasing… right into the Zeebra’s crotch. The Zeeb then grabbed Nelson’s stick… and wouldn’t let go. The Blues took advantage of the scramble and popped the puck behind Lizzy for the 1-0 lead. Reached for a quote after the game Nelson had this (or something like it) to say. “ I’ve played a lot of hockey games, but that’s no question, the first time, ever, that I’ve had a ref hold my stick. At least they only scored once.” So the first would end 1-0 Blue.

The second would see more good play from the Red, and eventually they would break the ice with a nice play by Mike Daley. Mike would wheel through the zone, would feed Hammit who would make a great pass back to Mike who stuffed the wraparound home to tie the game. It felt like things were starting to go the Zombie’s way, but the game would continue to be a struggle. Roman ( or Neil … they both wore 13) would go for a hook in the second. The Blues would take one too, but no blood on either penalty.

Then with just under a minute left in the period, a Blue would rip a slapshot from just inside our Blue line that would catch Lizzy napping (or something) and would slide under her stick and into the net for the 2-1 lead. The period would end that way, and the discouraged Zombies would take the ice for the third looking to come back.

The early returns were good in the final frame. The Red proceeded to keep the puck in the Blue zone for almost the entirety of the first two shifts of the period. With about 4 minutes gone into the period Roman would push the puck up through center ice. Knowing Roman, I almost don’t need to tell you that he neglected to pass the puck up to Neil who was open (and ahead of him) most of the way up ice and into the zone. Roman would hold onto the puck though and would eventually pass to Neil who would make a great move to shake a defenseman and then zipped a terrific pass back to Roman who banged it home for the equalizer. Really a great play by both guys.

So there we were. The minutes would tick away, the Blue goalie would make some nice stops and the play seemed to get a bit tighter as we went below the 10 minute mark. Hammit would finally reach his boiling point and went for a cross-check with just under 7 minutes remaining. We would survive the PK and Hammit did a good job not letting his temper get the best of him for the remainder of the game. The Blue goalie would get a call for a trip not long after, but again no blood on the penalty.

This brings us to the last 2 minutes. Tied. The AK, Daley, Ham line would look for a change at the 130 mark. AK was the last guy coming off the ice as the puck was taken by Red in our own end an came up the ice. Neil was anxiously waiting on the boards and jumped down as AK got close and raced to the puck in the neutral zone… then the whistle blew. That’s right friends, with 1:25 remaining in a hard fought 2-2 game we took a too many men on the ice penalty. Despite the many and loud prostestations so the Dead in Red the Zeeb held his ground and Hamm would go and serve the penalty (doesn’t count towards his Campbell totals). The Red would call time to try and get things together.

DWH, Daley, Neil and Matvey/Roman (they split the shift) would finish out the game for the Red and held off the Blues well. The game ended, a dissapointing tie, given the “time of possesion” inequality for the whole night. A hard fought close game with a division rival, but no joy for Schlidaveur Incorporated this night.

Honorable Mentions: Roman and Neil for good strong work all night. Daley for his terrific wrap around effort. Elliot for postgame beer. Matvey for splititng the last shift with Roman, and for showing up so soon after the birth of his second child. Congrats Matvey! Valenti also had a very nice game at the point and produced a number of really good shots.

Suds vs Suckas

Schlitz (21) vs Windsuckers

Monday March 1st

Bavis Arena 9:30pm

1-0 Loss

Ok, we've got a pair of great guest bloggers for this one.... so lets hear from them.

First up is Mike Campbell who had this summary of the night's actions.

Heres Mike:

Yes, Suds vs. Suckas.

The timeline is a little fuzzy, and as you know, I'm not so good a writah, but here's my story... and I'm stickin' to it.

Campbell and Reynolds along with special-guest-star-who-did-a-great-job-and-I-think-we-might-keep-him-back-here-on-D-like-we-did-Reynolds Goody made up the ice-hogging D-Trio. Not sure of the forward lines (although someone in the locker room afterwards referred to one of them as the "good" line - as in "Why didn't we put the good line out at the very end?" - but since there were no goals scored by anyone, it was really hard to tell which was the "good" line.), but the O was made up of Baker, Bell, Pounds, Capraro, Shah and Underhill.

These 'sucka guys are pretty good - with one, maybe two hot-shots and not a lot of weakness. Good C, maybe B level skater with Orange socks (whom we shut down). They also have a beastly, gargantuan goalie, that gives up VERY little net, hence the lack of goals on our part. That said, we gave them a damn good run for their money. Lots of end-to-end action, with very few (dare I say, none?) defensive breakdowns. I don't think they ever got an odd-man rush, never mind a break-away. Their one goal was scored in the second period, after Brian had made a nice glove save, one of their guys (23, I think?) gave his glove a good whacking, eventually knocking the puck out, and bashing the begeesus out of Brian's thumb. It only got more chippy from there...

Reynolds took a hit in the back in the offensive end, and let his guy know he didn't like it. Their resident big-guy with the beard chimed in and told Mark to suck it up, and I told him to f-himself, so the four of us had a little time in the box to cool off. Baker got hit so hard with an uncalled butt-end that he gave the ref a demo of what he had missed. The demo was so good that the ref actually flinched, giving us all a little chuckle. There were a few more hits, and grunts and poundings, and Reynolds and I each went to the Bin of Sin one more time. I don't remember any other calls against us.

They had a few other good chances. At least one off the post, and another one went in JUST after the whistle blew... although Brain will tell you he let that one in, after hearing the whistle. I'm not sayin' anything else about that.

We played better later in the game. We finally figured out that the puck wouldn't go in on its own, and we brought some good pressure, lots of shots and a few chances, but none of them cashed out. I got a little desperate and ended up on the ground, in the crease with the puck in the palm of my glove, so I tried to stuff it in by hand, and even that didn't work. It gave us all another laugh, though.

All in, one goal for the bad guys, none for the hops. Almost every penalty matched, and everyone skated hard. A few beers at the Blacktop Café sealed it as a good time in Rockland, despite the loss.
Good luck tonight boys.
~ Mike

Alright! Thank you Dr. Campbell... your words are always appreciated.

The blogger got another summary on this one, from frequent contributer Mark Reynolds. Here's Mark:

Close game Mon night, but the Windsuckers got the best of the Schlitz in a 1-0 loss.

The lineup was:
Brian in Net
Forwards
Pete-Neil-Blake
Scott-Larry-Steve
Defensive Trio
Goodie-Campbell-Reynolds

The only goal came after a wicked slash to Brian's thumb on his blocker side. There definitely should have been a whistle and a penalty. Instead, the puck bounced out and ended up in our net during the scrum. Overall, Brian played an outstanding game, and as usual, saved our collective arses with some tough saves.

The game got a bit chippy in the second. Imagine that against the Windsuckers. Reynolds gets checked hard into the boards from behind and takes physical exception with the offender. With a crowd of Windsuckers encircling Reynolds, Campbell jumps in on to cover his teammate's ass (thanks again Mike). Now two out of three Schlitz defenseman are in the box for roughing (matching with Windsuckers).

The Schladaveurs penalty leaders were at it again. In the third, Campbell went for roughing and Reynolds for checking.

Both teams played a tight game. The Schlitz passed better than usual and did a good job of controlling the puck in the defensive zone. Our forwards had lots of SOG in the 3rd period. We just couldn't put the puck in the net.

Our defensive trio was solid for the entire game. We didn't allow a single break away and only a few 2-on-1's, which the Schlitz handled well. Watch out Goodie; if you keep playing D like that, you'll end up as a full timer.
Thanks again to the forwards that hustled on the back-check.

Kudos to Blake for his best game of the year. He played excellent positional hockey, passed puck intelligently, and battled hard every shift. Pete played his usual balls to the wall style and was especially effective in the neutral zone. Larry, Steve, and Neil set the pace of Schlitz play in the offensive zone. The Dr's long reach kept the puck from leaving offensive zone on many occasions. He also had some quality SOG himself.

The Schlitz would sure like to have this game back again.